It’s not that long ago that people’s purchasing options were limited to the shops in their local area. With the advent of the internet, though, buying goods from China feels much like buying something from Chester. This means that even companies that existed in relatively niche markets face competition from other businesses all over the world.
In situations like this, one of the best ways you can stand out is by having better customer service than your competitors.
Employee Training
In many ways, your employees are the heart and soul of your company. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses that make up the building blocks of your business.
Additional staff training should be one of the first things you consider investing in if you’re serious about improving customer satisfaction. Everything from their communication skills, critical thinking, and product knowledge can be focused on to create a better balanced and stronger workforce.
Similarly, it’s important to recognise the negative effects your employees can suffer from. Verbal abuse from angry customers can place a large psychological toll, especially those not trained to effectively handle the situation.
Social Media
Social media isn’t simply about catching up with old friends from school. It’s also a powerful tool that allows your company to interact directly with consumers.
Interacting with companies directly through their Facebook or Twitter profile is a huge improvement over the frustrating, multi-step customer support systems that we had to deal with in the past. As well as soliciting important user feedback about your products, you can also reward your customers with free trials, discount codes, or the chance to participate in competitions.
Whatever kind of company you run, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t have some kind of social media presence in the modern business landscape.
Shipping Options
Finally, how you handle shipping may not be an area of your business that you’ve put much thought into, but it plays a large part in how consumers view you. Sloppy packaging, shipping delays, and high prices will all reflect poorly on your customer satisfaction rates.
Offering your customers as many shipping options as possible is a great way to help you stand out from the crowd. For instance, 83% of shoppers are willing to wait an extra day or two to receive an online order if they get free delivery. Meanwhile, in an Econsultancy survey, almost half of those asked said they were more likely purchase online if they were able to pick it up-in store.
