There are many ways to impress both new and old customers, but sometimes we can over-complicate it by trying to guess what our customers want. With over twelve years experience engaging with customers we've learned that the following simple and easy things will quickly help you improve your customers' experience of your company.
Remove obstacles between your customer and you
Make it as easy as you possibly can to enable your customer to sample your service or product. If you offer a service you could offer a free trial (like we do) or if you sell products, you could offer free shipping or bulk buy offers. Make it really easy for them to ask you questions (like having an easily accessible Help page on your website or friendly staff in a store) and don't ask them too many questions before they experience what you can offer. You can always get contact details or feedback from them after they've already been impressed with what you deliver.
Stop the spam
It's an old saying that if you don't have something worth saying, don't say anything at all. The same goes for any kind of communication between you and your customer, be it by phone, email or snail mail. Only contact your customer when you have something they will really want to know, which is usually something that benefits them.
Be honest
There are many problems with lying to your customer be it inflating the capabilities of your product or service, or simply not being able to deliver what you promise. Not only will you disappoint with a substandard service, but you will also make it very hard for your customer to trust you again.
Don't ask for more than you need
Depending on your business activities, if you don't need a customer's address, credit card details or social media accounts then don't ask for them. By collecting this unnecessary data you are not only wasting their (and your own) time but you're also potentially breaching data protection principles. This leads us to the following point.
Protect your customers' information
Be very mindful of how you handle your customers' information. In one survey of British consumers, 95% of customers said they would not shop at a store again if they discovered they had shared their information with a third party or otherwise broken their trust. Be sure that you have correct measures in place to protect and secure a customer's information and make your privacy policy readily available to all potential and existing customers. (We have a link to our privacy policy at the bottom of every page on Findmyshift.) You should also be careful how you manage your employees' data too.
Keep pricing information uncomplicated
Of course you want to display your lowest price available for a product as this could have the best chance of tempting a potential customer, but if this then means they are later confronted with a higher price or they become confused about what they should pay, you are creating additional obstacles. All that being said, many business experts believe that price isn't always the biggest reason a customer goes with you or not.
Offer a fair refund policy
Nothing is more off-putting about a company than not being able to get a quick and easy refund due to a faulty product or bad experience. Not only does a customer automatically blacklist that company but it's very likely they will want to share their bad experience with everybody they know, and word of mouth can be very powerful. Avoid this happening to your company by having a fair and flexible refund policy.