A business’s lifeblood is its clients. This means that if a customer’s not happy — or worse if many customers are not happy — then nobody’s happy. While client dissatisfaction is not necessarily something businesses want to discuss, it is something that all businesses face. The harder part is going through the painful process of figuring out what is wrong, how to change it, and then doing so.
So when feedback, renewals, or reviews are low, how should business owners turn things around? To help, we asked experts from the Forbes Coaches Council for their insight on the steps necessary to ensure every customer experience is a five-star moment. Their best answers are below:
1. Look Within
Chances are an unhappy customer didn’t happen overnight, and the causes may run deeper than surface interactions. Conducting a company review or organized employee feedback loop is an important early step in evaluating what a company needs. The customer is the final stage in a complex chain of actions, so look within to determine what stage of your process and what people need the most attention. – Erik Fredrickson, Erik Fredrickson Coaching
2. Know The Needs Of Your Audience
It is important to go directly to the customers representing your target market and survey them to find out how they view your company and what they expect. Don’t sit back and wait for the customers to come to you. Being proactive in discovering your audience’s needs and concerns shows that you are invested in meeting and exceeding their expectations! – LaTasha Weatherspoon-Bailey, The Lifted Lifestyle
3. Provide A Memorable Experience
If your business struggles with unhappy customers, you must review your overall customer experience. Everyone in the company should know what the customer experience looks and feels like and be fully trained on it. If you don’t know or have a customer experience, you need to map it out and create a memorable customer experience your company can raise the bar on. – Jon Dwoskin, The Jon Dwoskin Experience
4. Treat Your Customer Service People Well
Customer service turnaround often starts with treating your customer service people very well. Begin to train them on the skills to move clients from anger to satisfaction. Catch your employees doing something right for the customer. Share great feedback from customers with the team. Remind them how your product/service makes a difference in people’s lives and the world and has a positive impact. – Bobbie Goheen, Synthesis Management Group
5. Take Real Action
Customer feedback and its impact can only truly be measured by change. Without collection, examination, and implementation, customer feedback is simply pointless. Barring any exceptional situation, it is safe to say that unless customer feedback is properly incorporated into actionable solutions consistently integrated into operational SOP, the input itself is not of much value. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group
6. Always Ask For Advice
Working with your customers and prospects is important to understand their idea of a five-star experience. However, be careful not to ask for opinions. Dr. Robert Cialdini rightly identifies that asking for opinions puts those who provide feedback into a critic’s mode. By asking for advice, we position our responder as an advocate. Do this, and your feedback will be far superior. – Jim Vaselopulos, Rafti Advisors, LLC
7. Put Yourself In Their Shoes
Improving customer service requires understanding the customer’s experience. Taking a human-centered, empathy-based approach to understanding the customer’s perspective is an important step toward transforming their experience. Immersing in the customer experience will reveal the needs and challenges they face. Reframing the problem from a customer focus will provide ideas for potential solutions. – Jonathan Silk, Bridge 3 LLC
8. Seek Feedback From Disgruntled Customers
Become truly curious about the issues and complaints customers have with your business. When you seek suggestions from disgruntled customers, be open to their criticism and look for patterns. You’ll inevitably find that the best market research comes from customers who’ve tried your business or service and were dissatisfied. Reward disgruntled customers for offering feedback. – Beth Kuhel, Get Hired, LLC
9. Leverage Employee Passion
Employee passion directly predicts customer devotion. When employees are excited about what they do, clear on roles and goals, and perceive that the organization treats coworkers and customers fairly, they serve customers well. Employees who feel forsaken or mistreated take it out on the customer. Leaders who want to make customers happy must consider how they treat their employees. – Lisa Zigarmi, The Consciousness Project, LLC
10. Say You Are Sorry
Customer retention begins with customer trust. When a company has lost a customer’s faith, the company can rebuild trust by issuing an apology about where the customer’s experience failed. Companies need to learn the art of the apology. An apology recognizes the customer’s feelings and concerns, which is the first step in restoring the relationship. – Ken Gosnell, CEO Experience
11. Focus On The Lesson
Constructive feedback from clients, whether negative or positive, is important. It’s important in a client-service industry to listen to your clients’ needs. It’s the way you act after a setback in a relationship that helps you to progress forward. Ask your client: what can I do better, and what do you need from me? Go the extra mile for them, and you will see transformation happen. – Wendi Weiner, Esq., The Writing Guru®
