Great Customer Service Keeps Great Customers

Statistics tell us that it is 91% cheaper to keep a customer than to gain a new one!  Wow, that is staggering in terms of time and money needed to constantly be sourcing new customers when we could be growing our businesses week by week simply by looking after and keeping the customers we already have.

Not a lot of businesses measure their client retention and mistakenly assume that they are doing pretty well in keeping hold of their customers.  Most  find that when they do take the time to measure what customer retention they actually have, are amazed at how much lower than expected it actually is.  Recently, when I was working with a new client, they proudly boasted a retention rate of nearly 70%.  I was impressed until we checked the numbers and found that in fact it was more like32%.  Where were all those customers disappearing to and more importantly how could we make a big improvement in those numbers?

My answer to that question always comes back to providing excellence in customer service.  Everyone agrees it is vital to the health and success of any business to deliver great customer service.  We all talk about it and everyone I speak to tells me that their business delivers it, but do we even really understand what "it" is and what impact not having "it" has on our bottom line?

The term "customer service" evokes different images in people's minds. For some customers it could mean having your staff greet them with a smile and be courteous, for another, it could mean being listened to without interruption while they are speaking.  This list is endless and the simple fact is that while we as consumers, often briefly remember experiencing great customer service, we almost never forget it when we have experienced bad customer service.  I usually tell anyone who will listen if I have had a bad customer service experience!  My pet hate is when service staff continues on with their personal conversation whilst I am being "served".  I hate it and I doubt that I am the only one.  Whatever it may be, we have all experienced bad customer service and usually we can't wait to tell as many people as possible about it!

On the other hand, great service leaves us feeling appreciated and respected. It makes us want to continue to do business with that company or at the very least to give them another opportunity to impress us in the future! And that is what makes a solid building block for successful business - keeping customers by simply providing them with great customer service.

With so much competition out there, customer loyalty is the single most important attribute your business can have. Just providing customers with satisfactory customer service is not enough to retain the customer and create loyalty. So how do you achieve the much desired loyalty from your customers? You achieve loyalty by doing "the little things" that make customers want to deal with you again and again and recommend you to their friends. The real difference is how a business makes their customers feel. If customers feel valued, most will remain loyal. If they feel under-valued, sooner or later they will defect to a competitor.

It is a fact of life that customers will leave your business.  This is for a variety of reasons as some will re-locate, others will be lured away by your competitors, some are not impressed with your product or service and some even die but the shocking fact is the a huge sixty eight percent of customers who leave your business, never to return, do so because they feel they have received poor customer service. That's 2 out of every 3 customers you have attracted into your business.  When surveyed, many customers said that they felt that the staff "didn't care" about them or their needs.

So what can your business do to achieve customer loyalty?

Rank of Importance	Percentage (Customers)	Reasons Why Customers Leave
1	68%	Perception of Non-Caring
2	14%	Product Dissatisfaction
3	9%	Price
4	5%	Friends' Recommendation
5	3%	Move
6	1%	Death

 

1. See your business through the "eyes of your customer"

Imagine a customer entering your place of business. She notices rubbish in the parking lot. When she enters the reception area, she sees delivery boxes stacked by the receptionist's desk. She sees employees standing around eating and having personal conversations. Shelves are in disarray and covered with dust. All this detracts from your business's image. It either consciously or unconsciously raises the customer's antennae or makes them question, "Is this the kind of business that deserves my money?" The "everything speaks" approach means that all employees understand that even the "little things" count. So, take the time to look at the detail - everything, including whether your business looks neat and clean, whether it looks professional and well supplied and whether your staff look well groomed and professional.  On the flip side when customers sense an atmosphere of professionalism, care, and order, they feel a sense of confidence. What looks out of place in your business? Take a walk outside and enter your business as if you were a potential customer.

How many times have you seen staff walk right by rubbish on the floor or a product display that needs to be fixed? Train your employees to look for the things your customers will see.  Ask them to enter your business each day as if they were there for the first time.  When your staff understand that everything speaks to your customers they will take a moment to pick up some wadded paper and straighten the display because they know that such behaviours have a direct impact on the customer experience.

