Customer Satisfaction Is Your Business

Regardless of what business you are in - you are really in the business of satisfying customers. The degree of customer satisfaction you deliver determines the level of long-term success you will achieve in business.

Make Customer Satisfaction Your Top Priority

Don't just make sales. Create customers - satisfied customers. In addition to the immediate profit they provide on the first sale, satisfied customers help you build your business in 2 other important ways:

1. They become a reservoir of repeat buyers. For some businesses that means repeat buyers for more of the same product or service. For every business, it means buyers for additional products and services.

2. They automatically refer more business to you from their friends and business contacts. This is highly profitable business for you because it doesn't cost you any time or money to get it.

Never Promise More Than You Deliver

Never make any promises you can't (or won't) keep. Nothing alienates customers faster than getting something less than they expect from a business transaction. They won't do business with you again. And they will tell everybody they know about their unhappy experience - causing you to lose future customers.

Tip: Handle customer complaints quickly and with a positive attitude. Strive to preserve your relationship with the complaining customer instead of your immediate profit from them. They will reward you later with more sales and referrals.

Always Give Customers More Than They Expect

"Over deliver" on quality and service. Always exceed your customers' expectations. You will win their long term loyalty. It also makes it difficult for competitors to steal customers from you - even if they have lower prices. Customers will not risk an uncertain experience with a competitor when they know they will get more than they expect from you.

Tip: Surprise your customers with unexpected value. If you sell products, include an "unadvertised bonus" with every order. If you sell services, get into the habit of doing something extra for every customer or client without charging for it.

Let customers know how much you value them.

Let your customers know you are always thinking about them. Communicate with them regularly. For example, create some special deals just for your existing customers. And announce new products or services to them before you announce them to the general market.

Tip: Convert your customers into publicity agents. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper.

For example, reward them each time they refer someone who becomes a customer. Your reward can be as simple as a credit toward their next order from you.

You are in the business of satisfying customers regardless of what products or services you provide. The satisfied customers you create will help you build your business by becoming repeat buyers and by referring new business to you from their friends and associates.

Copyright 2004 Bob Leduc

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

---

If Everyone Thinks They Give Good Service, Why Do We As Customers Think Its Poor!

First of all let's look at what customer service is all about.If you go into a shop and talk to anyone who works there you expect to... Read More

Making Your Contacts Work For You

The best way to explain this concept is to tell you a story. While calling for lease purchasing property, I spoke with an older widowed woman. I... Read More

How to Retain Your Customers the Dish Network Way

Customer retention is vital to a business. If you cannot retain your customers you will be continually losing current customers and always on the search for new... Read More

Quality vs. Quantity

There is a battle in Call Centers. The teams are Quality vs. Quantity; two performance factors that don't seem to get along.? Representative Super Speedy says, "I've... Read More

RETAIL GREETERS: Sales Builders or Customer Turnoff?

Do you need greeters or should you avoid them? That is the perplexing question many retail organizations are struggling with today. Often touted in the press as... Read More

Are You Putting Technology Before Your Customers?

Which is more important the technology or the customer?The one thing about the online world you can be sure of is change. It seems like every day... Read More

You Bever Know Who Youre Serving

You Never Know Who You're Serving when customers turn irate.I think of myself as a reasonable person. It takes a lot to upset me, but upset I... Read More

Customers - Hold Onto the Ones Youve Got

You probably spend a great deal of your time looking for new customers or clients. However, are you sure your doing enough to hold onto the ones... Read More

Is Your Food Establishment Clean?

Is your restaurant, bar or hotel clean? I mean really clean. I don't mean "do you stick to all the rules and regulations?". I mean, do you... Read More

Outsourcing: The Unspoken Costs

Outsourcing seems to be the new-new thing and approximately 50% of our major corporations are doing it. What are the costs? The benefits? And what skills need... Read More

Customer Service and Call Center Outsourcing, Whats The Buzz?

The buzz is all about customer service and call center outsourcing, also known as BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). According to Gartner, the outsourcing market in Europe has... Read More

Moments That Matter

Many years ago, I was a first year apprentice assigned the task of pressure washing a set of condensing coils on the roof of a grocery store... Read More

From Disgruntled to Champion - How to Turn an Unhappy Client Into Your Best Customer

It's a salesperson's worst nightmare- the phone call that comes in from a disgruntled customer. Not only does it create extra work for you, but it cuts... Read More

The Number 1 Rule for Businesses - Be Professional

Have you ever walked into a store and things looked sloppy? Stores should have nice neat displays, right? Normally, yes, but sometimes they get a bit messy... Read More

Communicating Value

Abstract: People buy for their reasons, not yours. This article covers the key elements that prospects want to hear you talk about.Always, but especially during lean times,... Read More

Automating Your Customer Support

My regular readers will know that one of the things I highly recommend doing with any online business is automating as many of your day to day... Read More

Renewing Customer Loyalty

Every business loses customers, but not many do much about getting them back. And that is a big mistake. Studies show that the average business looses 20... Read More

Your Actions Tell Your Clients How You Expect To Be Treated

There is a widely accepted principle of human behavior that goes something like this. "Your actions tell the world how you expect to be treated." Look all... Read More

The Logic of Emotion!

Homebuyers are an interesting study. Watching people make their home buying decisions has brought me to the conclusion that every decision that every one of us makes... Read More

Customer Service A Chickens Way

Anyone who knows me knows my favorite fast food restaurant is Chick-fil-A. Aside from the fact their chicken is especially good and I can always get sweet... Read More

Hook Me Up With A Human

Oh, what has happened to the carbon-based organizational interface? Many organizations have digitized humans ? aka carbon-based units - out of existence in their customer service operations.... Read More

The Death of the Loyal Customer

One of my classes in management focused on the repeat customer. The course stressed the importance of the repeat customer to the financial welfare of the business.... Read More

One Critical Question to Ask Yourself Every Day

What happened to the old saying, the customer is always right? I'll bet every one of you reading this article has a "customer service nightmare" story to... Read More

Customer Service, the Internets Primary Neglected Business Concern

Customer service is everything to a business. Just look at big, successful retail chains: They let you return perfectly good merchandise just because you changed your mind.... Read More

Customer Service - Winning Customer Experiences

Winning Customer ExperiencesMuch research has been done on what the makes a winning customer experience. What is it that makes customers come back to your business instead... Read More

Businesses Need to Rehumanise

Big companies and corporations have lost the human touch. The question is, when will humanity catch on, or like robotic sheep will we do whatever the business... Read More