Successful service-centric businesses have perfected the art of retaining clients.
Arnoux Maré, co-owner of MJL Communications and CEO of Innovative Solutions Group (ISG)
Crucially, a consistent client base is key to ensuring that companies have a stable, continuous income, as attaining new clients is often time-consuming and costly in terms of marketing expenses. Improving client experiences should therefore be every company’s utmost priority.
Additionally, clients will often switch providers out of service dissatisfaction. For example, a 2022 survey by Zendesk of more than 97,500 consumers globally revealed that as many as 61% of respondents were willing to switch to a competitor after just one negative experience. But something as simple as a smile, a friendly tone, quick response time, and a willingness to go the extra mile can leave a lasting positive impression on the client, ensuring that they return in the future.
A premium customer experience therefore directly translates to a strong competitive edge. This is how companies can build resilience and grow their market presence – such as MJL Communications, which has successfully operated in the extremely competitive telecommunications industry for over 28 years.
The good news for companies looking to gain the upper hand is that there are a few things they can do to improve:
Research and understand your clients
The first step to improving customer experience is understanding your clients’ needs and expectations. Spend time researching your market to uncover prospective clients’ likes, dislikes, needs and expectations, and uncover the client experience mistakes that your competition may be making.
From here, find ways to optimise client service through responsiveness, customer-related technology, and feedback or follow-up systems in your business.
Utilising technology
By investing in customer service-oriented software and engagement tools, businesses can make customer communication more efficient and build meaningful relationships faster.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software, for example, offers tools designed to streamline client interactions, individualise experiences, provide the business with pertinent client information, and create better cohesion between company departments.
Provide clients with multiple communication channels, such as email, web chat, social media, a telephone helpline, self-help systems, and digital service feedback systems. Used together with CRM tools, these can help employees to promptly respond to client enquiries and resolve any issues.
Additionally, ensure that your internal technologies operate efficiently by installing stable, high traffic internet connection in your offices alongside voice recording apparatus and storage solutions from MJL Communications to build out your CRM database.
Streamline processes
A key cause of client dissatisfaction comes from dealing with slow processes and feedback. Streamlining processes from checkout to delivery can help to reduce client frustration and increase satisfaction.
To streamline your operations, you could consider automating initial business-to-client responses online, improving employee and departmental coordination, identifying and removing any redundant employee tasks, and providing staff training to increase work speed and effectiveness.
Adopt a value-added approach
Clients are more satisfied when they receive additional benefits. Introducing value-added services such as discount offerings, free advice or free shipping can set you apart from the competition and make your business clients’ first choice.
This will help to make your customers feel valued and show them that you are putting in extra effort to provide the best service possible.
Provide employees with client-service training
Beyond providing enhanced operational training, employees can benefit considerably from client relationship training and education.
Staff can be taught to be more courteous, to act professionally in a variety of difficult situations, to respond intelligibly to enquiries, and to go the extra mile to ensure that customers enjoy a positive experience.
A few small internal changes spread across the business can vastly improve client experiences, helping you to retain a greater number of loyal clients and increasing profits over the long-term.