2. Make your customers "feel" valued
 Do your customers always get greeted warmly as soon as they enter your business or at least acknowledged with a nod and a smile? Are they made to feel welcome and respected?  There is a saying that "people do business with people they like and trust".  This is so important, but how do we get people to like and trust us?  Well in my experience, people can "feel" whether or not you like them first.  It is really hard to not like someone who genuinely likes us first.  The key word here is "genuinely".  And to gain the customer's trust, we need to put their needs first, truly listen to what they are telling us and find a genuine solution to their problem. Integrity and Your customers have a multitude of choices open to them when it comes to spending their money. Why should they come to you if they don't even receive the very basics in good customer service? Your staff need to excel in outstanding customer service.  How many times have you eaten in a restaurant where the food was average but the customer service was outstanding and you could tell that they went beyond what was necessary for you to have an enjoyable evening.  Chances are you would go back to a restaurant like that because the quality of the customer service made it a memorable evening.

Customer complaints are also another opportunity to view your business through your customer's eyes.  I have never known anything to be gained by arguing with a complaining customer.  As a matter of fact, this is a sure fire way to make things much worse and nobody wins in the end.  The customer will be unhappy, you will have lost their business for good and they will tell everyone they know about their bad experience in your business. Customers who take the time to complain are doing you a considerable favour.  Most Australians have a tendency to "just not go back" and take their business elsewhere.  This is a terrible situation because you haven't been given the opportunity to resolve the problem and turn that person into the loyal customer they may have become.

Next time you are working with a customer, stop and ask yourself: "If I were the customer, would I feel like I had just had outstanding customer service?" It is not what you say or do for your customers, but how you make them feel that they will remember and take away with them.

3. Create customer "wows"
The little things can create customer wows.  Your staff  can do many things to create wows. Remembering to use the customer's name is a huge wow, as it creates a sense of relationship. Always making the right recommendation for the customer even if it means offering a less expensive buying solution.  Really listening without interruption is another huge wow for your customers. How many times do we normally get interrupted by the salesman eager to finish the sale before we have really had a chance to explain what we really need?  Listening without interruption takes a bit of practice, but should be a key part of your customer service training.  Another small thing that you can do is to send a customer a birthday card on their special day with a small gift voucher for them to spend in your business.  Some wows are small and some are large, but make no mistake about it - wows add up.

A fun and interactive way to get your staff creating customer wows is to get them to share their wow experiences with each other at your next staff meeting. This way they can learn about what their co-workers do to make their customers experience more special and learn how they can implement these small extras into their own service.  By sharing these experiences, your staff are more likely to want to adopt some of these practices or become imaginative and create some new ones of their own.  Perhaps a prize could be offered for the best WOW experience shared among the group. (let the group vote on this one)

Next time you and your staff are looking after a customer, ask yourself, "Will my behaviors make this customer say or think, ‘wow'?" And don't forget, your staff are watching how you look after your customers and will use your example so it is important that you lead the way.  I was once told that my staff would treat my customers in the same way as I treated them.  This is certainly an interesting thought and certainly made me take stock of my own customer service values both to my customers and to my staff.

Extraordinary customer service should be just that.  Extra Ordinary.  A level above the norm.  Great customer service is absolutely the most cost effective way to build your business and NOW is the best time to start providing it!

Pam specialises in working with small and micro businesses to motivate business owners, managers and their key staff towards maximising productivity and profits, excellence in customer service and client retention. Pam can be contacted on:

Phone: 0431 975515  or 0755 296 467.

Email: pstellem@ask@pamstellema.com.au

Website: click here.

An important message :

While every effort has been made to provide valuable, useful information in this Newsletter, I and any related suppliers or associated companies, accept no responsibility or any form of liability from reliance upon or use of its contents. Any suggestions should be considered carefully within your own particular circumstances, as they are intended as general information only.