If you’re not regularly asking yourself the question “are my customers happy,” you may be doing something wrong. Why is that? Well, it’s been proven that there are direct links between the levels of satisfaction that customers have with our products and the revenue that we earn.
When you think about it, it makes sense. After all, people aren’t likely to buy things that they don’t enjoy. They also are probably not going to shop in a store that gave them a poor experience. This includes websites and e-commerce retailers. Customer service and product quality are two major things to focus on to increase these metrics.
How Can You Measure These Figures?
This is one of the hardest parts about considering whether our consumers are happy or not. It’s a subjective concept through and through. So, there aren’t many ways to gather hard-hitting data. However, there are still options out there, such as surveys you provide to customers. The next question is what to include in them.
Obviously, you will want to cater them to your specific company and the products you offer to some extent. That being said, there are some basic guidelines to follow. Some common questions are things like asking how someone’s experience was.
You could provide them with a sliding scale, from one to ten, to give yourself more statistics to work with if you enjoy numbers. It’s probably a good idea to include an option space for a more detailed explanation of said rating.
One technique that I apply when designing questionnaires is to start with very general topics, and gradually make them more specific. So, if I am selling cookies, I might first start out by asking if my customers are happy with their purchase overall. After that, I would ask what they thought about the texture of them, the chewiness, and the ratio of filling to dough.
That’s just one example, of course. Apply that technique to your own products to determine any shortcomings that might exist. That is one way to help remediate that problem from coming up again.
It’s a good idea to ask about their shopping experience as well. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, consider the overall atmosphere of the building and the friendliness of sales associates. These are just some metrics to measure customer satisfaction – never be afraid to branch out and get more creative with your surveys to find out the information you want to know.
The Importance of Customer Service
If you weren’t aware, there is a lot of data that exists that demonstrates just how critical providing a good experience is to our profit margin. One of the biggest points to remember in this vein is that keeping customers is less expensive than getting new ones.
While retention might be something we don’t focus on explicitly, we should. Repeat purchases are just one part of this. When consumers are loyal to our brand, they often do something we know as “word-of-mouth advertising.” This means that they recommend you to the people in their lives, including any family members or friends.
This is a great form of free marketing. So, by putting in that extra effort to retain customers, you’re doing yourself a huge favor. How do we encourage this loyalty, though?
You guessed it – good customer service practices. You can see some examples on this page, if you want to see it in action. Having good service is a part of your brand’s image. It demonstrates your values in a concrete way, rather than them just being seemingly empty words.
So, if this isn’t something you’re focusing on right now, you should probably change that. Ask people how they feel about the experience you are currently providing, and work to improve upon any issues that crop up. Training should be extensive and encourage workers to live up to standards that consumers have in relation to your brand.
What to do with the Data
Great – now you’ve collected the metrics regarding customer satisfaction in relation to your products and the overall experience that you provide them with. How can you utilize this data, and why is that so important? As you can probably guess, it all can help boost your sales.
Take note of any positives that show up in the responses. Be sure to provide reinforcement for these interactions – praise workers who are doing their job excellently. The goal is not to punish people who have poor customer interactions, but rather to help shift the mindset of your entire team to increasing happiness levels from shoppers.
Obviously, you should still discuss any shortcomings in staffing. However, you should take note of what people think of your product quality as well. If there are obvious issues, they need to be addressed, even if it increases production costs.
