In today’s market, you can find almost anything you can think of. This situation created incredibly high competition between brands. Winning in this particular race isn’t as easy as you may think, but there is a way. Customer-oriented approach is the most effective one.
If you want to show your clients how important they are, provide them an excellent service. This will enhance the overall customer satisfaction, which can lead to more business coming your way.
But first thing first – what is customer satisfaction, anyway? How can you improve it? Read on.
The primer on customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is essentially a value of how products and services meet expectations. To better explain this concept, you may want to see an example of an effective and fast customer support line.
Here’s a case study for you: The customer support teams in Landingi, a landing page creator. The company operates in a SaaS model, so they are always getting questions from users. This is why they put so much work in growing their customer support last year. The Customer Success Team in Landingi is helpful, friendly and customer oriented. As their users come from all over the world, they’ve extended their work hours lately to provide high-quality service to a more significant number of custom.
But how do you know that you’re doing good – or bad – with your endeavor in improving customer satisfaction?
Just like any other things in marketing, customer satisfaction can be measured. It can be tracked in several ways, but the most cost-effective and fastest way is by reading opinions on the Internet. This will let you find out what customers are thinking.
But you should approach this with a pinch of salt.
Remember, a customer is far more likely to write a bad review if he or she is unsatisfied with your products. Positive feedback, on the other hand, requires exceptional customer service. Let’s put it this way: Even the best product in the world can’t redeem itself if the company has poor customer support.
You need to understand that in the Internet era, services are available globally. It means that you must compete with brands from all around the world. This is the reason why customers expectations are rapidly growing. To get to the top, you have to maintain high customer satisfaction.
The good news is, you can influence your customer service in various ways.
How to improve customer satisfaction
One of the most efficient ways of enhancing customer satisfaction is by improving your customer support. Here are some tips:
1. Train your frontline staff
Your helpdesk, for example, is the first point of contact in case of problems. Their approach and behavior will affect further opinion about the brand. You may need to equip them with help desk training and courses.
2. 24/7 customer service availability
Another important thing is the availability of your customer service. Extending their work hours may be needed to raise customer satisfaction, but it’s better to leverage tools and services for that purpose. For example, you may need to outsource your help desk or phone answering to a third party service provider (e.g. virtual receptionist or answering service,) which allow you to offer 24/7 customer service.
3. Treat your customers like Royalty
Always remember that every customer wants to feel special in one way or another. Avoiding treating them as nameless objects and formulas in excel is a first step for improving your service. There’s no other way to attract returning customers than treating them with respect.
4. Evaluate your performance regularly
Keep in mind that your customer service effort should be evaluated regularly. Respond to changes in timely manner. Rinse and repeat.
Takeaway
Improving customer satisfaction is a long game. Changes can be seen gradually – which is why you should prioritize on it, and make it a “religion” of your entire company. Plan and strategize for it and put an emphasis on it on every meeting you have.