- Buffer
Making Customers Adore You Like An Old Friend
Do your customers adore you? Running a business has never been easy. Years ago it used to be a lot more simple. You provided a good service, and if people liked it, they kept coming back. But in the age of social media, where any one person can send a tweet or a Facebook post that lets the entire world know how they feel about your business at the speed of a broadband connection, it takes a bit more than that. You can’t just be good, you also have to be likeable.
Fortunately, being likeable doesn’t require a multi-million dollar PR campaign or hiring a pricey consultant. You can make more of your customers get the warm fuzzies when they think about you. Just by making a few tweaks to how you handle your marketing and customer service can make the difference for customers to adore you.
1) Engage On Social Media To Make Customers Adore You
2) Make Canceling/Returning Simple
Some companies, in an attempt to cut down on the number of cancellations and returns, force customers to cut through a lot of red tape. This will NOT help make customers adore you. The hope is that some customers will simply choose to keep the product rather than go through the extra obstacles. While that might be a short term revenue bump, it will create more long-term problems. Since the loudest customers are usually the least satisfied, frustrating customers who are already unhappy with your company will only spread bad word of mouth.
For example, the people search engine site, Instant Checkmate, created an entire website for members who want to cancel their service. They sometimes even cancel for customers who privately message them on Facebook. Giving extra attention to customers, even the ones who don’t want to be customers any more, shows that you’re an honest and transparent company. This will make customers adore you.
3) Solicit Ideas and Actually Use Them
Everybody loves someone who listens to them. And an easy way to show that you actually value your customers’ voice is by asking them for ideas on how to improve your business. Hold an idea contest. You can then offer a small prize, like an Amazon gift card, to the winner. Take the best (and easiest to execute) one. Then brag about how much Customer X’s idea has improved your operations. All of a sudden you’re not just a business that serves customers, you’re also a business created by customers – customers adore you for that one.
4) Surprise Them
If you give people more than what they were expecting, even if the added value is small, they will sing your praises to anyone within earshot. Simple things like unexpected gifts, free upgrades, and other goodies that show them you actually care about making people happy. People are accustomed to being handed the bare minimum. Sometimes customers will even expect fighting to get what they paid for. Even tiny upgrades to your product or service will feel huge to them, and set you apart from your competitors. Your customers will adore you for it!
How do you find companies that are likeable? Do your customers adore you?
1st Image courtesy of stay2gether / 2nd Image courtesy of Master isolated images / Both via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
