I went on a quest to find out what the number one thing customers really want and expect from a vendor or service provider after they purchase a good or a service. I surveyed my customer service agents who have a combined total of 26 years of hands on experience in customer service and the results were not surprising. In fact it was very simple: CARE.
All that customers want to know and feel at the end of the day is that you genuinely care about them as people and as a customers. When they receive a caring customer service experience, they are happy, satisfied and will want to do more business with you in the future. It’s that simple.
In other words, caring promotes customer satisfaction and trust. Trust creates loyalty. Loyalty increases customer retention and referrals which in turn reduces advertising and marketing costs, increases sales and ultimately increases profit.
The logic behind customer retention is simple – it costs far less money to keep current customers happy than to spend much more money to recruit new customers. Loyal customers tell their friends about your business and will spend more money than new customers.
CARING IS not only a refreshing and welcomed attribute but it’s the most powerful and effective marketing strategy there is in today’s world where people generally do not seem to care.
- How do you develop a ‘caring’ culture in your business so that it permeates and infiltrates throughout your organization?
- What does it take to create an environment that is so infused with care that your customers inadvertently become recipients of your core value of care?
- How do you deliver your goods and services so that the care that’s experienced by your customers is the only fragrance that lingers in their memory?
Implementing the following five strategies is the starting point to seeing a dramatic increase in your customer satisfaction ratings, trust, loyalty, retention, referrals and as a result increased sales and profit.
• Hire the Right People
• Train Your People Continuously
• Create and Promote a Caring Culture within Your Organization
• Develop Customer Service Procedures and Policies in Alignment with your Caring Culture
• Listen to your Customers and Respond Back
Note: Click on links above to read more about each strategy.
At your service,
Karen
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