If you own a business or are a manager or supervisor of some kind, you probably have a lot on your mind. After all, there are so many things to worry about. It is unfortunately easy to let something like levels of customer satisfaction to slip through the cracks, since it might not seem like something to focus on at surface level.
Trust me when I say you shouldn’t let it go ignored, though. You see, if you’re tracking your finances daily (which you probably are), you are already looking at this to some extent. This is because they are tied to each other so strongly. What do I mean by this?
Customer Satisfaction – Happiness is Key
One of your top priorities in sales should be to make sure your consumers are happy with their overall experience. This is from the moment they enter your store (or click on your e-commerce website) to the time that they check out. Any interactions with employees or getting assistance are included.
That is why you should track as much information as you can. Many companies send out surveys with specific questions designed to measure these metrics, for example. You could ask them outright if they enjoyed their experience, for one thing.
This could be worded like “how was your overall shopping experience today?” or something along those lines. Make sure to look at every response, and comb through for both positives and negatives. Organize team meetings to discuss each of them. Don’t only focus on the negatives, since you will want to repeat anything that customers enjoy.
You could also design queries to help measure levels of loyalty to your brand. You see, an overarching trend we are noticing in the business world right now is that a lot of buyers don’t stick with one company anymore. They switch where they purchase from often, sometimes more than once in a year.
This means that you need to do everything you can to determine levels of loyalty and subsequently increase them. Some of the questions to ask could be whether they would recommend your product or brand to people they know. Ideally, this includes close friends and family members, or other trusted parts of their life.
Word of mouth is one of the surprisingly informative metrics for customer satisfaction that we should consider more. It is one of the ideal ways to find out whether your customers are loyal and want to continue purchasing from you. Retaining should be just as emphasized in finding a new market when you discuss strategies with your team.
When you are figuring out what consumers enjoy about a specific product or process, you can get more specific with the things you ask. For example, you might inquire about which parts they like most, and which they dislike. This gives you an idea of what to repeat and focus on versus what not to put such emphasis on.
Just make sure that your findings trickle down to all your employees and team members. While customer service representatives are some of the most critical parts of creating a good experience for shoppers, other parts should be looked at as well.
Value and Metrics
One of the most critical things to focus on is whether customers find value in your product. You can certainly tailor your surveys to something like this. Ask them if they feel the price is worth it, for example, based on the quality of the item.
If you are finding a lot of negative responses, never be afraid to adjust parts of your own process. Change can be frightening, but it can end up being a great thing as well. You can read further about how these metrics can guide your business on this page.
Why it Matters
It’s no secret that we should care about this aspect of running a company. If people aren’t pleased with your product or process, they won’t buy again. They certainly won’t recommend you to the people they know. It’s demonstrated in both academic studies and practical examinations of this topic.
One of the most important things to remember is to encourage employees to create an experience for visitors that meets any expectations they might have. Obviously, this shouldn’t go to an extreme level, but there are certain ways you can achieve this to a reasonable scale. Having them greet anyone who comes into a store is just one example of this.
Anything that you can do to encourage higher loyalty and levels of satisfaction will be beneficial to you. After all, one of the best parts of word-of-mouth marketing is that it is free. You don’t need to pay a dime, you just need to provide a good experience, be it in a physical store or a website!
Veeramachineni Lalitha
I am Finance Content Writer. I write Personal Finance, banking, investment, and insurance related content for top clients including Kotak Mahindra Bank, Edelweiss, ICICI BANK and IDFC FIRST Bank. My experience details : Linkedin