Keeping your customers loyal

By Beth Pratt
Small Business

Excellent customer service is the lifeblood of any business.

You can use coupons, hold promotions and slash prices to bring in new customers, but unless those customers come back, it is very unlikely your business will be successful. During challenging economic times it is critical to have a plan to keep your customers loyal and returning. Here are a few tips to keep customers coming back.

• Make sure your expectations to employees are clear and written down. Use elements of customer service in creating job descriptions and in developing your customer service action plan. During interviews, look for attributes that will help the applicant be successful in delivering good service. After training your employees, reinforce and role model good customer service attributes. Ensure excellence is praised and rewarded. Employees who do not deliver good service should receive close training and coaching from you until they improve.

• Ensure your operations support good customer service. A great, well-mannered employee can’t save you if the floors are dirty, the goods are faulty or the service is slow. Regularly appraise your business from the customer’s perspective. Sit on the “other side of the counter” or otherwise put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Enlist your employees in this to get their perspective and expand their awareness and ownership of customer service.

• Trained employees in customer problem resolution and empower employees to act immediately to resolve customer issues. This is an area that ranks highest among consumers when rating customer service, and where businesses are most likely to fail. Develop a process for resolving customer complaints that clearly demonstrates this commitment, and leaves room for employees to act independently.

• Talk and listen to your customers. Call a few days after a transaction and ask them what they liked and what they would like to see improved. Build the relationship and listen for new wants and needs your company can satisfy. Aim to make them so happy about your company that they enthuse about your business to their family and friends.

Successful companies view delivering good customer service as a process, not an result. They constantly review all facets of customer interactions for value and relevance, and use what they learn to refine and improve how they do business and deliver on their promise of service.

Napa Valley College Small Business Development Center and the Napa Chamber of Commerce will host a Wake up Your Business Breakfast: Strategize and Plan For Loyalty!

The training will take place at the Napa Chamber of Commerce Board Room on April 15, 7:30-9:30 a.m. The cost is $20 and includes breakfast and the opportunity to network with business owners.

The training will cover the basics of developing a customer service plan. Participants will learn tips, strategies and techniques for achieving customer loyalty by delivering excellent customer service. If you retain 70 percent of your customers and you start a program to improve that to 80 percent, you’ll add an additional 10 percent to your growth rate.

For more information call 253-3210.

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