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.
Great post from Kate Nasser! Trusting the customer is the key to so many interactions. Where I see this as most critical is when dealing with any sort of service recovery (similar to your mention of return policies).
Often times, managers approach customers with a complaint with an air of distrust or defensiveness. Guess what? Customers sense that, and they can go from mildly concerned to angry quickly if they feel as though they’re not being fully respected.
Trust should be the first step in any company / customer interaction – it will lead to a much more positive relationship.
thanks
Pam (@pamelamaeross)
@Pam – good point, any escalation to management should bring a fresh attitude and perspective to a conflict situation. It should be like hitting “reset” on the emotions and working on solving the problem at hand.
Brilliant advice! You really nail it on the head. Loyalty is a two-way street and many businesses just don’t understand that. This video offers some great insights companies can use to create a superior service culture http://www.upyourservice.com/video-theater/how-do-you-build-and-sustain-a-superior-service-culture. Trust can only enhance the process!
Kate,
Your post is a very timely reminder of the importance of customer loyalty and asking your customers for feedback. Customer loyalty is invaluable -and supermarkets are expert at rewarding such loyalty with discounts. From a marketing perspective, it costs much less for businesses to get a new customer by way of loyal customers referring their families and friends than the business would pay if acquiring customers from advertising. Some estimate this range between 7 and 17 times less through customer loyalty.
Open ended questions do lead to very useful information -both on what’s working well and what needs to improve. Customer surveys and getting feedback from loyal customers can lead to new customers -as one of my small business coach clients (printers) found out a few weeks ago when doing their first customer service survey, it can result in gaining a major new client based on a referral from a loyal customer.
Veronica
Business Coach & Mentor
Author of ebook ’52 Tips for Communicating with Customers’
http://bit.ly/r4qGDj
@Veronica – I love open ended questions for my customers. I always learn so much more with them than when I try to guess what multiple choices I should ask.
I am gratified by the comments you have all shared for it shows tremendous insight and commitment to outstanding customer service. When I wrote this post I spoke from many experiences that — oddly enough — I trust you have shared too!
Many thanks and I invite all of you to comment on my customer service posts at my blog.
Warmest regards,
Kate Nasser
The People-Skills Coach