The customer is king
The above statement is popularly being used even in this part of the world, and I see truism in it. Obviously, the reason anyone ever entered into business and the reason they remain in business is because of their customers. That is, the business itself revolves around customers for it to keep moving on. Having this at the back of our mind, we need to explore the ways by which a business should relate with and treat their customers so as to maintain them. This is because a business thrives by, not only getting new customers, but retaining the old ones.
1. Give the customers what they want
This is a very important point and holds the key to the retention of your customers. You should not assume what you think they want or give them what you feel like, otherwise they may take their patronages to another business. You can simply inquire or do a randomly sampling about what your customers really want and give it to them. This is the reason some business have "suggestion boxes" to enable the customers make a suggestion of the kind of product or services that they want.
More so, you have to deliver, both in quality and at the right time. As a business, you should not compromise the standards of your quality. You have to even go beyond their expectations when delivering, so as to secure their continuous patronages. You will agree with me that a lot of customers will prefer a service that will deliver on time at the desired quality even if it means paying extra, than having a cheap service that will fail both in quality and delivery time. So you have to maintain a good and high quality that the customer will desire.
2. Stay empathetic when dealing with the customers
There may be times when the customers will come with a demand or a view that may not sit well with you, but it does not mean you should overrule it at the spot. You have to learn to put yourself in the position of the customer and think of what you would have done if you were in the customer's shoes and how you will respond. You should know that your customers have feelings and they may be very different from what you expect, so you should learn to accommodate their feelings. After all, what you seek for is their patronages, not to become an emotional police.
3. Communicate effectively with your customers
Good communication is a must if you will win the hearts of your customers. In an effective communication, you also have to give listening ears to them and when you speak, do so with utmost civility and professionalism. More so, you need to understand that communication, even with your customer, require skills which need to be perfected. This is actually the same reason why companies and organizations hire public relations officers to effectively relates with their customers.
As a business owner or an entrepreneur, you need to learn the art of communication. There are some course, even online, that one can take to sharpen their communication acumen. The dangers of wrong communication is that one customer that you dissatisfy may trigger a ripple effect because they may tell other potential customers and they also will not be interested in your services. To prevent this from happening, you have to treat your customer in a way to make them to refer you to other potential customers.
4. Own up to your mistake and apologise
It is true that as humans, everyone has the proclivity to comit a form of error or the other, but as soon as you acknowledge your errors, apologise for them, proffer solutions for them, and prevent a repetition of the errors. Most times, customers are not as dissatisfied by an error as they are at how the error was handled. You do not have to prove the error to be right or trying to blame your customer for the error, just acknowledge it and then make things right.
Thanks for reading
