There’s no business without customers. Customers are the lifeblood that keeps the gears of business turning and financial returns flowing smoothly. They also play a crucial role in repeat business, referrals, and your online reputation. That’s why it’s important to create a company culture that centralizes customer-friendly services in clear and concrete ways.
Successful businesses understand that customer satisfaction can make or break a business. From authenticity and accessibility to flexible payment plans, there are several simple ways that businesses can create an environment where customers feel that their needs come first.
Discover these 5 ways to build a company that puts its customers first.
1. Make It Easy for Your Customers to Find You
It’s no secret that Steve Jobs, co-founder at Apple, put his [email protected] email address out to the public to enable any customer to get into contact with him. What is significant about this action is that Jobs didn’t just want to appear authentic and accessible. He also answered email messages from customers and ensured that their satisfaction was a top priority.
Today, his successor follows in his predecessor’s footsteps by doing the same practice. It’s this kind of quality and customer service that helped turn a startup into a tech giant worth trillions of dollars.
If you want your business to be customer friendly, make it easy for your customers to get in touch for any reason: praise, recommendations, or complaints.
A practical way to do this is to stay active on all communication platforms, from websites and emails to social media pages. Let customers know how they can get in touch via various channels and then work hard to respond to customers’ communications in a timely manner.
2. Make Customers an Authentic Part of Your Company’s Vision
Companies don’t exist in a vacuum. This means that employees don’t act in isolation. Instead, company culture is an important way to connect your customers with your mission.
If you want to prioritize customers, then you must integrate this into your essential values and find practical ways to truly serve customers when, how, and where they need it.
This kind of mission starts from the top down. You can’t expect your employees to provide high-quality customer-friendly service unless leadership is actively setting an example.
3. Welcome Feedback
Some companies make the mistake of thinking that getting the customer’s money is all that it takes.
There’s much more to building a successful business. Building relationships through stellar service and feedback helps make repeat customers who spread the word and make helpful recommendations that can help improve your business.
It’s important to remember that all businesses can improve in some way. While you don’t need to change your process based on every piece of negative or positive feedback, it’s important to engage in open communication about ways that you can offer a better experience.
Keep in mind that your customers have personal experience with your product or services. They also have proven their interest in your business, so it’s up to you to do what you can to keep them happy. Many companies use Customer Effort Scores (CES) to gather and measure customer feedback.
4. Offer Flexible Payment Options
Meet customers’ needs by offering flexible payment methods. This might mean offering longer payment plans with lower installments with the option to pay off the balance faster.
Showing your customers that they come first might look like offering online payment options instead of old-school invoices in the mail. You could also offer phone payments and mobile payments, or install contactless card readers if you have an on-site customer service location.
You might also consider integrating Buy Now, Pay Later payment options through PayPal, Klarna, or AfterPay to ensure that you’re meeting the needs of your target customer base.
5. Show That You’re Open to Change
Openness to change doesn’t mean that you must revolutionize your entire business plan or structure based on customer feedback.
It does mean that you should take feedback into consideration and accept that there’s room for improvement in every company. Showing customers that you are willing to make changes based on both positive and negative responses will help your customers feel heard and can help your business run more smoothly.
