It’s one thing attracting customers but another to have them to return. Zack Oates shares seven ways which have always worked for him
Every business owner knows that the key to true success is getting more new and repeat customers. But how do you do that? Here are seven ways which work.
1. Measure and improve customer experience
“The customer is always right,” is a phrase we take for granted, an aphorism we hear all the time. We know it makes sense, but often we don’t identify what the customer thinks is right. We simply wait for something to go wrong and then try to correct it. It’s essential to find out what the customer is thinking.
Receipt surveys and comment boxes can help, but QR codes and kiosks with incentives for taking the survey are better. A simple inquiry is the common Net Promoter Score (NPS) question of, “Rating from your answer from 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?” These surveys will help you identify common problems and trends and then adjust. Understaffed on Friday nights? The survey will tell you. Rude employee? The survey will tell you. Waits too long? Yup, the survey will tell you.
The key then is to take those surveys and improve training, staffing, etc. Once you do, you’ll see your overall NPS score rise. As your customer satisfaction rises, more customers will come back. An American Express study showed that customers are willing to spend more at a company that provides excellent customer service. A PwC study found that behind price and quality, customer service is the most important factor in making a buying decision.
2. Have a service recovery plan
Measuring customer experience means that at times, you’ll find that customers are unhappy. What do you do to resolve their concerns? How to do you train your staff to handle them in the moment? What is your manager’s role? Whatever your model, the basics are: listen (or in the case of surveys, read), acknowledge (follow up with a call/email/text if not in person), seek to understand, make it right. If you accomplish this, 70% of the time, unhappy customers will come back and often become more loyal than if they were merely satisfied!
3. Respond to online reviews
Along with responding privately to customers either in person or via contact you receive through a survey, it is critical to respond to online reviews – not just the bad ones, either. Not only do you have a great chance to win back unhappy customers by showing that you care, but happy customers will receive a notification that you responded to their review, reminding them to come in again. Google has also confirmed that responding to reviews will help you rank higher in search engines.
4. Get more reviews
Love them or hate them, reviews have a significant impact on your business. 88% of people trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from a friend. That means that no matter what other marketing efforts you are doing, the last place they go before they decide whether or not to come into your location is online. What do they find when they find you? Do you show up above your competition? Do you look like you provide excellent customer service? Do you seem like the type of company they can trust? Online reviews will give them the answers to those questions. And not only will you get higher conversion of people deciding whether or not to come in, but it is a huge factor in ranking higher on search engines and will bring in more customers.
5. Collect contact info
Getting one new customer can be between five to 25 times more expensive than retaining a current one, according to a Harvard Business Review study. And since 70% of customers will never return after their first visit, it is critical to have a way to reach out and invite your customers back. A great way to do that is, when measuring customer experience, have them enter their contact information to be notified if they won a prize and to receive a follow-up coupon. Be sure that you also follow proper regulations and have the right verbiage to grant you permission to market to them. While there are more regulations around texting, there is a 5x higher open rate, so it is worth the extra effort!
6. Maintain accurate online presence
Hours, locations, menu, offerings, website, name, etc. should not only be accurate in one place, but across every site where customers may find you. This not only helps with search engine optimization, but it also provides a unified experience for your potential customers.
7. Have personality!
An experience should be personal, relevant, novel, and offer some surprise and engagement. In how you greet, serve, and interact with your customers, ensure that you are being authentically…you! People don’t want to just feel that they are being herded through a conveyor belt and are just cogs in your money-making machine. They want to know that you are involved in the community, that you are human, that you care. Post about people and experiences on social media. Seek out and share causes. Have a mission that you can stand behind. Tell your story and listen to your customers. Products alone don’t create loyalty, but relationships do.
Wrapping things up
If you want to grow your business, you can either attract new customers or get more customers to come back. In the thousands of companies I’ve worked with, I’ve never once seen these seven keys fail. As you seek to measure and improve, plan, actively respond, get more reviews, collect and utilize customer contact information, ensure accuracy of your listings, and create a relationship with your clientele, you will be turning unhappy customers into loyal fans, happy customers into marketers, and strangers into friends.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zack Oates is the founder and CEO of Ovation http://www.ovationup.com, an actionable customer experience company that helps companies grow by getting more new and repeat customers though customer experience measurement, text marketing, and online reviews. He has rung the NASDAQ bell, been voted a top 100 entrepreneur, and has started seven companies (including an international nonprofit). Feel free to contact him at Zack@ovationup.com.
