How to Create Brand Evangelists for Your Business

Posted on: May 15th, 2017 in guide, Mindset by Pat Mesiti | No Comments

I recently ordered a pair of swimming goggles online. I was after a particular brand and the only company I could find that sold them was based in the UK. When my package arrived from England, I tore open the wrapping. There were my new goggles and two little heart-shaped chocolates. Now I believe in good customer service, but I was surprised that a google retailer in Britain found it necessary to send me heart-shaped chocolates. What do you consider to be good customer service? We always recognise bad customer service. It’s the shop assistant that keeps talking on her mobile while you stand at the counter. It’s when you call a company and are connected to a recorded message that gives you meaningless information but never the option to talk to an actual person!

This year I’ve been encouraging people to turn their passion into profit. The internet has made it easier than ever before to go into business for yourself. But if you are considering any sort of venture, you must deliver good customer service. There are many similarities between quality customer service online and off-line. In a shop to keep customers you have to respond to them in a personal way but people are now shopping in many different ways. They visit shops, garage sales, online sites, markets and also order from TV shopping shows. However people still expect to receive a consistent quality standard of service across all channels – they expect to be treated decently.

Customers are increasingly buying goods online, yet most people still enjoy interacting with sales staff while shopping, so they look for an online company that cares about their needs. Most online shoppers love Facebook and expect companies to have a Facebook page. To online shoppers a company’s social media activities are a form of customer service. That means that companies don’t just need to be online, they also need to be ‘on’ (ie responding to customers) all the time! Interacting with your customers online is a way of building up their trust. According to one survey I read, 90% of online shoppers will boycott any brand that fails to respond to complaints on social media sites like Facebook.

If you are setting up an online business, customers must be able to contact you through you website. That same survey showed that 90% of customers go to a company’s website before phoning or emailing. You need to respond to customers’ queries as soon as possible. The average company response time for online correspondence is 17 hours. If you don’t have a shopfront and rely on ecommerce, be prepared to spend a lot of time answering queries – it must be a priority! You don’t just have to respond with an online message. If a customer has a serious concern, pick up the phone and call them. A human voice may allay their concerns.

Never allow customers to post comments on your website un-vetted. You must be the gatekeeper and ensure every comment is suitable for publication. Would it be possible to have a chat room on your site? Will you use Twitter? Your customers also need to be able to email and ideally phone you. Have you thought about a webinar for your homepage? Uploading a video to your site means customers can see your face and hear your voice.

You should regularly search Google, Bing and Yahoo to see what your customers are saying about your business. If there are false statements about your company on a social media site, you must ask the site to remove them. You can’t afford bad publicity and untrue, unflattering comments are defamatory. You are entitled to take legal action if your brand has been damaged.

Many large corporations regularly provide extra services in the hope that customers will comment about them on social media. If a flight is delayed the airlines might hand out bottled water and snacks so people comment about the caring airline staff on social media. Positive reviews on social media are a wonderful form of advertising.

Remember everything you do should be for your customers. They are your most precious commodity. The customer is always right! The number one reason people boycott a businesses is because they were treated badly by staff. They may forgive a product failing, but they won’t forgive rudeness. People are also more likely to talk about a bad customer experience than a good one. An angry dissatisfied customer tells up to 15 people. A happy customer tells only about five friends. However, a dissatisfied customer is unlikely to tell the offending company about the poor treatment. According to Kissmetrics, only 4% of unhappy customers tell company management they’ve been mistreated by staff.

Even if you are an online business, you must get to know your customers. If you’ve had online correspondence, keep the messages and emails in a file or use a CRM system. Write notes about your customers. People go to shops that offer a personal service – the same is true for websites. Successful interactions start with knowing what your customers need. That is why big companies track visits to their site. Web analytics are becoming more and more important. Web analytics are the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of webpage visits to better understand web page use. Some web analytic software reveals a lot about site visitors, including their email addresses and full web search history. If you think it will help boost customer numbers and improve online service there are some web analytic services you can subscribe to on a monthly basis.

When it comes to online customer service, you need to wow your clients. You must provide a service that knocks their socks off. I guess that’s why I received heart-shaped chocolates from my British goggles’ retailer – and, hey, I’m still talking and blogging about it!

ABOUT PAT MESITI

Pat Mesiti is a best-selling author, coach and educator in the area of personal development. Having built some of Australia’s largest people-driven organisations, Pat understands the power of harnessing human potential. He has shared the stage with some of the world’s great business minds and has sold over millions of copies of his books and materials.

 

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