Be obsessed with customer service
Jeff Bezos has always been obsessed with customer service. In one meeting he decided to put Amazon’s customer service to test by calling it himself. Sitting with his executives, Bezos dialled Amazon’s support line and posed as a regular customer.
Instead of just making notes, Bezos used the experience as a wake up call, pushing for improvements that would make Amazon’s customer service one of the best in the country.
To remain competitive and ensure sustainable growth, it is therefore vital that every area of your business focuses on customer satisfaction as a priority
1. Map out the customer journey from A-Z
It all starts here. Thinking about your customer experience isn’t just about the onboarding stage. It’s vital to consider their journey every step of the way– from start to finish.
So, as a first step, do just that. Identify the exact journey of your customer– from the prospect stage (when they are not yet even a customer), to the signup process, through to the first few weeks or months, and then onwards throughout the entire lifecycle.
Use your customer’s journey to build a “customer experience manual” for your employees:
2. Gather and use customer feedback efficiently
One of the best ways to understand your customers’ needs and improve their experience is by evaluating the feedback they give you which, by the way, you need to do on an ongoing basis.
It all starts with mechanisms for collecting customer feedback, which can be a mix of formal and informal methods.
3. Drive digitization
In a survey conducted by the Harvard Business Review focusing on customer relationships, 72% of respondents feel that digitization will strengthen ties between company and consumer.
Use digitization to improve and even expand your offering: The bigger the company, the more complex these systems –and their maintenance– become.
4. Make customer-centricity part of your company culture and give it a purpose
Customer experience isn’t exclusive to your sales and customer service teams. It needs to be a priority for the entire company– from the C-suite to the ground floor.
Make it “purpose-focused” and you’ll be guided by the right strategy. To be clear, you’ll want to have an overall customer-centricity focus that “services the company by serving the customer experience”.
Translating your vision of a customer-centric company culture from the ground up, and so you’ll need to consider the workflow, the processes, the hiring process (how you hire the right people, that is), the training you give your staff, and so on.
Get better every day
Winning a new customer is quite a challenge for every business that operates within a normal competitive landscape- it is simply no easy task. Ensuring those customers stay with you however is a much easier task, usually all that is needed is to continue providing a strong overall customer experience.
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