You’d be hard-pressed to find a small business that relishes losing customers. Since loyal patrons are crucial to the success of any enterprise, keeping your customers satisfied should be job one. Unfortunately, without even realizing it, you and your staff may be making communication errors that serve no purpose other than to drive customers away. In the interest of maintaining favorable relationships with your patrons and honing your customer communication skills, steer clear of the following missteps.
Failing to Offer Individualized Communication
In the digital age, automated communication has become the norm for a wide range of businesses. Not only do customers often receive automated responses to emails and text messages, many customer service lines are seemingly helmed entirely by robots. Needless to say, this approach to customer communication can prove frustrating to patrons who value individual responses and a personal touch.
Frankly, it isn’t hard to see why so many businesses have opted to take the automated route. From the perspective of a business owner, this approach is likely to seem more efficient. Furthermore, it frees up time that would otherwise be spent on customer service matters to focus on various other aspects of business management. However, while automated communication may lift a tremendous weight off your shoulders, it’s not going to endear you to customers. In addition to being inconvenient from a customer standpoint, automated communication creates the impression that businesses simply can’t be troubled to deal with patrons on an individual level.
So, to help show your patrons how much their input is valued, make a point of providing individualized communication whenever possible. This means taking the time to personally follow up with emails, phone calls and text messages and exhibiting the utmost courtesy when doing so. Additionally, a reliable 2 way SMS system is sure to prove helpful in this endeavor.
Taking too Long to Respond to Messages
When it comes to personal relationships, one’s importance can often be gauged by how quickly their messages are responded to. While there are certainly exceptions to the rule, it’s generally accepted that someone is pretty important if their messages are responded to in a timely manner and fairly unimportant if their messages are allowed to linger for days. Unsurprisingly, the same holds true for customer service situations. If a customer’s inquiry receives a prompt response, it’s a safe bet that the business in question values their input, and if an exorbitant amount of time passes between the receipt of the message and the response, it can be inferred that said business isn’t terribly concerned with customer service.
To avoid falling into the latter category, make timeliness a priority in all of your customer communications. As a general rule, you should respond to any messages that come through during the workday before close of business. When it comes to after-hours messages, make an effort to respond to them first thing the following morning.
Infographic created by Clover, a retail POS company
Failing to Show Customers Gratitude
Businesses have every reason to be grateful to their customers. After all, it’s customers who ensure their continued existence. As such, it’s only fitting that you express appreciation to your patrons at every available opportunity.
Among other things, this entails exhibiting courtesy in all of your customer interactions and ending each interaction by thanking them for their support. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t enjoy feeling appreciated – and the more appreciated your customers feel, the more invested they’re likely to become in the success of your business. You can also express gratitude by way of appreciation programs and special offers for your most loyal patrons. Just remember – when it comes to shoring up customer loyalty, a little bit of gratitude can go a long way.
Losing customers is among the worst things that can happen to a business. Without loyal patrons upon whom you can depend, keeping your business afloat is liable to become an uphill battle. That being the case, you should be as obliging as possible when communicating with first-time customers and repeat patrons alike. You might be surprised by how easily certain communication mishaps can tank your relationships with valued customers. To help ensure that communication blunders don’t wind up losing your business, take care to avoid the mistakes discussed above in all of your customer interactions.
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