Introduction
Customer happiness refers to providing a happy and satisfying user experience to your customers. It’s when the expectations of your users are met at the right time with the right intention. Happiness is the first step towards achieving loyalty and building a truly customer-centric brand. As a result, you generate loyal and happy customers who become your brand’s true advocate. Making your customers happy can be a great goal to have in terms of understanding if your business is scaling up in the right direction.
How can you improve customer service and customer satisfaction? It happens at every stage of their customer journey, whether they are a new client or one that has enjoyed a positive customer service experience from you for years. The solution simply requires you to take a more mindful approach to establishing and maintaining customer relationships.
Here are all the steps you can take to improve your customer service:
Define your brand’s personality
Your brand needs to have a personality and identity in order to be easily relatable. Defining your buyer persona and crafting your brand voice embodies what your brand stands for. It is imperative to know your target audience persona because your personality must always be the right fit for your target audience. For instance, if your target audience consists of 70-year-old men and women, your brand cannot be youthful and cool. Furthermore, your brand personality is going to help in humanizing your brand. It will make your brand more relatable and likable. This is ideally the first step in crafting your customer’s journey and improving your customer service.
Attract the right customers
Check your website, your social media accounts, Google My Business listing etc. If your website looks outdated, you’re going to have a hard time reaching Millennials and Gen Zers. If your social media accounts don’t have content or your GMB page doesn’t exist, no one will check your website. Google is where most people search first when they want to find out about a product or company.
With Google My Business you can provide prospects with a quick overview of what you do. In addition, you can provide high-quality photos, local contact information and client reviews. Furthermore, your website, social media and legal directories give you a chance to share your mission and values. That way you can write for your ideal customer and reach more audience.
Understand Their Business
A client-firm relationship has to be a partnership if both sides are to succeed. How can you help someone accomplish their goals if you don’t understand their business, brand or market? Therefore, take time to get to know your client. Craft an onboarding process designed to get as much information about your client as you can and clarify project goals.
Be Proactive
A proactive approach applies to any area of the salesperson’s company that serves the customer. Notice all the questions that need to be answered and effectively respond to occurring problems. Solve the problem easily and fast in order to build trust between clients and your law firm. Use the opportunity to show them that what you promised in the first place is what they will get. Finally, treat each customer like they are the most important person on your list. As a result, your customer service will improve.
Communicate regularly
Whether it’s before the sale, during or after the sale, communication is the key to a healthy client relationship. Therefore, listen to your clients carefully and ask relevant questions. For example, how would they like to be contacted and how often. Also, check if your company is doing everything to serve your client well. Collect valuable information from the customer to ensure the small problems don’t turn into big ones.
This is one of the most effective ways of improving your customer service. Good communication starts with a series of conversations that help you understand a project’s scope and goals. The client will tell you what they want to achieve, and you can manage their expectations before work begins.
Once a project gets started, keep the client in the loop by using a project management solution such as Toggl Plan. By using charts and logical and easy-to-follow timelines, you can share them with the client. That way they can view all project tasks that have been completed, are in progress or haven’t been started yet. They will appreciate these real-time insights more than the end-of-week email reports.
Follow up proactively with progress updates
Always follow up on every transaction with a personalized thank you message. Also, if you tell a customer you are looking into an issue, follow up with a status update. Contact them through e-mail and offer information that would be useful to them. That way you show customers that you’re there for them even when they’re not buying. A phone call or email can make the difference between a happy customer and a disgruntled one.
Research shows that as many as 82% of customers will leave if they don’t feel appreciated. Some companies offer discount codes for the customers’ next purchase. Others send out thank you email with some suggestions of other purchases to consider. No matter your approach, always thank your customers to ensure they are happy with the experience.
If you keep your clients happy, they will tell friends and family about your company. They will post about your product to social media and write online reviews. They are, in short, priceless ambassadors of your brand. Improve customer happiness today and you’ll improve your overall business tomorrow.
Listen to your customers
The next step to improving your customer service is listening to your customers. Now that you know who your customers are, pay close attention to what they are looking for. Furthermore, what are the problems they face, how much are they willing to pay for the solution and so on. Paying attention to those details gives you a clear picture of your customer’s intention and expectations. And the best way to keep your clients happy is by knowing and meeting their expectations.
Provide a personal touch
Communication is vital to keep your clients happy and maintain a healthy relationship. Personalizing your website content, customer experience, and conversations allows your users to feel special and unique. Personalization can start with something as small as using the customer’s first name in the email or live chat conversation. However, it can also mean customizing your web pages depending on the demographics of the viewers.
