Is there anything more important than building a lasting relationship with your customers?

Now, more than ever you need to listen to your customers and deliver an exceptional customer experience. In turn, they will reward you with their loyalty and their money!

If you succeed, then the returning customers will spend more in the long term. If you fail, the impact on your team and your profit margin will be immense. My last blog post deals with how to manage customer complaints effectively; you’ll get to meet LAURA to support you with customer care.

According to a CE impact report, 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a negative customer experience. If your online journey or the experience in your physical store is poor, you will frustrate your customers. If your store isn’t following strict covid protocols, you will make your customers nervous and they will walk away.

Communication

Embrace positive communication with your team and your customers. Reinforce ways that your customers can reach you, whether that is on the phone, messenger, email or popping into your store.

Communication will build trust and recognition within your team and your customers will see the true culture of your brand. In these post-covid times, customers truly value a strong sense of trustworthiness and integrity.

The Stephen Covey’s 5th habit “seek first to understand then to be understood” is the key here:

• Take the time to listen to your customers.
• Take a proactive approach and be quick to react.

If you can understand your customers expectations in this post covid world, you will be able to exceed them. 

Keeping Customers

My simple guide to keeping customers is all about ensuring you and your team are meeting the customers needs. The end goal is to ensure that they keep coming back:

1. Be enthusiastic about your offering and ensure your team are too.
2. Engage with your customers, ensure they know they are valued.
3. Listen effectively; listen to words used to describe their problems and your products and give the customer your full attention.
4. Question effectively and find out what the customer wants.
5. Speak the truth; be trustworthy and establish a safe environment, which is particularly relevant in the post covid world.
6. Offer the best products, the best services and the best solutions by being ahead of your competition.

Above all else, ensure that your customer feels that the service you are providing is personal to them either in-store or online. Make it special, make it memorable and they will come back.