If you don’t already know, customer retention is extremely important to the long-term health of your business. And the most important way to keep customers buying your products and services is great customer service. One bad experience and your customers may look elsewhere for their needs. Conversely, continuously great customer service retains your customers and leads to even greater benefits. Read on to learn more!
Your business needs customer service worth remembering. So, in this article, we will explore why customer retention is important and what you can do to achieve it now.
Reducing Customer Acquisition Costs with Stellar Customer Service
No matter what type of industry you work in, acquiring new customers can be extremely costly. In fact, the cost of acquiring new customers is almost 5x the amount spent on retaining customers.
For this reason alone, your business needs to go the extra mile when it comes to handling your customers’ needs. Educate your customer service representatives on accommodating customers – even those who may be in the wrong. Additionally, enact customer-retention policies that allow for ways to reward customers, including offering:
- Discounts & coupons
- Loyalty programs
- Free products/ services
- And more.
Scaling Your Business by Word of Mouth & Online Reviews
Great customer service is seldom something customers keep quiet about. Great customer service may include:
- A helpful rep that resolved an ongoing issue efficiently
- Following up on an ongoing issue
- A tenacious employee that looked out for their best interests
Customers that experience customer service worth remembering are more likely to share their experiences with their friends and family. Subsequently, this exponentiates your customer base, leading to greater profits and a better reputation among your competitors.
Further, those who have a positive experience may go even further to spread the word online. Through online review sites such as Yelp and Google Reviews, your brand gains a reputation for great customer service. As these reviews accumulate, your business will scale as potential customers realize that you care about their business. Conversely, negative reviews can lead to reduced customer retention, which is the opposite of what you want to achieve.
Be Accessible to Your Customers
One of the often-overlooked aspects of customer service is being accessible to your customers. There’s nothing more frustrating to a customer than not having the ability to get in contact with a company to resolve an issue. Therefore, it’s important to remember that being easily reachable in a variety of manners is a necessity. Likewise, these options can include:
- Branch offices
- Social Media
- Live Chat/Help Desk
- Business virtual phone numbers, which can enable domestic and international customers toll-free calling
The more channels of communication and ease of accessibility, the more a customer is likely to stay with your organization.
The Art of Customer Service Without Customer Service
There’s also another forgotten element of customer service leading to customer retention: empowering the customer to handle their business themselves. The truth is that many customers simply want to resolve their issues as quickly as possible. Similarly, they do not want to spend time on the phone on hold or waiting for a resolution from a Help Desk. After all, we live in the 21st century, where customers simply can’t take time from their busy days to resolve an issue.
One effective way to do so is by creating an automated directory service for your phone lines. Available from telecom service providers, like United World Telecom, you can set up a directory that enables inbound callers to:
- Get the information they need (i.e. store hours, common problems)
- Enter payment and account information
- Speak directly to an individual staff member or department through specific extensions
Through directories, customers will remember how easy it is for them to resolve their issues with your company and stay loyal to your brand.
As you can see, customer retention is directly related to excellent customer service. By taking into account the aforementioned tips and aspects of customer service, your business will retain its customer base and grow.
Author Biography: As a business owner and international entrepreneur, Tom Senkus shares his hard-won knowledge of how to keep customers happy. For more information on Tom’s published work and endeavors, visit www.tomsenkuswriter.com