Customer satisfaction and loyalty

1. Customer satisfaction and loyalty

(Relationships with customers, encouraging customer loyalty, dissatisfied customers)

To create customer relationships, and keep them strong, you must do all you can to make them satisfied. There is a big different between satisfaction and loyalty. When the customers are satisfied with your product or services, that mean that your services and products are good than most of other, and they have a good feeling from buying it or using it, but it doesn’t always mean that they will buy or use your product regularly. On the other hand customer loyalty means that your customer trust in you and in your work and what you do, and they always come back to you and buy or use your product, they don’t go to your rivals.

As a key to any good relationship, communication is an essential way to build customer relationships. Promoting your business and listening to your customers are equally important. Rather than just telling customers about your business, have conversations with them. Find out what your customers need, then show them that you have a solution to their problem. If you have employees, teach them how to effectively communicate with customers. Instead of waiting for customer service to become a problem, encourage communication skills with customers while recruiting new employees. Maintain an employee policy and make sure the customer’s needs are met. Make sure your staff returns voicemail messages and emails on time.

Your customers expect great products or services from you. When you impress customers, they keep coming back. To exceed customer expectations, you can deliver a product or service faster than is expected. When you deliver earlier than expected, the customer will be happy about the surprise. For example, tell a customer their order will be ready by the end of the month, knowing you will have it ready a week earlier.

Whether customers have a good or bad opinion about your business, they will make their feelings known. You should be open to customer feedback to show you are listening for example by placing comment cards on your business counter, or do a survey. Customer feedback helps you work on your customers’ specific needs so you can find the best solutions to their problems. Always listen carefully to comments and respond promptly, whether it’s a compliment or a complaint. The worst thing you can do is ask for feedback then not address concerns. Even negative feedback is valuable and can give you an honest judge of customer satisfaction.

With technology, there are more ways to begin conversations with your customers than ever before. There are many online tools and social media outlets you can use to reach customers.

Reward long-time customers with a loyalty discount program. You can hand out reward cards, or use a loyalty program app to track customer rewards. With a loyalty program, customers earn points for buying your goods or services. After earning a certain number of points, the customer gets a reward. For example, you could reward a customer with a discount on their next purchase.