Marketing Zone
Dynamic Listening
Sign In
Member
Benefits

Forgot your password?
Create New Account
FollowFacebookTwitterLinkedinPrinter-friendly version
Marketing How-to Guides
>
Increase sales
>
Improve customer satisfaction

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Costs & Ways to SaveFast PassTools & ServicesResultsResources
How toWhat WorksWhat Doesn'tNew ApproachesTips for Beginners
Page  of 2

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction

If your customers are happy (satisfied), they may stay on. If they are really satisfied, they will spend more money, be less vulnerable to competitors, and perhaps even spread positive word of mouth. Get tips on what you can do to improve customer satisfaction. 

Tip

First, do you know what your customer satisfaction is now?

To improve customer satisfaction, you need a baseline measurement of customer satisfaction. Here's how to get that.

  • How to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Surveys
  • Social Media Monitoring (what people are saying online)
  • Market Research - for an understanding of all the different market research techniques you can use
  • Mystery Shopping

 

Tip

How to increase customer satisfaction

If you work with patients, then go to How to Improve Patient Satisfaction

 

1.  Focus on the sales experience

"In a survey of more than 5,000 business customers, we found that of all of the possible factors that could drive customer loyalty — including brand, product and service quality, and price-to-value ratio — by far the biggest driver is something most companies don't even think about: the sales experience, accounting for 53% of the overall total.

Customer loyalty, it turns out, is more a function of how you sell than what you sell. Specifically, customers reward suppliers who "offer unique and valuable perspectives on the market" and "educate them on new issues and outcomes."

This is from an article in Harvard Business Review

  • Sales Presentations How-to Guide has the latest information and tips on how to be successful selling to people 1:1 and in larger group settings

 

2.  Know your customers by name.  Use their name. 

 
TIP:  Strive for giving your customers a "Cheers" experience.  Remember the television show by that name?  Its theme song warmly talked of a place "where everybody knows your name."  One of the best ways to increase customer satisfaction is to make customers feel known, welcome, and important to the people in your business.
 

3.  Create customer profile information and make it accessible to everyone who works with and talks to customers

Ideally, a customer’s profile information should be available to a hostess at a restaurant, the people at the front desk at a dentist office, someone in customer service and sales, as well the people in billing/accounting and the owner/partners of the company.

Customers should be known and they shouldn’t have to repeat themselves, their contact information and purchase history to everyone they encounter. A customer profile saved in a database is a memory jogger to help everyone remember people and their preferences. That helps with selling them more products/services.

If customer profile information is accessible to everyone, then that information can be used to appropriately recommend relevant product/services that the person may not have purchased before and to remind them to repurchase. 

Call customers by name.  It makes them feel more important and have more patience. "Let me check on that for you, Mrs. Smith." And thank them at every opportunity.
 
Yes, it’s risky to have so many people in a business have access to your most valuable asset (your customer names and contact information) but that’s a trade-off of being able to provide the best customer experience, satisfaction and to selling them more products/services.
 
A customer profile also helps sales and customer service people with knowledge-sharing to know who problem customers are (people who always make returns, call to complain a lot, etc.)  and to identify new customers and MVP customers who should get royal treatment.   

 

TIP:  Add photos to your customer profiles.  Ideally, a person’s customer record should also have a photo of them to help put a face with a name to create a photo directory of all your clients/customers.  Some public schools do this by linking a student ID photo with the student’s record so any staff member who pulls up the student’s file sees the name and photo of the student.  We’ve seen veterinarians do this with photos of the pets they take care of. Assisted Living care facilities often have these type of photo directories to help staff keep track of who is who (and make sure they give the right person the medication.) Can you use this photo directory idea for your business? Or perhaps just start with your MVP customers? They’d be most open to having a photo taken of them. Perhaps this could be done during a special MVP event.
  • How to Collect and Save Customer Information

 

4.  Do something that's "buzzworthy" that gets people talking...

What's your "Wow Effect"? 
 
A local vet sends a personalized card to the owners when their dog Buddy had surgery at the emergency pet hospital. This is an incredible example of customer contact management!  They learned that one of their patients had been seen by the emergency pet hospital and that triggered their office team to pull out the yellow lab card (relevant dog breed) and get everyone in the office to sign the card.  And then mail it so it arrived a day later.  That's what builds positive word of mouth!
A pediatrician makes a house call to an overwhelmed Mom whose husband is traveling and none of her friends will help her deal with the lice.  
An auto repair shop washes your car when they return it to you.
A lawyer calls his clients with new business leads and makes appropriate introductions among his clients and network to help all his clients.
A hair salon donates their time one afternoon a month to cut hair for people who have lost their job. 
A restaurant chef comes out to meet the guests at the table and offers something for them to sample.
A local church offers a job training program every Monday morning to help people (members and non-members) find a job. 
A business owner sends a handwritten note of congratulations when a client is featured in a newspaper article or wins an award.
A nail salon includes a warm towel and deep lotion treatment to their best clients as a way to say thank you for their business.
An orthodontist picks up the kids in a limo at school when they get their braces off.  He gets the parents permission and takes the kids out together for a fun outing.
A landscape designer offers to come turn off the sprinkler system at the beginning of winter so the pipes won't freeze and burst.
A retail clothing store owner calls her customers when something new comes in that she thinks they'd like and offers to bring it by their house to try on.
A manufacturer invites their best customers to be their guest on a cruise to thank them for ten years of doing business together. 
A chiropractor personally calls anyone to gives him a referral to thank them and offers them a free half hour massage.
An automotive service company has iPads in the waiting room for people to use while they're waiting.
What's your "wow moment" for your customers?

 

 

Page  of 2

Please tell your friends and colleagues about MarketingZone
Share |
Comment on This Article

Related MarketingZone Articles

Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty

  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Client Satisfaction  
  • Patient Satisfaction

 Social Media

  • Social Media Marketing
  • Social Media Monitoring 
  • Facebook Marketing How-to Guide
  • How to Market Yourself & Your Company on LinkedIn
  • Twitter for Business

 

Word-of-mouth

  • Word of Mouth Marketing
  • Viral Marketing

 

Brand Building

  • Brand Fans
  • Brand Fan Marketing Strategy
  • Build brand loyalty
  • Brand love

 

Sell More

  • Create Customer Contact Plans
  • Understand Customer Lifecycles
  • Sell More to Existing Customers
  • Identify Most Profitable Customers
  • Customer Retention
  • Treat Customers like VIPs
  • Improve Customer Satisfaction
  • Improve Patient Satisfaction
  • Fire Difficult Customers
  • Deal With Customer Complaints
  • Manage Your Online Reputation

 

Sales

  • Lead Nurturing
  • Business Networking
  • How to Get Referrals
Home|How-to Guides|Find Experts to Hire|Get & Give Advice|Premium Advice|My Account
About Us|Contact|Content Licensing|Member Benefits|Site Map|Terms of Use|Privacy

Copyright © 2009 - 2012 by MarketingZone™ Inc.  All rights reserved.

No part of this work, including design, content, and underlying technology on all pages, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, screen capture, and recording or by an information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations referenced with full attribution. Pages may be printed for the sole use of the person printing them. MarketingZone content is available via content license. Address inquiries to licensing@marketingzone.com.

MarketingZone™ is a trademark of MarketingZone, Inc.