ONE SATISFIED CLIENT IS ALL YOU NEED TO TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS
Why do some people prefer to go to certain places to buy or get services they need and neglect going to others despite the fact that they offer the same products? This is usually called customer experience.
Why do some people decide to do business with only certain kinds of people?
Why will some people travel long distances to visit their favourite saloons?
The answers to these questions are not far-fetched. The answer is all all about customer experience. The following tips I will be sharing can transform your business.
Clients decide to go to specific places where they know they are welcomed and treated as someone special. Clients do business where they are recognized as individuals.
85 per cent of your success will be determined by how much people like you and respect you, especially in business and sales.
Simply courtesies like saying “Please” “I am sorry” and “Thank you” to your clients make them brighten up, smile and feel happy being with you. Your clients know this by the way you appreciate them.
There is an old Chinese proverb that says “A man without a smiling face must never open a shop”.
Be excited when your clients walk into your office. Act as if you have not seen them in a long while. Each day you meet a client is the best day to make a good impression.
As a CEO, Principal partner, manager or small business owner, you need to put on a light face all the time and tone down the too-serious look on your face.
I know some people, when they are working they have a very serious look on their face. This is what I call the ‘concentration face’. A little face-lift or a little smile can change your face and make you look more confident and approachable.
Treat every customer like a Million-Dollar Customer. You never know who will walk in through the doors of your business premises.
Some very important personalities and multi-millionaires sometimes dress very casually and randomly visit some places to get the services they need. You should treat every person you meet as though he or she is the most important person in the world. You never know who may walk in.
One satisfied client is all you need to transform your business. a client who has a good customer experience will return and with others too.
Business is all about creating good relationships. So never miss an opportunity to treat your clients well.
Every single person you come in contact with is a potential client.
When you treat people you meet nicely and make them feel valuable, it will make them feel important and they will return the favour and equally make you important as well. In fact, they will be stuck on you and be eager to do business with you continually. They will always come back to where they are appreciated and valued. They will come back to where they had a good customer experience.
How can you recognize a place where business is done in a manner where they ensure good customer experience?
You can recognize such places from the employees. Yes from the employees.
The employees render the services, so they are the face of the office.
You can tell if a business is people-friendly by the way employees handle clients, and employees mirror the management right from the security man at the door up to the service areas in the firm.
Once you step into the business premises and do an interactive psychological scan of the employees you will notice that employees mirror the management. This is because it is the management that directs the employees to behave rightly.
A smart approach to growing a business or managing an office often starts from the top. The leadership.
This means that you must learn to have a work environment that is friendly and fun right from the leader at the top down to the least staff. A good work experience equals a good customer experience.
Just as an individual will have a distinct personality trait that distinguishes him or her from others, firms and organizations also have personality traits that are the collective reflection of the personality of their leaders.
If you check most organizations you will notice that the employees in most cases mirror the leaders. You will notice this by the way employees dress, hairstyle and even the way they talk.
So how can you ensure that your clients are treated well by your employees?
Be strict with your employees on the need for good customer relationships. If they have to fake a smile on their face, let them do that.
There are instances where complaints have been lodged by clients that they were treated badly by a staff. The only way to remedy such instances is to educate your employees on the need to treat customers/clients well and you must be strict about it.
A bad move by an employee towards one customer can cause the firm a lot. Never assume that it is just one client. One client you lose can lead to hundreds or thousands later.
You should conduct training sessions for your staff and educate them regularly on how to treat clients. Let your employees know how valuable each customer is.
There is a common saying that “the customer is always right”. Your employees need to know that. It does not mean you should ignore the need to give your clients the needed professional advice when they are wrong.
Some customers may want to argue, but you can handle the situation by making them see things from the point of view of your client’s interest. Then advise them adequately and do it politely.
You must also treat your employees well and reward the quality of the hard work they do for you. Some employees unknowingly transfer bad behaviour to clients because they are unhappy with their boss.
By genuinely appreciating your staff, they will equally show the same form of appreciation towards clients.
If you are running a one-man business as a sole proprietor or you run your office alone, all the tips I’ve been sharing above still applies.
The best way to retain your customers is to treat them as special and ensure you get the job done. You should not procrastinate, and deliver on your client’s service needs on time.
On a final note, learn to show empathy. Empathy is the ability to feel another person’s condition from their perspective. You place yourself in your client’s shoes and feel what they are feeling.
People who show empathy tend to help others even if it goes against their self-interest.
A client who realizes that his agent will go to the ends of the world to solve his problems will not hesitate to go back there for repeat service.
Remember, a simple act of kindness or unkindness will return to you in multiple folds.
Be good to every person you come in contact with, and do it with a big smile.
Your next big client could just be around the corner.
