Building strong customer relationships is a vital part of running any business. Sadly, more than 20 percent of most companies lose customers because they fail to maintain relationships. When you strive to keep interactions simple and based on the current transaction, you’re losing out on the hopes of building lasting associations. Here are seven ways you can help to enhance your customer relationships.
1. Always Stay Positive
If you want that customer to come back repeatedly, you’ll smile and act like you’re having a wonderful day. Never bring your problems to work, as the public can read your face and it may be a turnoff. Everyone has issues, but your customer doesn’t need you to dump on them as they have troubles too.
They’ve come to you for help and expect you to do it with a smile on your face. If you get a disgruntled customer and things get heated, try to work it out civilly. Something will always come up, but how you handle these matters and your attitude during the transaction counts.
2. Deliver Consistent Results
Have you ever been to a fast-food place, and it was perfect, but the next visit was horrible? Restaurants are notorious for having significant turnover rates because keeping people in this fast-paced environment is a challenge. Now, do you have a particular restaurant you won’t eat at because the service is always lackluster?
Your customers need consistent results and don’t want to deal with your lack of trained staff or unfriendly employees. You need to ensure the same product and customer service you provide on Friday will be the same on Tuesday. No matter who’s working the shift, each employee must deliver the same results to the customers.
3. Get To Know Them
Remember little details about your customers, and they’ll come back again and again. Ask them about their kids, dog, or other essential things. Asking these questions is not invasive, but you’re trying to develop a relationship.
You will find out what they need and like based on a few simple questions. Plus, it’s okay to take the relationship a smidge to the personal side as it just shows that you’re interested in them more as a person than a sales transaction. The next time they come in, you need to remember their face and name and a few important factors about them. It’s a personal experience, and most people love it.
4. Become the Expert to Them
When you go to the local hardware store, you want someone to help you. If you’ve got a situation that’s important, you want the expert to advise you. No matter your business, your customers look to you as the expert.
They want to hear how to fix it and for you to have assurance in your voice. They’re often desperate or frazzled and need someone to act as the voice of reason and expertise to direct them.
Employees must know the products you sell as well as the services you provide. How can you sell a product if you don’t know what it does and believe in it?
5. Develop Good Communication Skills
If you’ve ever pulled through a drive-thru and they tossed your order out without as much as a “thank you” or “come again,” you noticed. Each person who deals with customer relationships must have good communication skills. There should be no interactions that aren’t ended with a “Thank you and please come again.”
You don’t put a person with poor customer service skills as the hostess, as you want to attract people. Learn to place your people in positions where they can make you shine the brightest.
6. Market in New Methods
Gone are the days when you market in the newspaper and send spam emails to get their attention. There are new and more radical methods that are more effective and will get your customers’ attention.
Using a service for voice broadcast, allows you to send mass calls directly to your customers about products, sales, or any news about your business. It’s not a spam call when you’ve developed a relationship, and they look forward to hearing from you. Don’t be afraid to look outside the box and find ways to reach the masses that are not likely to end up in the trash can.
7. Get Their Feedback
After every customer interaction, it’s essential to get feedback. You can do this by sending an email survey or asking them to fill out something in the store. Some companies will send text messages asking for such information. It’s just a little way to see what you’re doing right and where you need to improve.
Conclusion
Building good customer relationships will take time and effort, but it’s worth all you invest and more. Strong customer relations can help you to expand and do bigger and better things with your company. So many folks are stuck with the one-size-fits-all approach, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Building vital customer service skills will enhance your return on investment and promote growth.
