With Halloween on the way, it brings to mind the fact that offering treats is something that business owners need to do year round. Of course, those treats don’t need to be of the sweet and sugary variety. We’re talking about how companies treat their customers.
In our last blog, we offered up three ways to treat (not trick) your customers. Here are three more:
1. Give personal attention to each of your clients.
At MeloTel, we pride ourselves on knowing each of our customers by name. More importantly, we know about each of the businesses our clients own and therefore, understand how to best serve each of their individual needs. Providing personalized service is an excellent way to secure long-term loyalty from your customers. However, on Due.com, Kayla Sloan warns business owners not to be too pushy when providing personal attention.
“Finding the right balance of personal attention without crossing the line into pushiness may seem tricky, but it’s really about letting them know you are there for them and their needs,” she writes, “Be visible and available so they know you are there to help them. Greet them by name and make them feel like they are your top priority. They will feel valued as a result and it may be exactly what brings them back to do repeat business with you.”
2. Own up to your mistakes.
Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes. And customers know that. There are bound to be times when you may have provided some incorrect information or you shipped a product to the wrong location. Believe it or not, these incidents can provide great value to your company. It’s all in how you handle it. When you make excuses and hide behind mistruths, you can severely damage your brand’s reputation. When you fess up and work to fix your mistakes, you will be rewarded.
“There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than when you’re just looking for someone to admit they were wrong,” says Heather Johnson on ReturnCustomer.com, “If you make a mistake then it’s crucial that you correct the error and admit that you were wrong. This will leave the customer with a good feeling about his or her experience and won’t turn them away from doing business with you in the future.”
3. Accept feedback and implement appropriate changes.
It’s hard to come up with a more respectful gesture than a change you make to your business based on the feedback given to you by a customer. Who better to accept advice from than the people who support your brand? Sloan encourages business owners to collect little bits of information about their customers so they can find out what they like and what they dislike.
“Doing this enables you to make changes to appeal to their tastes so you can not only increase your sales, but really cater to them and make them feel truly valued,” she informs, “You could also use the information to let them know when new products or services you know they will like become available. Always look for ways to improve what you have to offer in the spirit of wanting to help them.”
At MeloTel, we do our best to treat our customers right all year round. Experience it for yourself by calling us at 1-888-MELOTEL or using the Live Chat feature on our website!
