If you want to grow your small business, you must retain the customers you have while gaining new ones. Customer satisfaction is key to keeping your current clients and building a reputation that attracts new ones. If you want to become a customer-centric company, you have to move into the task with a solid plan.
How to Improve Customer Satisfaction and Simultaneously Grow Your Small Business
What Are the Ways to Improve Customer Satisfaction?
The pandemic changed the way people spend their money and shop. If you want to meet today’s consumers where they are, you need to consider what they care about–with customer service being one of the key factors.
The Netomi Pulse Report State of Customer Service in 2021 surveyed over 700 consumers. Researchers found over 65% of people have higher expectations than they did just three years ago.
If you want to gain and keep their business, you’re going to have to make sure they’re happy with the products and services you offer. How can you accomplish better customer satisfaction while working to attract new customers?
1. Understand Expectations
You’ve probably heard the advice to know your audience, but ensuring they’re happy takes a bit more. You also must figure out what their expectations are from your brand and the product they purchased. How can you ensure you meet those expectations and excel in every area?
Customer satisfaction is about so much more than just service or experience. It encompasses all of those factors and more. The only way to truly understand is to survey your current customers and listen to any negative feedback so you can fix issues for the future.
Customer satisfaction is about so much more than just service or experience. Click To Tweet2. Build Omnichannel Follow Through
In a customer experience trends report, researchers found around 73% of consumers want to engage in conversation across multiple channels without having to explain their story again each time.
For example, if someone reaches out via live chat but later calls in to finish resolving the problem, they don’t want to have to tell the entire problem again. Great databases and cross-training service agents is the only way to create a great omnichannel customer service experience.
To improve customer satisfaction, build omnichannel follow through. Consumers want to engage in conversation across multiple channels without having to explain their story again each time. Click To Tweet3. Experience Your Journey
Don’t just assume the customer experience (CX) is a good one. Take the time to go through all the steps on your site, actually buy something and follow through to not only when the item is delivered but what happens if you have a problem.
Taking the time to test the customer journey puts you in the driver’s seat. You can solve any issues you come across before they impact real customers. You may even want to hire a few mystery shoppers to walk through the touchpoints as well and report back.
One way to test your customer experience (CX): Hire a few mystery shoppers to walk through the customer journey touchpoints. Click To Tweet4. Create a Customer Experience Map
There’s a reason CX spending will reach $641 billion this year. The impression your customers walk away with determines if they buy from you again and what they tell others. Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the cheapest and fastest ways to grow your business, so it’s vital what people say about your brand is positive.
A customer experience map shows you all the touchpoints the customer goes on during their journey. When you make a change, you can see how it might impact other experiences. Tweaking your map and continually improving it ramps up customer satisfaction.
The impression your customers walk away with determines if they buy from you again and what they tell others. Click To Tweet5. Take to Social
A social media community allows you to solve problems on the fly for customers and reach out to new ones. You can expand your reach to the family and friends of each loyal follower, exponentially growing your exposure over time.
What can you do on social media platforms to ensure customers are satisfied? Start by asking them what you can do to improve. You may not like all the answers you get, but there is truth in each statement and something to be learned. Sometimes, better communication is all you need to improve customer satisfaction.
Create an environment of the customer being first. Give your employees the freedom to make decisions to fix issues without fear of reprimand. The more others see how you solve problems for your customers, the more likely they are to try your product.
What can you do on social media platforms to ensure customers are satisfied? Start by asking them what you can do to improve. Click To Tweet6. Utilize Mass Texting Services
Mass texting services allow you to communicate quickly and efficiently with your customers. It is also a great way to keep them informed about upcoming events or product launches that may interest them. You can even use it to send out reminders of recent purchases or to just check in and make sure they are happy with their purchase.
Utilizing a mass texting service will ensure that all communication with your customers is clear and concise while providing timely updates. This will help to improve customer satisfaction and strengthen the relationship between your business and its patrons.
Using a texting service is a great way to keep customers informed about upcoming events or product launches. Click To TweetListen to Your Customers
Building a brand where you put customer satisfaction first requires a bit more effort than just promoting a product and taking on new clients. However, with a little additional effort, you’ll develop a truly loyal base of customers and their contacts that will take your business from just performing well to outstanding overperformance.
Ciao,
Miss Kemya
