15 ways to show your customers that you care

Excellent customer service is not just about words. It’s about the actions you take. In this article you’ll find useful tips to prove you mean it.

In today’s world of business, it’s dog eat dog for every company. At least 15 other brands sell what you sell and half of the business you do depends on what people say about you.

You need to leave your competition behind. Excellent customer service will give you the edge above the others.

An important part of keeping your customers happy is to show them your appreciation. Here are 15 ways of showing customer appreciation that are sure to get you glowing reviews:

Give them the occasional treat

Everybody loves free stuff, and even an occasional treat will go a long way towards keeping your customers loyal to you. It’s a great way to test out new products and see what people think about them.

Shout out to them on social media

We are a society starved for attention, so sending out a single tweet to a loyal customer can mean a lot. It brings a lot of attention to your brand, as people would flock to a company that cares so much about them.

Don’t be a stickler for the rules

Red tape exists for a reason and is often necessary, but bending a rule here and there will make your customers feel special. Don’t overdo it though. When everybody is special, then nobody is special.

Show them that you listen to them

Ask for contact details in your feedback form. If customers complain about something, make an effort to contact them and assure them that you’re going to implement their suggestions. You can even mix this up with the second tip and tweet them a thank you!

Make customer satisfaction everything

Tell the staff members who work with customers that a happy customer is their main priority (within reason of course). Fast and friendly service is the way to go.

Tip: Use LiveAgent helpdesk for a quick and easy interaction with clients.

A personal thank you can go a long way

Meet your big clients for coffee, make it your treat. Tell them how much their loyalty matters to you. All in all, make them feel like they’re making the right choice by giving you their money.

Short “thank you” works the best. Simple as that.

Send them a handwritten note

Anybody can write a tweet. Even though a customer would love a tweet, what they’d love even more is a handwritten note. Send a little note with a random customer order.

Just tell them to have a nice day! Makes your service seem personal and makes your customer feel like they matter more than their money.

Tip: If you are still too busy, there are services like Handiemail or MailLift that help to save time and show your customers real interest.

Make your appreciation a public part of your physical location

Set up a wall with pictures of your staff and your customers. Show people being happy inside the premises with your staff. People will start to feel comfortable by proxy.

Set up a get together

If you run a business that deals in large transactions with a few customers, then every single client matters. Bring them together for a barbecue or a party and try to show them that they matter to you.

Remember big events

Have a really important client? Remember when their birthday is and send them a card or a cake. It can improve your relations and ensures they keep coming back.

Tip: If you want to make a really good impression, personalized gift is the way to go. Whether it is a gourmet gift basket or a high quality souvenir, your clients will remember such present for a long time.

Make holidays an important time

Give away Santa hats at Christmas, give free candy to kids on Halloween, and make it a point for your staff to greet your customers with the holiday spirit.

Let clients use your network

If you run a company that handles business to business transactions, refer customers to clients that make up your business network. Nothing makes a client feel more special like a boost in business.

Give customer discounts for no reason

Not to everyone of course, but a customer that is treated in a special way will definitely want to come back, and will tweet or post to Facebook about it.

Focus on customer service

Nothing is more annoying than calling a help line and reaching an automated voice. Make sure your customers reach human beings, and make sure they don’t read from a script.

It costs money, but consider it an investment. A friendly and well informed customer service representative who cares about why the customer called will make your customer’s day.

Tip: Consider an online training course from Impact to educate customer support employees. Customers appreciate speaking to professional and well prepared people.

Call your customers

Don’t wait for them to call you. If you have a customer that regularly gives you business, call him or her up yourself and ask them if they are satisfied with the service. It helps to water down complaints too.

Tip: According to pareto principle, 20 % of your customers make up 80% of your revenue. Good customer analytics tool allows to identify best performing customers giving you the most important insights on your business. In this case, Woopra is a tool worth trying.

Take customer service to a new level with LiveAgent Find out more

The bottom line

Customers are hard to earn and easy to lose. If you follow these 15 rules, you will not have to ever deal with losing customers again. You might however deal with an utterly different kind of a problem. Having too many customers wanting to buy your product or use your service. Well, you may just have to hire more staff. And for a company this is a pretty good problem to have.