“The customer is always right.” That’s a mantra that many detest, but it’s still valid if you’re a business that wants to maximize profits. However, what’s changed over the years is that it’s gotten harder to meet the increasingly high expectations of customers.
These expectations are often set by powerful companies that can afford to run at a loss until they gain a large market share. Sadly, the downside to this tactic is that the average business owner must meet expectations that are often brazen and unrealistic. That’s the nature of business today– you have to play the hand you’re dealt.
If you want to succeed, you need to create happy customers, and in this article, we’ll look at three ways to do exactly that.
1. Rethink Your Approach to Customer Support
According to Gallup, increasing customer engagement can unlock a 10% increase in net profit, 25% more loyalty, and a 66% increase in sales. Yet, companies make so many mistakes in providing good customer support. The fact is, many people make up their minds about a business when they call up the customer care number.
They’ve got a problem, and it’s likely an important one to them. When your representatives answer their calls, the entire approach needs to combine empathy with a genuine effort to help.
Empathy Only Works With Genuine Support
Customer support fails when you try to manipulate frustrated customers with stock phrases that aren’t backed up with real help. Sadly, many companies focus on being ‘empathetic’ because it’s easier to implement than providing genuinely good service.
What these businesses fail to realize is that creating happy customers has so many unexpected positive side effects that it’s worth the effort. For example, McKinsey notes that increasing customer satisfaction by at least 20% can lead to an increase in cross-selling rates by up to 25%.
So put in the effort to understand where customer frustrations stem from. One common source is problems with transactions and purchases. In all honesty, there are few things more frustrating to a customer than transactions that result in delays and errors. You need to do what it takes to get to the core of these problems to solve them.
That might mean many things. It could mean finding a good guide to payment processing and learning how to prevent transaction errors and delays from happening in the first place. It could also mean completely overhauling your payment processing system– expensive, but necessary if you’re bleeding customers through transaction issues. Once that’s done, the next point becomes crucial.
2. Deliver On Your Promises- Even if You Need to Charge More
Take the example of FedEx vs USPS. If you want to ship a parcel and have it delivered the next day, FedEx is more expensive. Their ‘Priority Overnight’ charges start at around $41.20 and go up from there. Meanwhile, USPS promises the same next-day shipping service for about $31.55.
The difference is that with FedEx, that parcel is almost always reaching its destination on time when compared to USPS. It’s not surprising then that in 2024, FedEx sees a profit of $4.3 billion while USPS is in a $9.5 billion loss.
Of course, there are many other factors at play, but the point here is that delivering on promises matters. If your company cannot deliver, then your number one priority should be to adjust factors until you can. The fact is that customers would rather pay a premium and go to your competitor if it means getting what they want.
Meanwhile, you may be undercutting your profits to offer lower rates, but those efforts go to waste if you don’t deliver on promises. So, it’s not a bad idea to charge more if that means the end-user experience matches what your customer expects.
3. Be Genuine and Open In Communication
While you might think this only fits into the context of troubleshooting and conflict resolution, it actually plays a role everywhere. People are tired of the ambiguous and vague information that companies often spew. They’re also tired of having to ask for information that should be available easily.
Think about it: how many times have you been annoyed by a business that refuses to give out the price of a product or service online? They say, “Contact us for a quote,” but this ends up frustrating people more than anything.
From your perspective as a business, there may be logical reasons for these decisions, but this isn’t about you; this is about the customer.
So, if that means having to state something like, “Prices for x begin at # depending on ABC factors,” that’s far better. Similarly, if a customer wants to know how long a delivery or project will take, be honest and state the facts. It’s always better to underpromise yet deliver high than the other way around. Doing so helps rebuild some of the trust that businesses need to win back from people.
All things considered, creating satisfied customers is something you need to see as an investment. Some people believe that your goal shouldn’t even be to work toward profits; instead, it’s to satisfy customers. When you do that, profit comes naturally.
Yes, it’s difficult and will likely strain your resources, but it pays off in the end.
