Do you have a customer satisfaction improvement plan? Because believe me, you need one. Now, in those two sentences, I bet I just gave you the false impression that I was claiming your company was particularly poor in some manner or another. Because, if your company’s not awful, why would you need to improve customer satisfaction, right?
If you were nodding as you finished reading that last sentence, then now I actually am going to berate you, because that’s absurd logic, my friend. In fact, customer satisfaction is one of those things that should always be considered insufficient when a company evaluates itself. Not unlike tomorrow, one hundred percent successful satisfaction here is something that never comes.
If you think you’ve reached your goal for customer satisfaction, then you don’t do a little victory dance and have cake. Well, ok maybe a little cake. But after cake, you raise the bar on those goals once more, to yet higher levels, and go right on back to climbing to reach them.
So, what’s your customer satisfaction plan, ace? Don’t have one? Today’s your lucky day, because I’m going to lay out the most basic, universally applicable plan to improve your customer satisfaction.
First, let’s talk about how your customer support. How do they communicate with you? If it’s a call center, first of all … how about we stop using those so much. Customers who have issues with you or your product only get more sour over their tenure in limbo trying to contact you. Hold times are truly hellacious for an already distressed customer.
Consider maybe some other channels, like harnessing Twitter and help desk topologies for the less sensitive things, and leaving the call center, if you positively insist on this archaic concept, being reserved for emergencies and sensitive issues that nobody will discuss online.
Beyond customer service, establishing a positive presence online works well to promote customer satisfaction, by making customers see you as an equal, and feel respected. Respond to them in a happy manner when they post positively about your product somewhere. Respond in a remorseful way when they say anything negative. Show that you care what they think of you. It goes a long way.
Finally, there’s incentivizing to think about. You probably offer rewards for frequent purchases and other such deals, but your offers are either lottery drawings for prizes, or something of minimal value. Believe it or not, giving good, valuable rewards can actually earn your more business by driving up customer satisfaction. If they enjoyed your product or service, and really enjoy the reward for enjoying it, that just leaves a lasting smile on their faces for the future.
This is the simplest customer satisfaction improvement plan in the world, and it’s one that, if you’ve not already employed it, should take advantage of as soon as possible. This isn’t me giving you some obscure advice in some delusional belief that I am sagely and wise. No, this is from observing companies that know how to do customer satisfaction right. They’re respectful, congenial and really show affection and reward to customer loyalty.
