Your customers today might not be your customers tomorrow unless you earn the repeat purchase.
This future hinges on how your current interaction with this customer turns out.
One major killer of repeat purchases is how you handle complaints and problems today.
At a recent lunch, the soup I ordered was delivered a little cooler than I’d have liked. I got distracted with the rest of my meal and ignored the soup.
Near the end of our meal, the server asked if my soup was cold. She told us that their warmer had broken and they just realized the error.
She had anticipated my complaint and preemptively brought it up, before I mentioned it.
You can turn customer complaints into loyalty building opportunities.
This pattern would be well applied in your business. If you notice a problem, bring it up before the customer does. Don’t try to hide something and hope your customer doesn’t notice.
Not all customer complaints are expressed during the time your customer is interacting with you. Unspoken complaints can fester and turn into negative reviews or bad word of mouth to family and friends. Unresolved problems deny you the future repeat purchase the customer would have made.
Be forthright in explaining the problem to the customer.
If the customer already knows of the problem, you can have a discussion of how you’ll fix the issue.
If the customer doesn’t already know about the problem, you will appear as someone who is looking after their best interest.
Either way, you need to come with both the problem and how it will be fixed.
Warm up the soup. Offer a refund. Give an alternative. The solution you propose should be fair and acceptable to the customer.
Despite customer complaints or problems, you can earn the repeat purchase and a loyal customer by dealing with the situation effectively.