SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER - VICTORIA GREENE
You know the old adage “the customer
is always right”? It has long been popular in business, thought of as
representing the attitude that can deliver optimal customer service - whatever
the customer asks for, you provide, and whatever problem they have, you
address.
Today, the problem with that approach
is that it lacks subtlety, and, in some ways, doesn’t go far enough. What about
the things that don’t get mentioned? The needs that aren’t stated, and the
problems that are simply accepted? Now, “the customer is always right” is the
bare minimum. You must go beyond that to excel.
After all, the reality of customer
loyalty has changed and deepened. People don’t just go along with whichever
companies will agree with them all the time. They want to develop fleshed-out
business relationships and have meaningful support from the businesses they
choose.
To that end, customer happiness is an
area that more and more businesses are focusing on. It aims to ensure that a
customer always has positive interactions with your company. And if you happen
to slip up, it hopes that a customer’s goodwill toward your business will lead
them toward giving you another chance.
Business is better with customer
happiness at the centre of it. Here’s why:
1) It makes you more familiar with
your product
It sounds crazy, but you may not know
your product as well as you think - at least, not in terms of how it fits into
your customer’s lives. Amazon sells the Echo, which some may simply use to
catch up on the news in the morning. But another customer might use that same
Echo for more complex automation tasks.
Fortunately, Amazon supports a number
of integrations for those tech-heads who want to synchronise their lights
during the holidays - and they love it.
If you’re familiar with all the ways
in which your customers already use your product, think about the ways they’d
like to use it, and cater to them. You’ll have fans for life.
2) It fosters trust between you and
your customers
Think about the group of friends you
hang out with. Why do you choose to engage with that particular group? It’s
likely because being around them makes you happy. And over time, you’ve
developed a trust and a bond with those friends. You might not be keen on
having a total stranger come and sign for a package while you’re at work. But
you’d trust a friend with that task.
You can build that same kind of bond with your customers. If you continue to deliver and they’re able to develop a
happy feeling every time they interact with your business, they’ll grow to
trust you over time. When it comes time to buy again, they’ll likely choose the
business they trust over any of those they don’t.
3) It becomes part of your company
culture
Developing a culture within your company is important for so many reasons. It becomes the badge that you and all
of your employees wear. And it lets customers know that there are many people
at your company who share their values.
When a focus on customer happiness is
ingrained into your company culture, it makes a customer more likely to do
business with you. They know that no matter whom they interact with (whether
it’s a salesperson on the phone or a customer service agent online), that
employee wants to do the best job possible.
4) It makes your employees happy
This is a side effect that not a lot
of companies take into consideration, but it can do a whole lot in terms of
preventing employees from getting burned out - and it can help lower turnover,
too.
Most people want to work at companies they love. And most want to feel that they’re clocking out every day having
made people’s lives a little better. Each employee wants to go to work with a
sense of purpose. They want to solve problems. They want to feel satisfied
after they’ve helped a customer find what they’re looking for, or after they’ve
closed a support ticket.
When your company focuses on making
customers happy, it makes your employees happy. It engenders positivity all
around. And it makes waking up in the morning and coming to work something that
they look forward to. And that’s something we should all want.
5) It forces your company to be
proactive
So you offer a product or service to
your customer. But ask yourself this: have you thought of every way that
customer uses your product? Have you given serious thought to where they might
get tripped up or experience an issue? Have you thought ahead to, say, make a
return easy should a customer receive a defective unit?
Customers love when a they feel a
business has thought about them, even in the worst of times. When you
proactively aim to keep your customers happy, they tend to stay that way. And
that’s good for business.
6) It breeds go-getters
You can absolutely tie this item to
the one above if you so choose, because your employees are at their best when
you say “tackle this problem” and then set them loose. And here, you may need
some assistance looking for ways your company can be proactive in the pursuit
for customer happiness.
If your employees are the ones who
interact with customers on a daily basis, no one knows the needs and wants of
those customers better than they do. They’ll undoubtedly be best at coming up
with solutions. And discovering new ways to help will only motivate them to do
it more.
Plenty of managers fear independent staff. They see them setting their own goals, leading their own training, and
expanding their skills, and subsequently envision them buying online
businesses, becoming entrepreneurs, and leaving altogether. But as long as you
treat go-getters fairly, you’re far better off with them on your side!
7) It makes your company more human
Nothing is more frustrating than
dealing with a company that seemingly doesn’t care about you. You’ve likely
experienced such an interaction. Maybe you’ve had an impossible time reaching customer service with a complaint, and you’ve been bounced throughout an
automated phone system with no end in sight.
It doesn’t feel like a bunch of humans
work at that business. Instead, it seems like a faceless corporate machine is
at work - one that wants to take your money and interact with you as little as
possible.
A focus on customer happiness makes
your company seem more human. With every bit of happiness a customer gleans
from your company, they see it less as an uncaring mass and more as a group of
individuals who simply want to help.
So don’t hide behind a wall. Let
customers know you’re ready to talk. Let them know their happiness is
paramount. And they’ll reward you in kind.
Victoria Greene is a Chicago-based ecommerce
marketing expert and freelance writer who loves being loyal to companies that
deserve it. You can contact Victoria by email at hello@victoriaecommerce.com and read her blog at Victoria Ecommerce
