Customer service right now is the most crucial focus for any business, large or small. How often have you left a restaurant and said that you loved the food but would never return because of the lousy service? This is the type of sentiment that you don’t want from your client base.
To increase your sales, you need to listen to your clients. Voice of customer is your insight into what they are thinking and saying about you. Focus on this one thing, then use it to boost your income. Here’s how.
Why You Need to Do This
Sales promotions and marketing campaigns are beneficial to bring new clients to your door. However, poor customer service can make them turn around and walk away again.
While sales and marketing is a critical component of any business’s focus, the priority must be on quality service. Your goal here is to give your clients a better customer experience than your competitors.
Your customers won’t be shy to tell you what they don’t like, and it’s most likely some aspect of your service. Pay close attention to this, and it will help you in the long run.
Who to Listen To
There are two types of customers to listen to, for very different reasons, those who love you, and those who don’t.
Customers For Life
If you’ve been doing things right for a while, you’re going to have a loyal client base. These are the customers who love you unconditionally. You want more of these.
How do you find out why they are so loyal? Ask them. Customer satisfaction surveys aren’t just for unhappy clients. Use these to find out what it is that you’re doing right, and keep doing it.
Unhappy Customers
You must understand why you have unhappy customers. It may not be for the reasons that you think.
Did you know that 67% of customers will switch companies due to bad service, even if the product isn’t as good? That’s a statistic you don’t want to be part of.
Unhappy customers are more likely to be vocal about your business than happy ones. Check out reviews, comments, and with your customer relations team. This information will save your company from losing sales.
How to Use the Information
Now that you know what your customers are saying about you, you need to use these voice of customer statistics to make changes, or not. There’s no point in gathering this data, only to file it away. You have the opportunity here to make the necessary changes. Ones that will help your business to grow.
There are two thought-streams to focus on. What to change, the things your customers don’t like, and what to keep doing well, the things they love.
Things to Change
What makes your customer complain? Is it your product or service? If you’ve been in business a while, that may amount to a small percentage of the issues, but it’s unlikely to be the main problem.
It could be that there’s something you aren’t providing in the way of service. Do you have a live chat function on your website? Is there an after-hours emergency contact? Give them what they want, if you can, and eliminate some of the problems.
You may need to make some hard decisions. If from your data collection, a specific name or names continue to come up negatively, these people may need to go. You cannot afford to have one or two staff members destroying your business for you.
Things to Increase
How about your happy customers? What have you been doing that they love? Focus on those things; just do them even better. Consider rewarding these clients for their loyalty.
You may have an excellent customer service team already. However, there’s always room for improvement. Keep teaching and training them.
Never Stop Listening
The way to succeed in business is to always listen to your voice of customer. The day you stop paying attention to what they’re saying is the day you should close your doors.
Remember, listen out for the good as well as the bad. It’s far easier to keep doing something well than to implement changes. Do this, and watch your sales grow.
