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In a perfect world, all your customers would be thrilled with your products, services, and company. These customers would share their enthusiasm with friends, family, social media contacts, and ideally, through positive customer reviews.
In reality, not all customers are always delighted.
So, how can you increase customer satisfaction when they're not as enthusiastic as you'd like? Below, we describe some approaches to achieve this.
Analyze Your Customers to Plan Targeted Actions
Ask yourself and your customers what problems might arise during the customer journey, what might prevent a purchase, and what ultimately convinces them to buy.
With this detailed customer analysis, you can create the buyer persona for your company—the ideal customer and your alpha target group. Align your business with this target group, and you'll have taken the first steps toward gaining new, happy customers.
Reading Recommendation: The following short guide “How to understand your target group” shows how valuable customer feedback can be.
Communicate Directly and On a Personal Level with Your Buyer Persona
Once you've identified your ideal customer, it's essential to speak their language.
Evaluate whether to stick with the formal "Sie" or, if your buyer persona belongs to a younger generation, use the informal "Du".
Other incentives, such as social share buttons, the language used in product descriptions, or offering additional complementary products can, when tailored to your buyer persona, enhance your customers' sense of belonging.
Satisfaction is Contagious
Satisfied employees naturally create satisfied customers.
Therefore, ensure that your employees are trained in effective customer communication to handle customers confidently.
Additionally, ensure the well-being of your employees through health-promoting workspaces, training and sports programs, employee discussions, as well as providing fruits and beverages at the workplace.
Your employees' enthusiasm will transfer to your customers.
Recommended reading: Our blog article “Reasons why customer experiences are the next competitive battlefield” shows how important it is to infect your customers with satisfaction.
Stay Accessible and Act Responsively
Don't forgo essential tools to provide precise, quick, and easy service—your customers will appreciate it.
With a live chat function, you are directly accessible when the customer is making a purchase decision and can prevent drop-offs due to uncertainty.
Automated email responses can signal that the customer inquiry has been received and is being processed. Responding within minutes, if possible, shortens the gap between expectation and need, keeping you positively remembered.
Satisfaction is Mutual
Give your customers more than they expect to receive more from them.
Products, fast delivery, and good service are not the only pillars for generating a satisfied customer. Offer them more than just your products and services, for example, through a thematically relevant blog that provides information on products, trends, and the industry in general.
Helpful links, such as those providing background information, also help to offer your customers added value. This generates a sense of belonging and addresses their needs.
With discount codes or exclusive information that customers receive through your newsletter, you complete the package.
Unhappy Customers Aren't the End of the World
If you receive negative feedback, see it as an opportunity. Interact directly with the customer, address their complaint, and find out the reasons for their dissatisfaction.
The use of the Net Promoter Score is very helpful here, as it allows you to identify and contact the detractor, the unhappy customer, directly. With periodic satisfaction surveys at key touchpoints, such as a support request or a purchase, you can use NPS to see when and in what context the customer's satisfaction began to decline. This also helps you identify and improve problem areas within your offerings.
With these simple tips and measures, you can make your customers even happier. It's not crucial to receive only positive product reviews; as long as you always listen, respond, and have satisfied customers, you'll continue to gain new happy customers.
Recommended reading: If this article helped you and you would like to learn more about the role of NPS in shaping the customer experience, continue reading here: "The role of NPS in customer experience (CX)"