For every business owner it’s vital to discover on a regular and consistent basis how your business is perceived by your customers. As businesses grow, direct or personal contact with customers may lessen as processes or systems take the place of personal interaction.
Where do you interact with customers?
In the hospitality industry, face to face contact is a critical part of business – and feedback is usually instantaneous. However, difficulties can sometimes arise in multi-site businesses where many decisions are made from head office locations that impact those dealing directly with customers. There need to be processes in place for head offices to connect with customers so that their current and future wants and needs are understood and can be met. As well as customers themselves, front line staff members need ways to be heard by those making the decisions that impact them.
Who interacts with your customers?
Every personal contact gives your customers a perception of your business which makes the hiring of the right people so important. Empower all members of staff on the front line and in customer service positions to make decisions on the spot, so they can put right any issues immediately. Give them the appropriate training to be able to offer an instant resolution that can help to stop a small inconvenience becoming an online war.
When you have a brand name, then the added condition of a consistent experience in every location is crucial so that customers know what to expect every time they visit.
How to listen effectively
Where are your customers when they’re not interacting directly with your business? You need to go where they go online and find out where they are active – particularly on social media. Is it Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram? Be a presence there to see the conversation and manage and engage with it.
Email communications
Emails fell out of favour for a while, but companies have re-discovered the benefits of a tailored email programme that can give out promotional messages, advise of new business developments or just maintain company brand awareness.
Several email marketing services offer free packages up to a certain number of subscribers and also enable segmentation of databases so that you can target customers based on certain criteria e.g. geographical location. Make sure you allow customers to directly reply to your emails.
Remember that all customers must opt-in to an email newsletter and any other marketing communications, so always ensure you’re GDPR compliant.
Ideas for gaining feedback
- Surveys – these can be online or via printed materials such as a quick questionnaire with a receipt that can be handed into staff or emailed for the chance to win a prize. (If you want to capture customers’ email addresses this way, make sure to add a tick box so that they can opt-in to this for GDPR)
- Online review sites – look at sites such as Tripadvisor and claim your business if you haven’t already done so
- Customer service helplines – see what are the most common reasons for customers calling your helpline and act on them
- Frontline staff – customers will give feedback to employees, so ask your employees for their personal experiences and stories
For every complaint made about a product or service, there may be many more customers that just vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere but it’s also important to recognise the bigger picture and identify the real issues and resolve them as quickly as possible.
Acting on customer feedback and using it for innovation
Your customers can be an invaluable resource when it comes to developing your business. This can be through identifying trends from existing customers’ purchasing behaviour or from requests for products or services you don’t already provide.
However, don’t rely solely on this information for making your business decisions. Sometimes customers don’t actually know what they want until they have it put in front of them! Bear in mind that what they say they want and what they actually do want can differ!
Photo 2 by Hümeyra Aydın on Unsplash