Making sure you know what your customers think of you

 

I often  ask business owners if they deliver good or great customer service. About 9 out of 10 say yes. That’s backed up by  research which showed that 80% of business owners think that way.

Yet, the same research shows only 8% of consumers think they get good or great customer service. My next question is  often – how do you know that you provide a good service?

Most people say that they get compliments and  almost no complaints. There is a  problem with that. Only 4% of customers will tell you if they are not happy with your service. So how do you know if your customers think you are great?

When I ask business owners if they ask for customer feedback, only around a third of them do so. When I ask what questions they use, it’s  usually something such as “Was everything OK?”

The problem with that is that it is a closed question. People find it easiest to answer yes or no. Most people want to avoid conflict so they will say yes, even if there was something they were not happy with.

That means that many business owners don’t know they provide a good service. They just assume they do because no-one complains.

If you want to keep your customers happy, there are 4 key things to do:

1. Ask them for feedback
2. When you do, ask them what you could have done better
3. Use their feedback to make changes to your business
4. Tell them about the changes and that they are due to their feedback

If you do this all the time, you will be delivering what your customers want in the way that they want it. And your business will thrive!

 

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