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Customers are the lifeblood of every business, but research shows that there has been a steady decline in their satisfaction levels. 2020 is the lowest score CFI Group has tallied to date, which seems to indicate that improvements in technology are setting the bar higher for businesses. To ensure you stay in line with customer expectations, utilize these unique yet easy tricks.
Table of Contents
1. Adapt to a new reality
Adaptability can have a tremendous impact on your business success and client satisfaction. This is especially true for local businesses who work in food and beverage industries. With the pandemic on, clients more than even are willing to see that businesses are following best practices.
For example, if you have a bar, creating an digital beer menu instead of a traditional printed one (that can be used by lots of people daily) is one of the ways to show you are caring about your customers’ needs.
2. Provide Lessons in Consumer Psychology
It’s common for businesses to jump to product training immediately, followed by standard canned responses that seem to make conversations less effective. It’s more beneficial to train your team on how consumers think, so they can react organically. Your reps should be aware of:
- Customers prefer the simplest, least time-consuming approach and aren’t interested in filling out forms that take a lot of effort to complete. Do it for them, or make the process easy.
- Your customers need whatever they need now. The longer they wait, the angrier they get. It’s better to give them an immediate answer rather than putting them on hold.
- Loyal customers will overlook pricing, whether it’s in a beer menu, a car, or a needed service. Don’t offer a discount to most long-term customers; it won’t solve the problem.
- Happy customers are likely to tell your story on social media or to their friends. Give them an experience to remember, as that will quickly turn them into loyal customers.
3. Create an Empathetic Workforce
Customer service representatives have to be empathetic to succeed in their jobs because it allows them to communicate effectively, foster trust, and build relationships. The minute a customer feels understood is the moment they’ll start to calm down and hear you out.
Empathy can be taught, but even natural-born empaths have issues communicating empathy appropriately. To foster an empathetic response in your reps, create training exercises that help identify tone, anger, and the appropriate response to each scenario. A rep who acknowledges the difficult situation, apologizes, and does everything they can to help will impress customers.
4. Teach Reps How to Read Emotional States
We can’t see body language over the phone, but a lot can be gleaned from someone’s voice. For the most part, your customers will display their emotional states in a similar way, making this skill easier to teach. Still, your reps need to be hardy enough to go off-script.
Since your customers have likely had previous interactions with other customer service staff, they won’t be as responsive to canned phrases because no one really is. At this point, you might as well hire a robot to handle angry customers. When trained, your customer service staff can judge the patience level of a customer, which will determine how they handle the situation.
5. Consider Persuasion Classes
Customers aren’t always contacting you to complain about your product or services. Sometimes they just want to ask your staff a few questions. While discussing the pros and cons of what your business offers, they could persuade them to become customers, but not without the right training. Consider offering your reps persuasion classes to foster better marketing skills.
To keep motivation high within this part of your sales team, hold elocution competitions and give them time off to learn persuasive words and phrases or to watch persuasive commercials.
6. Ensure Your Customers Feel Important
Solving your customer’s problems is important, but that won’t make them feel essential to your operation. Going that extra step will allow each individual to feel a part of your brand, facilitating further interaction with your company. Make your customers feel important by:
- Using a tool to keep track of previous customer interactions
- Treating every customer as if they’re your most important
- Resolving issues by immediately working on a solution
- Anticipate their needs by reviewing why they typically call
Following through on customer suggestions and making your customers feel heard will allow your brand to stay memorable and engaged with your services for a long time.
About Carson Derrow
