Do You Sell a Product or Service?...Get in Here

in #business6 years ago (edited)

HOW TO RETAIN CUSTOMERS

customer reten pix.jpg

Customer service is the provision of professional and quality service to customers before, during and after a purchase. An excellent customer service experience creates customer happiness which translates to customer retention. While customer acquisition is important to a business, research has shown that customer retention is even more important and cheaper because it costs companies seven times less to retain a customer than to acquire a new one. The fundamental rule is ensuring the customer is happy because a happy customer is more likely to initiate a repeat business and could even refer other customers. Highlighted below are 4 main principles for retaining customers and these principles can be applied to any business

Maintain customer service delivery standards: This helps customers know what to expect from your
business as well as ensures the company abides by its service promise. Experts suggest keeping a customer service creed which could be a list of key points, guidelines or expectations on how service should be rendered to customers. These guidelines which are expected to be in line with the organization’s vision and mission should be frequently communicated and monitored. It could be framed and put up on the wall in your office or website so that all can see and can be constantly reminded of its importance.

Aim to satisfy customers all the time: Satisfied customers are more likely to patronize you again. People sometimes wonder how they can tell if a customer is satisfied with a particular service and it is simply by asking. Ask your customers if they are satisfied with your service from time to time as this ensures that you are not just working amiss. Large companies have a more structured way of gathering such information but if your business is not so large then a verbal affirmation would do.

Exceed customers’ expectations: Business owners who desire to give something extra eventually get customers to choose their product/service over their competitors’. Your customers should always perceive that they are getting more value for their money at all times so think of that incremental service you can offer that would distinguish your business from others and while you are at it remember that it is better to under promise and over deliver than to over promise and under deliver.

Maintain an excellent relationship with your customers: People are only interesting in people who are interested in them. Everyone wants to feel special and important so try all you can to make that happen for your customers. Turn around all the information you have gathered on your customers and put them to good use, information such as customers’ birthdays, anniversaries, purchase pattern, purchase volume etc can be mined and used to appreciate customers in several ways. You need to show your customers that you are not just interested in their money but in their person. Furthermore, gratitude for their continued loyalty through frequent discounts can help take your client relationship to another level.

It is very important to note that having a great product or service alone is not sufficient to retain customers because customers may eventually go away if there are no proper retention strategies in place.

(This post was originally written by me for connectnigeria)

PHOTO CREDIT:
Pixabay.com

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Hope you take this as the constructive criticism it's meant to be. Copying another article and giving a source is still plagiarism and illegal in many countries that steemit is viewed in.

There are a lot of people on steemit that view this type of cut and paste as spam and unacceptable. I'm one of them, but always like to point out the issue for a new member so they can go on and produce good work.

People don't need cut/paste posts of what they can find already on the internet. They want your words, knowledge, stories, and photos. The best unpaid posts will never be cut/paste posts as someone with a lot of voting power would see this and then downvote the post to 0 and then go and downvote the rest of your posts for good measure.

Create original content and over time you will start to see good rewards.

Pixabay photos are ok as they give permission. But do not use the shutterstock ones at the top, they are NOT free to use. Plus it looks horrible using a photo with the watermark over it.

Thank you very much @thedarkhorse but the original article is mine and I wanted to share it. I didn't realize this was would be termed as plagiarism on steemit. I'm barely 3 weeks here and still learning the ropes so I really appreciate this. Thanks once again

Edit your post to state that you are the original writer and are reposting your own works then linking to the source. This will avoid you having issues.

Sorry I made an assumption and should have asked first if it was your work. A lot of newer members come on and make mistakes that can really hurt your account so I try and help when possible.

Hey @udywriter, great post! I enjoyed your content. Keep up the good work! It's always nice to see good content here on Steemit! Cheers :)

Thank you so much

I sell things like in garage sale apps, there is a Facebook Market and LetGo, both are local-type, so the buyers are pretty much an anonymous ppl. There is a database for score within each of these apps, so we can see the sellers profile too.

Sounds great

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