Increasing Customer Satisfaction is as easy as 1, 2, and 3
Customer satisfaction creates something special for your business. They are likely to
- return for repeat business
- share their positive experience with others
- create content that works as word-of-mouth marketing
- defend your brand against the nay-sayers
- provide fantastic feedback to grow your brand
That’s quite a list and that’s only touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of benefits. When you have a customer that is so thrilled they’ve done business with your brand… you’ll know it.
Now, you can take the typical approach to doing customer service, which is okay for the most part. It satisfies the customer (normally) but it doesn’t really give that exceptional experience they want. They feel like they’re just another customer that happened to do business with (to be forgotten the moment they walk about the door or complete the online checkout).
Customer satisfaction is important, no doubt, and just looking at all those wonderful opportunities that can come about from it must have you pumped to start working on improving the interaction.
As someone who has been working in online commerce for the past several years (doing everything from creating sales emails, developing products, conducting customer surveys, managing social, and the whole gamut that online commerce details), I can say that much of it really boils down to just a few simple actions that anyone can do.
Here is what I’d recommend you try to improve customer satisfaction:
1. Get on the phone or video chat
Emails, live chat, and social media are immensely impersonal compared to the effect of the human voice or seeing someone eye-to-eye on video chat. We aren’t great at picking up subtle nuances of communication when it’s in text form. Voice and video, however, creates a bond and a sense of empathy; when a bond is created the customer becomes attentive, feels respected, and will be open about expressing their feelings.
You aren’t going to succeed in this personalized communication from the get-go, which is why you should take notes, absorb feedback, and leverage a call recording system so that you may master the subtle nuances of customer engagement that lead to building bonds and feelings of empathy.
Once you begin to understand the individual – you will be able to provide a fantastic experience that will lead to great customer satisfaction.
2. Spotlighting
I like to call it spotlighting because it puts the individual on the pedestal. When you have great things to say about a customer to others in your community by sharing their testimonials, video reviews, feedback, suggestions, and kind words, they understand your appreciation while simultaneously feel like they’re becoming closer to the brand (and the people behind it).
By giving your customer the spotlight they will talk about their experiences, defend your brand, recommend you to others, and even create content to help market your products/services. When they feel involved they feel satisfied.
3. Trim the Trouble-makers
It may sound harsh but those individuals that are constantly negative, likely to flame and attack others, and feel “holier than thou” to the rest of the community truly bring down the collective satisfaction. In many ways, it’s like being in a group of friends but there’s always that one individual that takes it too far and the party ceases to be fun.
You should feel okay about firing your clients if they are too negative for the brand, aggressive to employees, and to others in the community. Once they’re eliminated your employees will have more time to take care of the good clients and that will naturally lead to better customer satisfaction because their needs are being facilitated.
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Yes, this is quite a condensed list but I do believe that it’s a fantastic starting point for those striving to create excellence in their customer support and interaction. From here I would recommend delving deeper into the customer experience, getting out there and talking with consumers, conducting tests, surveys, and gaining feedback, and work on your personal presentation. When you come across as sincere and do your best to satisfy the customers… you’ll be sure to gain all those benefits as mentioned in the beginning of the post. Best of luck!
