A business is not worth much if it cannot properly keep its customers happy. If you are keen to make sure that you are doing this, then ti at the very least shows that you’re probably moving in the right direction, and that you are a little more likely to be able to keep your business going strong at all times. But it is important for this to happen that you know what it is that you actually need to do in order to keep your customers happy form the very start of your business. For many business owners, it is something of an afterthought. Creating a business which is truly customer-led is something else, and that is what we are going to look at now.
Communication
Something that you should consider an absolute basic is communication. With proper communication, you will find that you have a much better sense of what your customers want and what they expect or don’t want, and that you will straight away be seen as the kind of company that they really want to have dealings with. People appreciate being listened to and spoken to, so the more that you can communicate with them, the better off you are. With true communication open, it means that you can always act in the good faith that you are doing what is right by your customer. For that, you need to ensure you have a good email answering system, where they don’t have to wait long, that you cater for all technologies by being able to send fax online, and that you are always at the other end of the phone when they need you to be.
Cooperation
It’s not worth listening to people if you are not going to actively act on what you hear, and this is the next very important part of this process which you need to focus on to ensure that your business is truly customer-led. You need to make sure that you are full cooperation with your customers, in that you are actioning the things that they believe you should be, so that you can provide the kind of service which you know they are looking for. This doesn’t mean that you put your own business needs away, but it does mean that you consider yourself to be in a partnership with the customer – this is the healthiest way to think of it, and the way that is likely to really work.
Complaints
If your customers have complaints, you should be happy to take them. For one, it shows that they feel able to talk to you, which is a good sign. But it’s also essentially just your very biggest opportunity to learn. As long as you are listening to these complaints, you know what you need to do to keep your customers happy in the future, and you also know what you should be avoiding. This is definitely a valuable set of things to appreciate and understand, so make sure that you are actively listening at these times.
