Most know that trust breeds customer loyalty. Companies spend much on advertising, branding, and product improvement to secure the customers’ trust. Yet one loyalty driver is often overlooked — trusting us, the customers!
Showing that you trust us creates a psychological bond that keeps us coming back.
It validates us.
It shows tremendous respect.
It makes us want to do business with you.
It makes it easy for us to do business with you.
It draws us to you with energy equal to that of surprise and fun.
Show us, your customers, that you trust us:
Use More Open-Ended Questions on Satisfaction Surveys
Management’s need for customer satisfaction metrics is understandable. Yet the quest for these numbers has created a trust defying practice – countless multiple choice questions telling us what’s important instead of asking us what’s important. If we are lucky, we get one text box at the end of the survey asking us what we think.
Sponsor a contest asking us, your customers, to design your customer satisfaction survey. It shows trust in our perspective and you will unearth what we really care about.
Focus On Us Before Your Procedures.
A procedural focus at the start of an interaction says you believe you know more than us, the customers. You may be doing it to speed the process yet the impression is domineering and non-listening. The first thing you ask us for should not be our member number or login id. It should be our name and what we need. We are people not numbers in your database. Consider that when you control too much, you show mistrust.
Hassle-free Return Policies
One of the easiest ways to show trust is to make returns easy. Why do we, the customers, have to fill out a form giving extensive personal information and a reason for the return? We don’t want to be grilled like a shish kebob just because we want our money back. There are brick and mortar retail stores doing this and it is insulting. To get us to repeatedly return to your brand, make it easy for us to return a product.
About the Author – Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach for 20 years delivers strategic and tactical steps to turn interaction obstacles into customer loyalty wins for your business. Large corporations and mid-size enterprises have been Kate’s loyal customers for two decades.
Read her Smart SenseAbilities blog to improve your customer service and teamwork and see http://katenasser.com for the latest workshops and training DVD information. You can reach Kate at her company, CAS, Inc. 908.595.1515 USA.