In the competitive business environment that all businesses currently live in, it is more important than ever that they care about those who might or actually do purchase their products or services. It is imperative to show consumers that you care whether it be before, during, or after they conduct business with your company. Caring is more than just being courteous and responsive. Caring is reflected in a continual quest by a business to make every customer know, like, and trust them. This can be an amazingly complicated task, but it starts with the basic commitment to understand your customers and how they perceive you. This isn't always complicated however, and using some of the available net promoter software is a great first step. Regularly monitoring your customer interactions using call tracking or other means is another important way to understand what it will take for your customers to know you, to like you, and to trust you.
Getting this insight about your customers is only the first step in showing that you care. The obvious next step is to be responsive to their concerns and consider making changes and adjustments when you encounter consistent negative feedback. Caring about your customers in a sincere way is a critical step in getting your customers to like you and to trust you. By the way, this caring approach is more than just a good business practice. It happens to lead to the most powerful marketing weapon in your arsenal: Positive Reviews and Referrals.
For those of you who don't believe me, here is a quick list of how to tell your customers you DON'T care:
- Ignore their complaints
- Internally refer to your customers as stupid, whiney, unreasonable people
- Constantly calculate what the minimum is in service you can provide while charging as much as you can get away with
- Don't concern yourself with how long your customers are on hold or how quickly their concerns are addressed
- Shut down your social media channels rather than deal with their negative feedback
- Respond to all negative comments with an identical canned response
Because you're smart enough to be reading this blog, I believe it'll be easy for you to construct the what-to-do's from the above list and then you'll be on the path to showing your customers that you truly care.
