How Small Businesses Can Keep Their Customers Happy
Whether you own a small business or a big business if you want to succeed and make some money then you have to keep your customers happy. There is no shortcut to it.
Advantages of Keeping Your Customers Happy The most important advantage of keeping your customers happy is you make a lot of money. Your customers will keep on coming back if they are satisfied by your service. You develop a sense of loyalty and that helps expanding your business. Constant Communication Back and Forth The first important thing that small businesses need to keep in mind is a communication back and forth. There is no use of a communication which is only one sided. If your customers are not responding to you then they may not be interested in you. Constant communication helps you to read the mind of your customer and find out what he or she wants. You always have to stay abreast of all the news and the best way to do is by communicating your customers each day. Later on you can build on this communication and sell products to them. Personal Touch and Not a Customer Care The main advantage of a small business is that they themselves can stay in touch with their customers. Unlike big corporate companies which employees hundreds customer care representative to answer queries and complains of customers small businesses can send an executive level employee to their customer’s home or office and talk to them personally. You don’t have to talk on phone and meet your customers in person and find out what they are complaining about. This way customer will trust you and always remain loyal to you. This is something you will miss in big companies because they deal with millions of customers each day. Flexible and Adjustable to Customer’s Need Small businesses can be very flexible and adjust all the demands that your customers are making. For example if there is product that they are not happy with and customers want to return it then you must be willing to take it back or return it with a right one. If you are giving some other services and your customers are not happy with it then you must return their money. You shouldn’t hesitate in returning money to your customers because you gain their trust and they will return back to you again and again. Small businesses should be comfortable doing this. Always Follow Up Another way you can keep your customers happy is by keeping up with them. You need to follow up and offer them all kinds of solutions for their problems. You can’t forget your customers who called you a week ago. You must remember them by their name and get to them personally or on phone and try to resolve all the issues. This is what makes a successful business stand out from the rest. Small businesses have greater chance of following up their customers compared to big businesses. There is no Alternative to Top Notch Service All of the above mentioned point is worthless if you don’t have a top notch service or a great product to offer. You can’t fool yourself believing that great customer care and personal touch is enough to keep your customer happy. These things don’t matter if you are not offering them a service that is solving their problem. Your product must offer a solution that your customers are looking for. How good your sales pitch may be but it is of no consequence if you don’t have a solid product to back it up. So don’t compromise of the quality of your product or a service. What Your Customers Want? Building on the last point,
how do you create a great product? In simple words you create a great product by knowing what exactly your customers want. You can’t create a product until you know everything about the target demographics and what problems is it going to solve. Before you create a solution you need to do a lot of research and other fact finding missions. You have to take feedback and comments of your customers before you develop a product. Developing a great product would be the most difficult task for any business and you have to take so many things in mind before you develop a final product. Art of Selling One you have created a great product you also have to sell it to customers. Selling could be very difficult especially if your product is mediocre one. You can’t push something on your customers because they may not like it. You must be able to put across all the benefits that your product has to offer. Explain the unique selling point of your product. And do not afraid of using words like free while explaining your product. You also have to reduce all the friction point when it arises. Art of selling is a great thing and not everyone knows it. Honesty and Frankness is Very Important As a small business your relationship with your customers must be on the basis of frankness. You can’t keep your customers in dark about your product or other services just because you want to make money out of them. Your business will not succeed if you want to fleece money out of them. Genuine businesses look out for long term and not for short term gains. You must be honest about your product and business. Don’t hide anything that your customers would like to know otherwise. So be honest and frank with your customers. Small Businesses Do Things Differently than Big Corporate Small businesses can have great advantages over big corporate when it comes to dealing with customers. After reading all the above points it must be clear to you that small businesses have better chances of win back their customers if some initials was not with them now. Small businesses get involved at a much lower level to their customers and build a personal rapport. However big corporate depends upon customer care representative. Small businesses can do many other things to make it more personal with their customers. You have complete flexibility and decision making power that a sales representative working for a corporate does not have. Conclusion Finally I will conclude by saying if you run or have a small business ideas then you have to keep above mentioned things in mind. If you do then you can turn your business around. The key to success is a decent product but extra ordinary customer care. You must get involved personally with your customers. You will definitely stand out from your competition.