Customer satisfaction is one of the top factors that lead to success or failure of your business. Business is all about the customers (the market). Your service or product must solve your client’s problem. Failure to this, you risk losing them and worse, having them discourage others from consuming what  you have to offer. It is therefore important that you learn what you need to do to improve on your customer satisfaction factor.

The quality of your customer service is very key. No matter how long you have served a customer, they will drop you for another business person the moment you will dare take them for granted. What do I want to say? Your customers, even the loyal ones don’t care a thing about your business growth. They have only come to you because you can deliver what they require. The moment you stop doing so, you will be left completely alone because even your business will be a history.

How to?

1. Get Feedback

Never assume anything where customer care is concerned. Have a custom of asking your clients how they find your services. If for instance, you make fresh juice, don’t just assume that everybody like everything about it. Ask them how they feel you can improve your juice to serve them better. This exercise doesn’t mean that they will give you things to improve on, but you can be sure it will make them feel highly valued. They will be more confident to refer your friends to you. You can do this via the phone, email or on a one-on-one conversation- just plan on how to.

2. Prepare a Customers’ Chat Session

You will need to conduct what is called, a focus groups survey. Bring a group of your customers together and let them have an open-ended chat session. Allow them to discuss your company/business; what they like, they don’t like, they feel can be done better and even any specific times they felt their expectations weren’t met. Be careful not to argue your reasons  or justify yourself lest they think you called them to lure them to your thinking. Just listen, take notes and thank them for their time.

3. Review Customer Complaints and Compliments

Doing this will help you identify areas you need to work on so as to improve. Studying feedback keenly also gives you new ideas on other things you can do or new ways you can employ to do the same things for better results. If you need an expert in this analysis, do not hesitate to involve them.

4. Have a special customer hotline

There are always those clients who will never be completely honest with you with an identity. Setting up a voice-recording  hotline for them will enable them offer their feedback in anonymity. Be ready to receive some strange messages that might not be sensible to your business.  It is your work to sort what you find helpful to you and see what to do to have your customers satisfied.

5. Be Your Best Competitor’s Customer

You can decide to hire a mystery shopper to visit or call your competitor for a product or a service.  This way, you will learn how they do business and strategize on how to do it better. You will also learn how they treat their customers and see what you can borrow from them.

Customer satisfaction should be the number one objective of every business person. Whether you are dealing with services or products, you are in that business because you have customers- keep them!