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Tips To Protect Your Business Reputation

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Business Reputation|Tips To Protect Your Business ReputationIn the age of social media, 24-hour news and online reviews, it has never been more important to protect your business reputation. Customers and clients make decisions based on who they can trust and the perceptions they have of different brands. In this guide, we’ll explore some steps you can take to shield your reputation.

Positive reviews

Nine out of ten consumers read online reviews before purchasing products or contacting businesses. Positive reviews can persuade customers to buy from your business rather than a rival and they can also enhance your reputation. If a brand has a large number of excellent reviews, this makes them appear more dependable and trustworthy. Customer service, product quality and value for money are driving factors. If you provide high-quality products or services that offer good value for money and your customers enjoy a positive experience, they will be more likely to leave you glowing reviews. Use feedback to identify shortfalls or problems and make improvements, address concerns promptly, and go the extra mile to optimize service and support. It’s wise to invest in staff training and provide responsive support options, such as live chat.

Working with businesses you trust

Many businesses rely on other companies to provide customers with products and services. If you are doing deals with other businesses, you want to outsource business tasks, or you’re thinking of merging with a firm or agency, it’s crucial to do your research. You can use an LEI finder to gather information about a company before engaging in financial transactions and you can also read reviews and access data about the history of the firm online. It’s beneficial to learn more about businesses you want to work with as they will represent your brand in some capacity if you choose to hire an agency, do a deal or form a partnership.

Looking after your employees

Taking good care of your employees is critical for morale, but it can also help you to enhance your business reputation. If you are known for looking after your staff, this will make your brand more appealing to customers, investors or potential business clients. Try to aim for high retention rates by prioritizing health and wellbeing, offering attractive employee benefits packages, providing opportunities to develop and progress and rewarding hard work.

Sharing values

Customers today are conscious of the impact of the decisions they make. Research suggests that over 70% of consumers want to buy from brands that align with their values. If you give back to the community, or you support projects or donate to charities, this can enhance your brand image and help you connect with customers. Think carefully about what matters to you as the owner of the company and encourage clients and employees to share ideas.

It has never been more important to be proactive in protecting your business reputation. If you want to keep hold of loyal customers, attract new clients, receive positive reviews and feedback and encourage talented employees to stay with you, take these tips on board.

How To Make Your Small Business Customers Happy

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Small Business Customers|How To Make Your Small Business Customers HappyHaving a small business is an incredible achievement. In the beginning, it is all about coming to terms with how to market your business in order to reach new customers and grow your client base. From thereafter, it is crucial to maintain customer happiness in order to generate regular sales. If you are a small business looking for the best ways to keep your customers happy and keep coming back, keep reading.

Maintain positive customer feedback

Positive customer feedback does not only look good for your business, but it will also keep your customers happy and engaged.

For instance, if you are a new restaurant owner, your restaurant customer feedback is super important to maintain. A bad review can hinder your business and put people off of using your service or buying your products. Thus, ensuring you satisfy your customers and maintain happy reviews, it will look good for your business.

Offer good customer service

To keep your customers engaged, good customer service is key. If you lack customer support, your customers will find it difficult to stay in touch with you. They may want a question answered before purchasing a product. Thus, if you do not offer a quick response, they may lose interest and this could hinder your business sales.

It could be as simple as staying on top of your emails. Or, you could engage with your customer via social media messaging systems. This is a little more informal yet customers like to have friendly conversations to keep respected and familiar with the brand.

Regular rewards

As a small business, you cannot always offer deals and discounts. Yet, for those customers who come back regularly, it could go a long way to offer them a reward. It could be as simple as a free gift, or discount on their next order. You could even offer their friends and family a one time discount. This will keep your customer happy and also reach out to new customers, who may turn into regulars, which will benefit your business.

Assess customer needs

It does not hurt to determine your market and spend some of your marketing time getting to know your customers wants and needs. Doing some market research before you start your business can go a long way and save you a lot of time. Without market research, you may spend the first few months trying to reach out to customers that may never want or need your product. Thus, determining the specific market that will enjoy your product will be better for your business, save you time, and also offer the customer something that they have always been looking for. Understanding who your customers are will help you understand what they expect from your business, which you can implement into future products/services.

Ask for feedback

Keeping up regular conversation with your customers is important. It will make sure that they remember you and build a friendly relationship. When you reach this point, asking for feedback can benefit your business as well as your customers needs. Asking for feedback on your product and customer service will help you learn and also offer the customer what they want in the future.

Remember names or needs

Remembering a customers name makes them feel valued and appreciated. Building a close bond with your customer will also help you understand their needs.

For instance, if you own a small eco-friendly store and you know a customers name and that they like a certain product on a certain day of the week, you can have that product ready for them. This will make their shopping experience easier, keep them satisfied, and always coming back as they will feel valued. A little appreciation and notice goes a long way.

