As a business, client perception and care is everything. Today’s marketplace is very competitive. Getting a customer takes time and a lot of money. Therefore, once you get one in the door, the last thing you want to do is to prove a less-than perfect experience. Improving customer experience saves you money in the long term because you spend less money marketing for new clients. How can you make a significant improvement in the experience of your clients?
#1-Provide an Impressive Service
One of the first things to do is to provide impressive service. What makes the service you provide to a customer better than the experience they receive from someone else? Offering some type of improved service is critical. Try to answer these questions:
- Do you have well-trained staff?
- Is your product or service significantly different?
- Do you offer a guarantee that others do not?
- Do you provide an exceptional experience for the client based on your office’s location, features, or design?
- Is your product or service more affordable than others?
Once you know the selling point for your business, make sure it comes through in every aspect of your client’s experience.
#2-Provide a Quality Answering Service
Nothing is more frustrating for a client or customer than needing help in the middle of the night and not being able to get in touch with someone. Even if this is not customary to provide this type of service, if your product does not work for the client when he or she needs it to, even if it is no fault of your own, it leaves a bad impression in the client’s mind.
By providing a bilingual answering service, for example, you provide something that meets the needs of the client no matter when they need the help. The client needs help and gets it. You avoid losing that customer. It is easy for the client to pick up the phone and find service from someone else instead.
#3-Appreciate Your Client’s Time
One of the biggest turnoffs to a client is the time wasting experience. That is, the longer the client has to wait, the more frustrated he or she gets. Here are some examples of how this happens regularly.
- Customers call and are on hold for too long. Using a bilingual answering service can help here, too.
- The customer needs to be passed from one person to the next to get questions answered or help. Streamlining communications can help to make this more efficient.
- The client arrives in your office and poor planning means he or she has to wait. Improved scheduling can improve this.
Ensure your managers and staff realize that the client’s time is important, no matter if they are coming in for an appointment or calling without one.
#4-Get Rid of the Script
All too often there are scripts that people answering the phone are using to interact with people use. It may be a specifically designed statement that is supposed to create enough attention that the customer immediately wants to buy. This does not work. Even worse, it turns off the client and creates a very unpleasant experience. Instead, be genuine with your customers. Allow the customer to feel that you are listening and interacting with them.
Taking a better look at the level of client experience you are providing can help to give you the tools and resources you need to improve client retention. Since this is important to do for most businesses, making these four changes can have a big impact on your bottom line.
Sylviane Marguiles is a consultant for a local maginze in Los Angeles, CA who offers her advice freely on the “blog of unsolicited advice”.