RedPoint Global survey revealed how frustrated consumers are with a lack of attention to the personal data they share with businesses. In retail, in particular, customers are disappointed when:
- They receive offers for something they already bought
- They are shown completely irrelevant offers
- Not being recognized as an existing customer
Therefore, collect details about your clients to personalize your communications with them. For instance, you should have their name and email address. One tool that can help you email your lists or personalize individual emails is Copper.
If you can infuse every email and call with a level of personalization, your customers will remember that. You’ll be the person who went to the trouble of noting down those important details, which reflects well on your attention to detail—and your business!
Keep your employees happy
Happy employees make happy customers. One of the easiest and the most effective ways to improve your customer service is to start with your employees. Align your team around customer happiness, inspire them, be nice to them and provide opportunities to grow.
Every company can win over the long run with employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it. It’s amazing the difference transparency can make when you’re rolling out team goals. Emphasize to your team that improving customer happiness will forever be important for your team, and every goal you set will be an actionable step towards achieving it.
Engage with your customers
It is important for your brand to engage your customers at the right intervals and frequency. Keep them engaged by staying in touch. Send regular updates via mail or email- for example, a monthly or quarterly newsletter. It is a fantastic way of keeping customers informed and simply reminding them of your business name.
One of the best ways to engage your customers is to have live chat messaging software installed inside your product. This makes your brand accessible and reliable as your customers can reach out to you at any point. It allows you to stay in close proximity to your customers and be there for them whenever needed.
Fine-tune your goal
To fine-tune your actions into a reasonable goal, ask these questions:
- What will our team do differently each day to make this happen?
- How can we track this together?
- How will we stay accountable?
- When will we assess the success of this goal?
Now you can put those pieces together in a single, achievable goal.
Communicate the goal to your team
Goals can only be achieved when your team understands what they’re working towards. That’s why team transparency is so important. Discuss your new goals with your team so that everyone is on the same page. At any point in time, every teammate should be able to explain your team’s goal and what they need to do to achieve it.
When you roll out a new goal to the team, tell them the information they need to feel invested in. For example, why you’re setting this goal and how important it is to your company. Furthermore, what’s expected of each individual and what you promise to deliver for them.
If this goal involves a significant change to your team’s workflow, develop a plan to help them make a change and stick to it. Usually, the best way to do this is with scheduled check-ins — weekly, monthly, or whatever makes sense for your team.
Ask Customers for Their Opinions
To really improve your customer service, reach out for your customer’s opinion. Ask them about their experience and what improvements they would like for you to include. This can provide valuable information on how you can improve products and your service delivery. For example, explore what would your customers change about your product to make them want to buy it. This question goes to the heart of whether a customer would invest their hard-earned money in the service you offer.
Ask for Customer Reviews Regularly
Whatever your preferred review site, such as Google Reviews, Facebook, Yelp or others, encourage your happy customers to share their positive comments. Monitor review sites so you can reply if needed and respond to unhappy customers.
Your prospects will instantly decide whether to buy from you or move on to a competitor, based on your reviews. It’s not just bad reviews that cause customers to pass on buying from you. Having no reviews is also bad. People won’t have a comfort level so they would rather skip past your business than risk being dissatisfied.
If you haven’t received positive feedback from clients, ask them if they are satisfied with your services. They will see it as evidence of your law firm’s commitment to giving them a positive experience. In addition, they will appreciate your willingness to hear their opinion. If there are any problems, use this opportunity to discuss what’s frustrating them and suggest ways of improving the situation.
Respond to all feedback
When you receive negative commentary, be ready to step up, acknowledge the mistake or reason for their dissatisfaction, apologize and try to make amends with them. This goes for anywhere you might receive reviews and includes both your negative reviews as well as positive ones.
A tool like ReviewTrackers, BirdEye or Podium would be useful for this. With a reputation management tool, it’s much easier to keep your eye on all of your online feedback. Plus, if you can save time monitoring your reviews, you’ll have more time to thoughtfully respond to all the feedback you receive.
Respond promptly to questions and concerns
In order to improve your customer service, answer phone calls immediately and reply to emails within an hour or two. Ideally, you should respond to their messages within a day. If you are busy and won’t be checking emails or voicemails regularly, arrange for someone else to support the client. You’ll come back to a happy client instead of a disgruntled one. Acknowledging your customers immediately goes a long way in improving customer satisfaction. Simple gestures show you care. Train your team regularly to make sure they show your company’s best side.
Build customer loyalty with a reward program
A proven strategy to keep your clients happy is to reward them for loyalty. Many businesses have a “buy 5 – get 1 free” card or something similar. However, you can also reward customers unexpectedly. After a repeat customer visits you a few times, give them an added service or a special discount. A tool like Candy Bar manages your loyalty program automatically and a customer can use it from their phone.
