Putting your customers first

If a business looks after its customers, a relationship is formed which ultimately benefits both the business and the customer. In the current financial environment, a business needs to look at doing whatever is necessary to ensure that customers are not only happy with the service they have been given, but are also willing to tell other people about their positive experience.

Many small businesses get caught up focusing on, and chasing, the next new customer and forget the customers they already have. However, customer retention, loyalty and service are the foundation stones of any small business's survival.

There are some simple rules to follow if you want to provide good customer service and retain them not just for now but for ever.

Be a good listener - Let your client tell you exactly what he or she needs.

Put yourself in your customer's shoes - Tell your customer you know how to help because you have been there yourself. That is why you are good at what you do.

Pay attention to details - Pay attention and identify opportunities to add further value, and follow up

Go the extra mile - Be prepared to go above and beyond what you are asked to do

Anticipate Needs - Anticipating customer's needs builds a relationship that no competitor can ever break

When faced with the challenges of dealing with increased customer demand, many businesses become internally focused as they work out ways of coping. But all too often in these situations, more attention is paid to rush through new customers, and less attention on the quality or customer experience. So what should you do? When you are busy dealing with increased customer orders, it is easy to fall into the trap of letting your customer experience deteriorate and falling out of line with your brand, proposition and service commitments. This can be a false economy as a poor customer experience can lead to complaints and compensation payments, or worse still for customers to look elsewhere. Even when the pressure is on, maintaining your defined customer experience is critical.

Communication is key

Communicate with your customers appropriately, tell them what's happening and manage their expectations but think about how you will do this and the words you will use.

Keep your staff and rest of the business updated on what's happening as well. If you're an organisation with a sales team that is being challenged by customers about the service they are receiving and the team isn't aware of what's actually going on, they are not in a position to help you and manage customer expectations.

If you're launching a new product, proposition or service or going for a growth surge develop some 'what if' scenarios of the range of possible things that could happen when you launch. Having identified possible scenarios, develop some contingency plans for each scenario so that if/when one of (or a combination of) the scenarios arises, at least you have already planned your options and can get into action quicker. In contingency planning before hand, proper consideration can be given to the customer experience without the heat of the problem hitting you here and now - this way you are more likely to sustain the customer experience and put customer service first.

Here at Positive People with our hand holding approach we always put our customers first through our systematic processes.