In the business world, there are too many things that can go wrong. You might as well not make things worse on yourself by not treating your customers the right way. It is really easy to be turned off as a customer, especially when there are a thousand other companies that do the same thing as you, but are a lot cooler about it. Here are my 5 favorite things that you could be doing to lose customers… So read them and stop doing them.
1. Having Inaccurate Data
As a company, customers are the most important thing for you. Without them, you actually have nothing. You can’t just call yourself a business and make money, people have to believe in you and your product. What happens when you don’t treat your customers right? Nothing. And Nothing is bad.
Your customers should always feel important. If you reach out to them with an email or something and get something simple like their name wrong, that is pretty offensive. Not only that, but it can make them feel like you don’t care enough about your company to even get simple things right. If you can’t get a name right, then how are they supposed to believe in your product or service? What about that are you going to mess up too?
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In order to run a successful business, you have to make sure every single customer feels important. Not only that, but you yourself have to know that they actually are important.
2. Not Maintaining A Relationship
Once you get done making your deal with your customer, that shouldn’t be the last you hear from them. It also shouldn’t be the last they hear from you. A lot of companies fail because of thinking that way. If you maintain a positive relationship with every new customer, that means you will always be on their mind to some extent. It is also way more likely that they will return to you for their future needs. This does, however, bring me to my next point…
3. Being Annoying
Yes, it’s important to maintain a relationship with your customers and clients. BUT… You don’t want to be the type of company who is constantly calling and trying to shove yourself down people’s throats. You can’t force people to spend money, and it’s really annoying to them to feel like they are being pressured. Nothing is wrong with giving them a little nudge in the right direction, but when that nudge becomes a push, they are going to avoid doing business with you at all.
Different age groups also prefer to be contacted and followed up with in different ways, so make sure you do a little bit of research first. It’s not hard to Google these things and find tons of studies on them. Younger customers prefer to get emails. They check them regularly and they go straight to their smartphones. Older customers probably hardly ever check their email, so sending them is just a waste of time. Instead, try sending out letters through snail mail.
4. Ignoring Them On Social Media
If you are a company, you either have a social media presence, or you’re going out of business soon. You need to either accept your client’s friend requests, follow them back, or whatever it may be that you do on that specific website. Most customers expect a response within an hour, and none of them really has any sympathy for a delayed response, even if it is a night or a weekend.
It would be silly not to do these things anyway. Social media gives you the best of everything. You get free marketing, you can always keep people updated on the latest news from your company, and you can gather very valuable information from anyone you are connected with on any social media site. Don’t be a fool, get the most out of it that you can.
5. Not Listening
It is not hard to see what people think about you, your products, your services, or anything about your company. People post online about pretty much everything. You’ll be able to see what people like, what they don’t like, anything. You can also use the internet to give surveys and gather analytics. Not listening to what your customers have to say is ridiculous. Not using negative survey feedback to your advantage is ridiculous. Instead of looking at negative comments and bad experiences as a negative thing in general that you should ignore… use it as a positive thing and give the people what they want. Your business should be alive (growing, changing, evolving) all the time. There is nothing wrong with a little bit of constructive criticism. At the end of the day, it just means more business.
Customers are the life force of any business and it is crucial that you keep these customers happy. These 5 things are surefire ways to lose valuable customers, which will certainly mean the downfall of your company. So, needless to say, avoid these things AT ALL COSTS!
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