Treat Customers Like People
Establish your customer communication on trust and shared values. Be kind, responsive and genuine. Don’t see customers as a sale, instead see them as a person. Going the extra mile to care how your customer feels about your services. Keeping your clients happy is the best way to maintain your company’s revenues. Also, a happy customer will naturally spread the word about your business and become loyal to you. And loyal customers are the core of your long-term growth.
Keep tabs on your individual customers
Knowing your customer’s unique details will help you build stronger and more meaningful relationships with them. For example, you can make note of your client’s birthday. Afterward, you can plan on sending him a handwritten note reminding him that you remembered his special day. There are plenty of online tools to help you manage lots of customers and keep track of all important details.
Present Them With Relevant Data
Every client wants analytics relevant to their goals and industry. When you provide metrics and data, use information that fits their campaign. In addition, explain how everything will be tracked and measured. You’ll inspire confidence and be able to forecast project results with greater accuracy.
Design a great experience
Your service should be designed to provide a great experience and supports your customer journey. Think of all the things your customer would want to achieve with your product to complete a job. Create a journey map accordingly and design your product to provide an interactive experience.
Your design should also ensure that it stands by your brand’s voice and buyer persona. For instance, if your brand’s persona is luxury, then a black background can add more meaning than a different color. Always think in terms of offering a great experience instead of offering plain service or a set of features your customers would use.
Provide an A-class service
Customer service is a way to meet your customer’s expectations. Ensure that you are in constant touch with your customers starting from onboarding. Keep your clients happy and build a loyal relationship with them. Have a complete understanding of why they are using your product and how to make the experience better for them. Understand which problems they are trying to solve using your products. Maintain a content repository to help them attain their goals easily. Talk to them, write to them, stay connected at all times. Send newsletters and product updates regularly. Solve their queries efficiently and make them feel special.
Provide an outstanding support
Be ready to provide support if your customer needs it in all phases of your collaboration. By being empathetic to your customers’ needs and problems, they’ll feel grateful instead of frustrated or angry. In fact, after a positive customer service experience, 42% of customers ended up making another purchase. However, after a negative experience though, 52% of them ended their relationship with the business.
As your business grows, it will become difficult to manage customer details. Rather than try to keep tabs on every point of contact, it’s best to monitor and manage support through a single channel. Zendesk is a good solution for customer support, for example. With it, you can provide white-glove support to customers, even if you’re a one-person operation.
Use Data to Set Customer Expectations
Managing expectations and transparent communications are key to healthy customer relationships. Understanding and reporting your average response times upfront can set realistic expectations for your customers. Moreover, it can establish a sense of transparency and honesty early on in your relationship with a potential client.
For example, response rate data on company Facebook pages is letting customers know the average response time. And a quick response time is the sign of an engaged business. Similarly, for companies that depend on phone calls with customers, the average wait time is an important measurement. Efficient call centers are reported to have an average wait time between 15 and 40 seconds between live calls for an agent.
Provide extra value
Exceed client expectations instead of simply meeting them. If your timeline suggests that a milestone can be reached sooner than expected without burdening the team, do it! If you see an opportunity to save money without sacrificing the quality of the final deliverable, don’t hesitate. Going the extra mile will not only make your clients happier, but it will also ensure your own success because when your clients thrive, so do you.
Customers pay you to do what you do because you’re good at it and you get them the results they need. But if you really want to make customers happy, then you need to provide value beyond just your service. You can do it by providing useful information for your audience while empowering them to learn and solve problems on their own.
Content marketing is a good idea for small business owners and freelancers of all types. Digital experience is especially important as it’s one of the best ways to show off your skillset. For example, spend some time blogging. Use it to inspire or inform your clients and help them learn more about how your company works. In addition, consider filming short tutorials, preparing a webinar or posting on social media regularly.
Be honest
There’s more to being honest and transparent in business than telling your story. You have to be reasonable when it comes to setting expectations too. Pay close attention to how you communicate with your customers. Be honest about what you’re doing and transparent about your progress. Finally, set realistic expectations so you’re not put in that uncomfortable position of having to backtrack later on.
Conclusion
Nowadays, companies are making efforts to make their customers happy in addition to thinking about the product and services offered. Successful businesses now know the importance of maintaining a good relationship with customers. Customer relationships are formed with similar intentions. Building a customer relationship is all about understanding the transactional nature of the relationship. Hence, good customer service is proactively based on your customer’s needs.
In other words- a happy customer is a key to long-lasting success. A happy customer isn’t just someone who makes a purchase with you today. A truly happy customer is one who will be loyal to you and your business for a long time to come. Plus, customer loyalty and happiness have a tendency to spread. When people find businesses they trust, they want to tell their friends about it too. On the other hand, if you continually fail to meet your customers’ expectations, don’t be surprised if word spreads even faster.