Thank them regularly

Just like appreciation, a thank you goes a long way. Thanking your customers regularly for their service, time, and help will help them feel respected. It will show them that you appreciate them and the help they have brought to your small business. Even if they help you by introducing a new customer to your business, don’t forget to personally thank them and maybe reward them with something your business can afford.

As a small business, a little respect, time, and friendliness can go a long way. Ensuring your customers needs are catered for will keep them satisfied and want to use your business again. Show them you respect them by offering small rewards and good customer service to keep them engaged and content with using your business.

9 Tips To Improve Your Customer Service

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Improve Customer Service|9 Tips To Improve Your Customer ServiceEvery business knows the importance of good customer service. However, sometimes procedures can slip, and of course, everyone is only human when it comes to dealing with situations that arise. The scale of business that can be lost due to poor customer service techniques is surprising. Now more than ever, people place companies on a pedestal when choosing where to buy. So, getting this aspect right is essential to get the right balance for your business.

So what does excellent customer service look like? Check out some of the top ways to incorporate typical company characteristics and techniques into your company processes.

1. Become an expert

Nobody likes a know-it-all, but when your company displays knowledge and expertise in a product or service, you can give precise and specific solutions to their issues. If the customer has to go through five different people to have a query resolved, they will not be happy. It’s also essential to have a troubleshooting or FAQ section on your website that can help in the first instance. If a customer can resolve an issue without needing to speak to someone, the more likely they’ll return.

2. Empathy

Companies should not act like robots. People want to talk to someone that understands their issues. To build a strong relationship with consumers, your team needs to be active listeners and establish a common ground.

3. Be personable

As mentioned before, customers want to be able to communicate with a human. Contact details should be clearly available on your website. If possible, integrate an option such as live chat to help people get answers quickly and easily without picking up the phone. This function can also help convert people. Suppose they have any immediate questions about an item. In that case, they’re less likely to leave the site to go and compare the information.

To help make your staff more personable, allow then to incorporate their personality into the customer experience while staying on brand. This is also important for any communication type, such as social media, live chats, and phone conversation. Consumers like to feel the personality of the brand and its staff, so they know they’re not buying from a faceless entity.

4. Clear communication

In short, don’t waffle or hit customers with sales jargon when they have an issue! If they contact customer services, it’s typically because they have questions or queries regarding an order. So don’t avoid the problem, just get straight to it and communicate clearly to resolve issues. If this does not happen, you could risk losing the customer and receive a request for a refund, as the issue was not resolved.

5. Flexible

The saying ‘the customer is always right’ is mostly true. However, this is only possible if your company is flexible. Adapting to different situations is vital for all team members. Unfortunately, some people try their luck when querying or communicating issues. The key to customer service excellence is to remain level-headed and calm. This can be easier said than done. However, investing in good training for your teams will help them tackle different scenarios and put their skills into practice.

6. Open to feedback

No company is perfect. While you may have a good reputation for excellent customer service, there’s always more than can be done to improve it. One of the best ways to ensure improvement is to be receptive to feedback. Of course, you may get the odd discrepancy in negative feedback. Still, constructive criticism is always important to take on board. A good way to collate feedback and reviews is to conduct customer satisfaction surveys. These will highlight areas of improvement and tackle any lingering issues that customers have, however small.

7. Listen to staff

One of the most significant aspects that can help improve customer service is by listening to your staff. They are the people face to face with the consumer and experiencing the issues they face. By collating staff feedback and frustrations they have with delivering good customer service, you can create a plan to implement changes. Staff may have various input from requiring more training on products to having insufficient authority to issue refunds, which hold the process up. Looking at each area and determining what can make the customer experience better will help consumers and staff in the long term.

8. Act on your promises

Getting feedback from customers and staff is all well and good, but what are you going to do about it. A company that says they’ll change and fails to doesn’t hold onto a good reputation for long. Act on your promises and give solutions to issues that are affecting the customer journey. In some cases, it may not be possible to implement changes straight away. Still, it’s also important to communicate this to customers and staff. An announcement such as ‘you told us this, and we’re working towards making it possible’ is a great way to let people know you’re listening but can’t do it straight away. If feedback is ignored, then it shows.

9. Don’t bombard the customer with surveys

While it’s essential to try and get feedback from customers, some companies make the mistake of bombarding customers with surveys about their experience. There are many ways that consumers can give reviews, including incorporating tools to encourage feedback on specific products. Giving customers the option to leave feedback is crucial, and if they say no – don’t push it. One of the best ways to drum up engagement is via social media. People love to suggest brands and let others know about their experiences, so be sure to interact and engage with others on your platforms to encourage tags and mentions in consumer social posts.

