This can even be applied to an established company. Nothing is of greater value than a customer’s satisfaction. They act as an extension of your marketing team, spread a good word about your company, and enhance your reputation. But since a dissatisfied customer is much more damaging than a satisfied customer is beneficial to your reputation, it is important to keep customers happy. It is certainly clear to everyone, but in the case of start-ups, you should be more aware of this. Together with us and the Business 2 Community website, you can find out if you are really doing everything you can so that customers associate only positive values with your company name.
I believe that if you have plenty of experience with solving customer problems with your products, you may already be very tired. Arguing with a client that property insurance is not the same as home insurance can sap your energy. If you are a "known" company, many customers will certainly forgive you some missteps; after all, you know each other. Or will they? What if you just have found a warm spot in the market? You certainly want to keep it at all costs and every single customer is a good customer for you. Do you follow this advice?
1. Set clear expectations so that the customers themselves know exactly what their rights are. The Magoosh company, for example, set a seven-day period for returning goods for any reason. However, there are still customers who have requested to return goods even after a month. They decided that if it is their fault, and if they did not set conditions clearly and visibly to all the customers, it is necessary to meet their responsibilities and learn for the next time.
2. Correct errors before apologizing to the customer. There is nothing worse than sending an email to an annoyed customer with the excuse that everything will be resolved soon. This is not possible in every case, however. Why not resolve errors first, and send the customer an apology with some satisfaction afterwards? The Modify company found an error in the logistics process of goods to the customer and even before any angry clients’ reactions arrived, the company had offered a free product of their choice at any a value for the next shipment.
3. Answer disappointed customers publicly. It might sound crazy. Almost everyone prefers to conceal his mistakes rather than disclose them to the public. What if you do the opposite? After all, everyone makes mistakes, and there is no better way to prove self-confidence than to openly admit mistakes which you can somehow solve. Remember that an unhappy customer will probably not have a long discussion with you. He will just not buy from you next time. The more open you are, even in your errors, the more you support discussion and thus, get a very substantial customer feedback.
4. Do not act incognito, because you know very well that even customers who deal with you by email want to feel that they are communicating with a real person. Your goal is to obtain a nominal correspondence from the customer directed to the specific person who is taking care of the client. The customer then has the feeling that communication is not one-to-many but more individualized (one-to-one).
Remember that if a customer expects a smile and affection, you have to do it. Some clients might not behave in a friendly way in the beginning, but only with care and openness, can you break mutual barriers and possible distrust towards the new brand.
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