Ever wonder why companies like Apple and Southwest Airlines continually get rave reviews? They have built a culture around not just providing an okay service or product, but providing a great user experience. This has helped propel each to the top of their industry and allows them to continually rate extremely high in customer satisfaction.
So what is the key to customer satisfaction? Well, the short answer is there isn’t one key. In fact, based on a recent survey of over 2,000 US consumers, there are a lot of different areas that drive satisfaction levels:
7 Keys to Happy Customers
Want to build happy customers and a great business? Use this research and focus in on the following key areas:
Value
Identify what your clients actually value (not just what you think they value) and look for ways to drive more value throughout the entire lifecycle.
Customer Service
Have you built a customer service centric model? Do you even know what your clients think about your service?
Competitive Pricing
Price shop your competitors, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking lowest price provides the most customer satisfaction. Apple isn’t the cheapest, but the product and experience provide value so customers are okay with the price point. Apple’s pricing is “competitive” based on the product, service, experience and value — but they still are the most expensive in many cases.
Relationship & Understanding
Do you know your customers? Do you truly understand their needs, challenges, concerns? Ask questions, learn, get to know them. It will strengthen the relationship and allow you to better serve them (and retain them too).
Trust
Can people trust you? Is your staff honest? Does your product deliver? Is your service transparent? Always deliver on what you say you will. When mistakes or problems arise, fix them–don’t sweep them under the rug.
Quality
Does your product or service deliver a high level of quality? If not, fix it! It’s very hard to build trust without first delivering quality.
Ease
If you make it difficult to do business with your, people will find an easier option. Make it easy to buy, easy to get service, easy to communicate. Start with your website and make sure it’s easy to contact you or buy your product. It’s amazing how many companies make doing business difficult!
How do you stack up on customer satisfaction?
While these findings aren’t earth-shattering, many companies have no way of truly knowing where they stand. If you don’t have a plan in place to survey customers and solicit direct feedback, you won’t be able to improve. Consider building in steps to gather direct feedback from your clients so that you can learn, adjust and improve. We have even developed an easy customer satisfaction survey tool to collect this feedback right away so that you can gauge customer satisfaction and continually improve your business. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us today at 888-576-6100.
