Living in a digital age means you can find pretty much anything about any company just by typing a few words into Google. While this can be both a positive and a negative thing, we've got a secret - customer experience is what most consumers rant and rave about online! With that being said, it's time for your business to take control of its' reputation by improving customer experience and satisfaction and in turn, retaining more customers!
1. Honesty is the best policy, especially in business. Respect your customers by being honest with them, especially when you're at fault and it directly affects them.
2. Communicate clearly, whether through email, over the phone, or in person meetings. Never hang up the phone or leave a meeting without feeling like you are on the same page, as this will stir up issues that could've been avoided through a conversation.
3. Delight them with surprises, gifts or free promotional items. Make your customers feel special! Your business is unique and they've chosen to work with you, so you should be expressing your gratitude.
4. Solve the problem. There will be problems, and they will look to you to guide them to the right department in your company to fix an issue. Set up and join those calls to stay in the loop with what's going on. Your participation in handling issues is essential to their experience being positive.
5. Personalize their experience by making notes about any personal preferences, schedule, items you've worked on, etc. Examples include making a note that they can only meet on Tues/ Thurs in the morning, they prefer conference calls over in-person meetings, or keeping notes about the history of their account so you can easily refresh your memory while on a call, if necessary.
6. Be proactive with notifying customers of internal or operational updates that may affect them. Customers appreciate fair warning when things will be changing so they can get their team prepared, too.
7. Optimize all your content... Your website, forms, landing pages, thank you pages, social media campaigns, advertising campaigns, newsletters and eblasts... everything! Make sure all channels are easy to navigate, are responsive, work on mobile and various desktop devices and operating systems.
While this may seem like a long To-Do list, being aware of these items will make your customers feel extra special and taken care of. And there's nothing better than that!