In every business, we have to deal with difficult customers and it’s only up to us if we handle a situation well and customers will continue to do business with us.
Any successful business has a strong customer retention strategy. In fact, it’s almost impossible to become a prosperous business without being able to maintain your existing clients. The reason is that a company spends up to seven times more on attracting new clients, compared to retaining new ones, according to recent findings in the field.
This is why your relationship with your customers isn’t just an ethical issue. Poor customer service will make your business sink.
Your best customers are the ones that you already have. Let’s look into the things you need to do in order to turn an unhappy customer into a loyal one.
Let your customers know that you care
First off, you should always try and be there to listen to your customers. Every client wants to make sure that customer complaints are heard and taken care of. The best thing you can do is to never hesitate to provide them with the needed amount of attention and show them that you care about what they have to say.
A good way to achieve that is to personally reach out to them via email in order to ask them if they are happy with their order or if they got the solution they were looking for after contacting your customer services. A message directed at them only will surely make them feel special.
Even if the problem they came across was difficult to deal with or time-consuming, they will be way more likely to give your brand another try if you truly did your best to help them have a great experience with your brand.
By communicating with you customers and giving them time to express customer complaints and problems you will be able to correct your products and make them better for your them and their needs.
At the end of the day it will be a lot easier for you to provide them with better quality services and let them know you are always available to help them out with anything that might come up.
Make sure the customers leave happy
A big part of having your customers come back for your services is to always make sure they leave the conversations with you happy. It is very important that through your customer support your earn their trust and respect and make them feel respected as well.
The best way to achieve that is by always providing your clients with 10% more than they originally expected. Once you offer them slightly more than the initially hoped they would get out of a conversation with you, you’ll be able to convert this unhappy customer in a loyal one.
One way you can achieve that is by making sure that you can always reply to your customers’ complaints, no matter the language they contact you in. If you have expanded your business abroad, it is your duty to provide them with customer support in their language.
Eliminate unwanted damage
One of the things that many companies don’t think about is the fact that bad customer service and unhappy customers won’t hold back on sharing their opinion of your company with others.
Word of mouth advertisement sadly doesn’t just only work in your favor when you’re providing your customers with excellent service. It goes the other way around as well.
An unhappy client will make sure that their friends and family won’t use your services anymore. Because social media is such a big part of our everyday lives, they are way too likely to write a post about your company online and that can cause you to lose many followers as well as many potential and existing customers.
Make sure to sort any unpleasant situation out ASAP! There is no time to waste if you wish for your company to be loved and respected by your customers. You have to always treat them like they’re your number one priority and you have to let them know that their concerns are always on your mind.
Even if something does go wrong, you should always do everything in your power to resolve issues. The more you try to assist your customers, the more they will see how much care you put into your services and that’s the most important thing when it comes to building a company’s reputation online.
Build a good rep
A client that is profoundly unhappy at your first interaction actually gives you a chance to improve your relationship. You can use their feedback as a way to improve your services, products or anything else they really were unhappy with.
The point here is to find a way of communicating with them that works and to stick to it. Always be respectful, be kind and as helpful as possible. By maintaining consistency with providing your clients with top-notch service, you’ll eventually see your company’s reputation flourish.
The happier your customers are with the way you treat them, the easier it will be for them to say good words about your company. You can even motivate them to do so by providing them with a discount code for their next purchase, if they upload a picture of their products on their social media accounts.
This is your chance to shine
Last but not least, it is essential to stress that customer complaints are similar to a quality control assessment. It is a way to see what your business does wrong and how you can improve that.
By constantly changing and growing, you’ll stimulate loyalty from existing customers, which will find your company trustworthy.
The more customers are happy with your brand, the more your reputation will grow.
You can use tricks such as discount codes, free shipping and anything similar as a way to say thank you to your customer and make them feel welcome. The more effort you put into the relationship you build with your customers, the more likely they are to prefer your brand and your services again in the future.