Customers are the lifeblood of any business. Without them, businesses wouldn’t exist.
Businesses and customers coexist. The other won’t exist without the other one. Customers play a vital part in any business’s growth, success, and survival. That’s why it is essential for business owners to retain and establish a healthy and long-lasting relationship with their customers. But, retaining customers seem to be the greatest challenge for business owners – whether on a physical store or online.
According to the latest customer support statistics, here’s how the customer landscape is today:
- One happy customer can produce nine referrals.
- One unhappy customer can make 26 other angry customers.
- One angry customer can make 16 anti-referrals.
- Just a 5% increase in retention can generate up to 95% increase in profits.
- 86% of customers are willing to pay more for better customer experience.
- 82% of customers leave because of a bad customer service experience.
- Empathetic support results in customers who are 9x more likely to be engaged.
- Failing to respond promptly to customer complaints and inquiries can lead to a 15% increase in churn or attrition.
- Engaging and responding on social media can make customers spend 40% more.
- The #1 most important factor in a customer’s loyalty is reducing customer effort.
To make your customer service strategy even better, here are expert tips–from business experts themselves–on how to improve your business’s customer service to retain your customers:
Allocate enough budget and resources for customer service.
“Let’s take most of the money we would’ve spent on paid advertising and paid marketing and instead of spending it on that, invest it in the customer experience/customer service, and then let our customers do the marketing for us through word of mouth.” – Tony Heigh, Zappos
Determine the need of your target customers.
“Get closer to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.” – Steve Jobs, Apple
Prioritize your customers over everyone else.
“Put the customers first, the employees second, and the shareholders third. If the customer is happy, the business is happy, and the shareholders are happy.” – Jack Ma, Alibaba
See things from your customer’s perspective.
“I’m not a tech guy. I’m looking at the technology with the eyes of my customers.” – Jack Ma, Alibaba
Customer service must be practiced by everyone in the company.
“Customer service should not be a department; it should be the entire company.” – Tony Hsieh, Zappos
Make customer experience a little bit better each day.
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little better.” – Jeff Bezos, Amazon
Always treat your customers with high esteem.
“It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.” – Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company
Personalize customer service and experience.
“Going above and beyond involves making customers feel special and helping them out even when it may not make sense.” – Neil Patel, KISSmetrics
Treat your customer the same way you would treat a boss.
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” – Sam Walton, Wal-Mart
Meet and exceed your customers’ expectations.
“The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them – preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.” – Richard Branson, Virgin Group
Consider the above tips in planning your next customer service strategy. Do what it takes to retain your customers to keep your business up and running. Don’t drop the ball!
