Elevating The Customer Experience

Here are some tips on how to optimise your customers’ experience.  My work experience is rooted in the Hospitality Industry so I am hypersensitive to quality service and I can tell you that most of the service I receive is less than exceptional and only falls into the category of satisfactory with a notable portion falling in the unsatisfactory or below categories.  96% of unhappy customers do not complain and 91% of those will simply leave and never come back.  The statistics do not stop there.  A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9 -15 people about their experience and 13% of these will tell more than 20 people.  That is a lot of negative word-of-mouth marketing by anyone standards. 

So how can you minimise customer dissatisfaction? 

1. Select your Customer Service staff carefully.  They need to be people-people and service oriented at the root of their personality. 

2. Clearly communicate the service expectations of your business and your customers.   

3. Train them thoroughly in the practicalities of the role especially those that are particular to your business.  The service aspect itself will come naturally to them.  Training refresher and development opportunities are also advantageous to any business service levels. 

4. Welcome suggestions for system improvements from those at the coal face.  They are the ones most in touch with your valuable clients and their experience from other businesses and industries and training programmes can give you valuable insights into new opportunities. 

5. Retain your valued employees.  Their value increases with each term they are with you because their understanding of your business is maturing, their relationships with colleagues are becoming stronger and their relationship with your customers is deepening and they are integral to the survival of your business.

It is inevitable that some customers will become dissatisfied for some reason and that reason may not even be anything within your business’ or employees’ control but there are effective steps to take in this situation.

1. Listen carefully to the customer without interjecting and with a willingness to find a solution. 

2. Always apologise.  This is not the same as ‘the customer is always right’ because we all know that simply is not true, but it is more important to be kind and gracious rather than right in this situation.

3. There is always a solution that the customer will deem appropriate and acceptable and your objective is to find it.

4. Follow up with the customer if you have the opportunity.  This will reinforce your willingness to assist them.  Business’s often find their most loyal customers come from a challenging interaction that was effectively resolved. 

5. Always be seeking to exceed the customer’s expectations.  The joy of doing this is sensational. 

If you would like help in this area, we have the expertise on our team so reach out to us at www.ripple.net.nz.  Thank you for watching, bye for now and stay safe.