You’ve got your business plan approved, your finance is twinkling in your bank account and finally your business has been launched. The day has come to make your dream a reality and now it’s up and running, you’re done, right? Wrong. You are so far from done and making your business a headliner with customers is right now only in the beginning stages. Having a fancy logo will never matter, as long as your customers have no idea who you are. Building relationships with your customers is imperative, and if you don’t know that from the very beginning you are fighting a losing battle. You should be doing everything within your power to ensure that you have happy and loyal customers, because you could watch your business collapse simply by missing what it is that they want from you.

Businesses are currently ensconced in a digital world, meaning almost every single new kid company on the block that pops up every year is online. Being online means being accessible 24/7; whenever the customer needs your service, your business is right there to catch them with open arms and give them what they need. Without this type of all-round service, your company is going to slow right down and even fail. Customers recommending your services to others will point them in the direction of your website, and if your website isn’t up to scratch, people will hear all about it on reviews pages. People like to have a voice, and if your product is disappointing to anyone then people will hear about it. Your customers are going to make or break your company, and there’s no real getting away from that. The key is to ensure that they make it what it is and more, every single time. There’s no such thing as closing a sale when it comes to customers; you open relationships every time you ring up a purchase or provide a service. People want good quality, from the manufacturing to the packaging provided by Freund Container & Supply. If you are providing the right quality, you will always be successful with repeat customers who are loyal to you. If not, you won’t see out the year. Your focus should always be to convert your leads into long term, loyal customers where you can work on making what you do right for them.

You can think about how to pitch your product to your customers, and how you can present what it is you are offering to your customers. The thing is, your focus should really be on what comes after that: building customer relationships. These are vitally important for continued success and understanding exactly how your customers can be affected by not looking after them. Gaining a better relationship with your customers is going to help to cement your future as a business and we’ve got some tips to help you do that.

Exceeding Expectations

Customers love a company that go above and beyond for them. Sending discounts and vouchers in the post or via email is a nice idea, but if you want to be memorable you really do have to blow their minds. A very high level of service is necessary for continued development and customer retention. It’s great when people come back to you over and over again, but you have to give them a good reason why they should. You can’t just offer one freebie once, you have to give your loyal customers a good reason to continue coming back. People go to a company with a certain expectation when they want to buy a product, so they already have an idea of what they want from you. Meeting that expectation for the first time is the first step and chances are, you’ll already do that: they wouldn’t be loyal to you otherwise. The key is to continue exceeding their expectations in the future. Going out of your way to satisfy what they want is going to make your customers happy, even if they don’t know what they want just yet. Exceeding expectations comes in many ways. For example, you could have planned to have a two-day turnaround for delivery of a product, and yet you tell the customers to expect it in four days. You do this because then when their product arrives two days early, they believe you’ve gone out of your way to ensure that they are taken care of. It also ensures that should delays happen your side, you still have an extra couple of days to meet the deadline that you’ve set for yourself. If you make exceeding expectations the focus of your company, you will grow faster than you could expect.

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Strive For Sales

Customers come to you for a purpose: you have a solution to their problem. The thing is, customers often have needs that they haven’t worked out yet, meaning that there are more problems for you to solve right there in the form of other sales opportunities. It’s up to you to work out what they need and provide it. For some companies, asking customers what more they could do to improve the experience is a good way to be able to offer something else that they need. Customers will tell you what’s needed, and you can provide them with that. This type of relationship building only works if you are truly committed to keeping that customer on board with you, but you should never overlook potential sales opportunities if you can help it. The sales process doesn’t end just because you have won the sale. You need your customer to benefit from what you offer, and if you are actively seeking other opportunities for sales, they will benefit from that.

Problem Solving

Efficiency is everything for your business when it comes to customer services. If there is a problem, customers want it solved right then and there, and they want to know what you plan to do about it going forward in a compensatory sense. The customer is always right, even if they’re not, because your reputation as a business is on the line and you need to understand that. Every company plans for things to go smoothly, but it just doesn’t always go down that way. Problems are an inevitability in business: everything from shipping being delayed to a particular product malfunctioning happen. If the mistake that is made is your fault, then you need to work on rectifying that problem as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter what the cost is, you need to work on fixing the issue ASAP. Believe it or not, customers are far more understanding than you think, and if they know that you are fixing the issue and want to compensate them in apology, they will be the first to give you an impressed review. Always take as much responsibility as possible when a mistake occurs, because this will strengthen the bond that you have with your customer in the long run.

Consistent Value

Customers only become repeat customers when there is value to be had. If you are providing them with a consistent value, you will be able to keep them as customers long-term. You are an authority in what you do, and customers will be looking to you to ensure that you are living up to the expectations that you set. The goal for you is to make their life easy and if you are providing customers with the right value, then they’ll be loyal to you rather than going to your competition. Trust is so important and providing good value will help retain the faith that your customers have in the service that you provide them with.

Getting Referrals

Customers who love what you provide them will always have other people that they can recommend your service to. Companies that harvest referrals from their customers are those that can spend less on their advertising. The thing is, you want to be the type of company that doesn’t necessarily have to ask for referrals: you want the customers to refer you all on their own. Doing this means that they have faith in your service and feel that others should know more about it. Providing an excellent service and enough value to the customer will mean that they have no issue in putting your company name ahead to others easily. If you’re not sure if your customers are referring you, it does no harm to ask! Never be afraid of wanting to build your business and asking your customers for referrals gets you there.

Word of mouth can bring you an amazing success as a business, and if you are doing something well, customers won’t hesitate in coming back to you. The customer is always right when it comes to reviewing the companies that they have used, and you just have to look at websites like TripAdvisor to see that. Customers will always rely on the word of other customers before them, so give the best you’ve got!