4 Steps to Create Customers for Life
How do I create satisfaction for a customer? Will a happy customer be there forever? Is one bad experience going to cause my customer to leave?
These questions are at the heart of customer service. Whether your company is dealing with changes in the economy or changes in technology, sometimes difficult situations arise with customers. Through great customer experience, you can build strong relationships that will keep your customer coming back. At Hytrol, we have experienced the importance of these strong relationships, seeing our customers continue to believe and trust that we will overcome issues and meet their needs and expectations in the end.
How do you create customers for life? Let’s look into 4 major steps:
Build a Solid Foundation
A relationship is defined by the way in which two or more people or organizations regard and behave toward one another. Like any other relationship, the foundation you establish with your customer is crucial for establishing a long lasting connection. It requires taking time in the beginning, going the extra mile and paying attention to detail. The following skills are critical in building a strong relationship:
- Active listening
- Empathizing
- Taking ownership
- Being passionate
- Anticipating needs
- Meeting expectations
- Communicating
Provide Service After the Sale
Your relationship doesn’t end once you’ve made a sale. It is crucial to continue to provide additional assistance and solutions to the customer. Merely satisfying customers initially is not enough to earn loyalty. You must maintain excellent service to be worthy of their repeat business and referrals. The skills we focus on to aid in providing excellent service are:
- Creating solutions
- Responding promptly
- Being reliable
- Understanding the situation
- Emphasizing quality
- Communicating truthfully
Empower Your Employees
Enabling employees to think, behave, and act autonomously creates a culture of experienced problem solvers. The more empowered your employees feel, the more they’ll take control of situations. Build strong relationships within your team and give them the freedom to use their expertise to provide excellent customer experience. At Hytrol, we strive to create a culture of empowered employees by focusing on the following:
- Affirming each employee’s value to the team
- Building trust through feedback and accountability
- Creating a positive, open environment and leading by example
- Providing purpose and autonomy through training
- Understanding and agreeing on expectations
Measure Customer Satisfaction
In order to raise the level of customer satisfaction, it is crucial to measure and evaluate performance on a regular basis. This allows you to manage and improve internal processes and customer engagement, while decreases the amount of time between contact and resolution. Implementing customer surveys to collect data and produce metrics; this process will create a benchmark for future performance. Our Customer Care team frequently measures the following metrics to create a standard for improvement:
- On-time Delivery
- Quality
- Response Time
- Resolution Time
- Customer Surveys (It is good practice to periodically request feedback to ensure that expectations are being met. As new or improved services are implemented, surveys allow the Customer Care team to better understand how they affect the customer.)
The Hytrol Customer Care team lives by the following four principles:
- We Believe
- We Make a Difference
- (We Do) Whatever It Takes
- We Care
In short, treat your customers as you would like to be treated. Put yourself in their shoes and try to understand their perspective. Most people abide by the golden rule in their personal relationships. Extend that courtesy to your professional relationships as well. If you focus on building a strong relationship with your customer and implement the aforementioned principles, you will create a foundation for understanding and trust, and create a customer for life.
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