The Service Advocate…
In our article last week, we discussed the new buzz term “Customer Relationship Management” and we hope that you gave this some thought as it relates to your business.  Have you been applying this concept? If so, are your chosen measures successful?  And should you be in the category of business person who has not been working on CRM, how can you start and what can you do?  You may be quick to point out that the tried and tested ways have indeed worked successfully so far, so why should you be concerned with “new buzz words”, “new fangled ideas” and the like.  Well, you should be concerned because the number of choices available in the market has increased, consumers are more aware of their rights and they are more service oriented.  Today’s consumer knows what he or she wants and will seek the provider who satisfies those needs. 

Did you know that 80% of your business comes from just 20% of your customers?  Yet, some businesses spend more time and revenue trying to attract new customers rather than building loyalty with their existing customer base.  If you have happy customers, you have the BEST form of advertising right there.  Word of mouth is the most powerful and most successful method of advertising.  Needless to say, it is the cheapest form too!

In this week’s article, we will discuss ten ways in which you can build customer loyalty.  The first one is communicate with your customers.  This is a familiar term, correct?  Many of you already do this by sending out newsletters, fliers, reminders of when service is due (for example, mechanics), a reminder of when bill payments are due (internet service providers) and, as a last example, some businesses send out birthday greeting cards to their customers.  These are all very useful, simple but powerful methods that allow you to stay in touch with your customers and let them know that they are not forgotten.  Yes, even with reminders about bill payments – customers do appreciate that because our lives are very busy and sometimes we may forget that the due date is fast approaching. 

The second tip is customer service.  Everybody remembers being treated well and we will continue to patronise a certain business place if we receive good customer service there.  Remember that customer service should be delivered from every one of your staff members and not just a few.  Consumers will put down their experiences, whether good or bad, to the overall culture of the organisation and not just attribute it to the bad attitude of a few employees. 

The third tip is employee loyalty.  This is a concept that is not often considered important; but if employers are loyal to their employees, employees will have a better attitude and express that loyalty to the customers.  It is all about their positive emotions manifesting into good service delivery.

The fourth tip is employee training.  Employees must be trained to deliver the type of service that business managers and owners want their businesses to be known for.  Some managers tend to think that their employees should “know” what to do without taking the time to inform them properly.  This is absolutely the wrong way of thinking and is one of the main reasons that bad customer service is so prevalent in our country.

The fifth tip is customer incentives.  There are some businesses that offer such programmes and it is a great way to retain customers.  One of the most common methods we have noticed is the discount card and this is a nice way to show appreciation to your regular customers.

The sixth tip is product awareness.  This involves paying attention to what your patrons buy and ensuring as much as possible that those products are kept in stock.  It is also very important that your employees know the products that they are selling so it may be useful to hold short sessions on product awareness to help them with this.

The seventh tip is reliability.  If promises are made regarding re-stocking or delivery of items, be on time and if you are not able to be on time, then inform your customers.  They will appreciate that you took the time to inform them of the delay.

The eighth tip is to be flexible.  Deal with complaints effectively.  Be empathetic.  Every complaint needs to be dealt with differently and citing company policy as an excuse will be the worst thing you can do if you expect to retain that customer.

The ninth tip is people over technology and all this means is that when we have a problem, the only thing we want immediately is to speak with a person, not a machine.  Going through menu items on a phone and then not getting an actual person on the other end of the line is quite frustrating and can turn a small grievance even bigger, with much more at stake.

The tenth and final tip for ensuring customer loyalty is knowing your customers’ names.  Don’t we all feel special when someone remembers our name?  It is such a simple gesture but one which can seal the deal!

We hope that these tips can help you with better Customer Relationship Management and we encourage you to incorporate them into your existing measures.  If you do not practise CRM already, these ten tips can be the foundation you need. 

(This is the 7th article in the ‘Service Advocate’ series of columns by Nadine King and
Tameca Sukhdeo-Singh, both of whom can be contacted via email address: cru@networksgy.com)