These are just some of the ways to improve your overall customer service experience and success rates. By implementing good practices and remaining consistent and on-brand, you will ensure customers get the information they require without confusion and hassle. Does your company cover the above?

6 Ways To Improve Your Customer Service

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Improve Customer Service|6 Ways To Improve Your Customer ServiceCustomer service has always been an important part of any successful business but in an economy that is struggling due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it has never been more vital to provide a flawless customer experience.

Have the right systems in place

Being available to your customers at the right times and on the right platforms is crucial. Most businesses have call centers and an online presence in the form of live chat, social media listening, and email. If your phone system is outdated then contact some specialist VOIP providers who will be able to advise you.

Learn to listen

Many companies can fall into the trap of just seeing their customers as faceless voices at the end of a phone or email. There is a real person with a real problem on the other side of any conversation.

Train your employees to actively listen rather than just read a script. Interact, engage, and empathize with your customers.

Use the right language

It can be easy to fall into an overly formal standard of language. It is seen as a way of communicating clearly and leaving no room for misinterpretation. It often has many negative effects on your customers. It is difficult to create a level of trust and friendliness, which is not good for your brand. When training your customer service reps, ensure that you create an atmosphere of friendliness and positivity.

Create experts in your customer service team

As a customer, there is nothing more infuriating than talking to someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about or their lack of product knowledge. Even your first line support staff should know your products and services in-depth.

Respond in a timely manner

The time it takes for you to respond to a customer will have a huge impact on overall customer satisfaction. Not just the time it takes to answer the initial call but when responding to a customer’s query. Even if you don’t have a resolution to their issue right now, you should contact them to let them know you are still dealing with their issue.

Analyze customer feedback to improve

Continuous improvement cannot happen if you do not learn from your customer interaction. Rather than conduct a huge survey on an irregular basis, try building feedback into your daily customer service. Using feedback tools at the end of every customer service interaction will give you a real-time view of how you are performing. Changes can be made in a timely manner and improvements observed quickly.

Conclusion

Great customer service comes from really connecting with your customers on a professional and personal level. Customers expect speed, product knowledge, and a swift resolution to their issues. If you are failing to provide all of these, then you are going to start seeing the detrimental effects on your customer base and client retention. Use customer service as a key component in your business strategy.

Listen to your customers and improve your customer service levels accordingly in order to continue to improve.

5 Unique In-Store Marketing Tricks You Probably Haven’t Tried

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |in-store marketing|5 Unique In-Store Marketing Tricks You Probably Haven’t TriedAre you wanting to boost your marketing game?

If you want to grow your customer base, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed.

If you’re looking to revamp your current marketing technique, you are in luck. Check out these five unique in-store marketing tricks that you probably haven’t tried yet!

1. Host In-Store Events

Looking for a fun retail marketing strategy? Host an in-store event. This is a great way to get more people into your store.

If you have a women’s boutique, you could host a styling event. Own a wellness store? Create a workshop to inform your customers on living a healthier lifestyle. The sky is the limit.

Make these events even more personal by having all employees wear employee name tags. This gives customers the opportunity to learn everyone’s names and build better relationships.

2. Offer Free Wifi

Wifi marketing can be a great in-store marketing strategy. When a customer connects to your wifi within your store, you can communicate messages and promotions. This gives you a creative way to promote your services and products.

3. Create an Experience

All stores have products to sell. You want to create and sell an entire experience. This begins as soon as the customer walks in and carries on throughout their entire visit.

This will look different for every store so think about your ideal customer and how they want to feel. Do you offer luxury items? Make sure your customers have a luxurious experience? Are you a home store like Ikea? Create a family-friendly atmosphere.

4. Window and Curbside Extras

When looking for great retailer marketing strategies, don’t forget the obvious. Window and curbside displays can be a fantastic way to increase local store marketing.

Decide who your target customer is and design your displays specifically for them. You want it to be aesthetically pleasing and encourage them to come into your store. You also want to have fun and be creative so you stand out from your competition too.

5. Survey Customers before They Leave

You may already have a survey system in place for when your customers leave your store. Maybe it’s a follow-up email or a quick survey link on the sales receipt. Why not consider something a little different.

Set up in-store surveys. This gives you the opportunity to get customer feedback before they leave while the experience is still fresh on their minds.

This could be an interactive touchscreen by the door. You could also designate an employee to be an in-store marketer. Incentivize them to complete the survey by offering a discount or promo code for their next visit.

Amp up Your In-Store Marketing Game Today

Creating incredible in-store marketing strategies can be a fun experience. Get to know your ideal customer well and create strategies that will specifically attract them and watch your business grow.

Did you find this article helpful? Be sure to check back regularly for more great tips and advice.