If you missed Part 1 on this topic you can find it here.
Here are 4 more tips to help make your customer’s time with you positive, productive and personal.
1. Stay in touch with customers
Whether by email, phone, a hand-written note, a monthly newsletter – don’t let the ‘Approved’ alert on the eftpos machine be the end of your customer’s journey. Continue to build your relationship with them by periodically reaching out and making yourself available. Ask for a review, make a phone call just to see how they are going using their new item, ask for their honest feedback, share additional resources they may find useful, answer any questions that arise post-purchase. By continuing to build a positive relationship, you are not only enhancing their experience, but you are also building loyalty and creating a repeat customer and informal brand ambassador for you business.
2. Avoid complacency
Innovation is happening all around us, all the time. The fact that a customer has shopped with you before, or has even been with you for a long time, does not mean they will always stay with you. Circumstances could change at any time. New competitors will crop up and work hard to take your business. Keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry and your customer base will help you to avoid complacency and, instead, open the door for you to grow and evolve to meet changing needs and a changing market landscape. Step 1 will really assist you here. Keeping in touch with your customers and building relationships will prove an invaluable resource in predicting new trends, discovering opportunities and staying on top of what customers really need.
3. Reward your customers
Loyalty breeds loyalty. Show your customers that you appreciate the time, money and support they have given to your business. Reward repeat and ongoing customers will a little something extra. Reward programs, exclusive discount opportunities, advance access to sales or new products, a dedicated service member – all of these gestures, both large and small, show your customers that you see them as more than dollar signs. You see the individual, you care and you appreciate them.
4. Utilise technology
In so many ways technology can make our business better. The human mind can only hold so much information and many of us would struggle to remember the name, contact information, personal circumstances and entire purchase history for every single one of our customers. Don’t let all your hard work building a relationship fall apart because of a faulty human memory. Instead, focus on remembering faces and names and allow a system to hold all the other information. There is a plethora of CRM programs out there that can help you to cultivate long term relationships by providing the assistance needed to remember key details, schedule follow ups and so much more.
There you have it – 9 tips in total to help you and your team create happy customers. Underpinning all of these tips is one essential quality – empathy. At the end of the day, you are a human, your customer is a human and you can connect.