How to Improve Your Customer Experience
Customer experience, so often overlooked, but such an important part of any business growth plan! Every interaction you have with customers contributes towards customer experience. Improving customer experience has two objectives: (1) Customer acquisition, and (2) Customer retention. The first refers to acquisition of new customers for your company. The second is about ensuring the loyalty of old customers.
Think about it - how many times do most businesses bother taking the customer's point of view? How often does your firm go out and ask customers if they found something lacking in your products or if they had suggestions on how to improve your services? Today, the customer-vendor relationship has different dynamics from even a generation back - with the market flooded with competing goods and services, it is important to have a niche in your customer's good books. It pays rich dividends later.
Not Just For Customer Care People
Because customer experience embraces every aspect of the direct and indirect interaction between your business and your customers, your employees have to be trained in customer management. This goes for ALL employees, not only those working as customer care executives. If you run an IT firm, programmers need to understand customer viewpoint to develop products that can fit into their business cycle. Encourage people from various departments to visit customers and see how they use your products in real life settings.
Involve Them From The First Stage
Phone surveys and email questionnaires are passé - many customers might even find them annoying. Instead, schedule meetings with regular customers, particularly if your products are targeted at other businesses rather than individual users. Involving your clients from product designing stage ensures better customer experience.
Product Quality Matters
In a bid to advertise your product, don’t forget that the quality of your product counts. One disgruntled customer can spread the word easily (think internet reviews and forums) and take away 10 potential customers. Poor products and services don’t just put off potential customers, they also force existing customers too look elsewhere. Contrary to what your PR agent or advertising person might have told you, customers don’t stick to a brand because of glossy ads and freebies - they look for reliability in a product/service. If your product lacks that, no amount of PR glitz can turn that negative customer experience into a positive one without considerable spending on your part (think of the complimentary services you have to offer to irate customers to keep them as patrons).
About the Author:Myself webmaster of http://www.2touch.co.uk - customer lifecycle company, find inbound & outbound telephony services, hand enclosing, envelope enclosing services & call centres services by customer experience experts.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Improve Your Customer Experience