As a small business, the importance of adding a ‘personal touch’ to your services or product is something that may be on your mind. You want to stand out from the crowd, and ensure that your clients keep coming back to you rather than going to your competitors. There are misconceptions that adding this value can be costly and also be timely, however this is not the case.
- Respond to inquiries promptly
Great customer service doesn’t need to mean going beyond and above for clients. A simple change could be to make sure that messages are replied to promptly as this sends a positive message to your clients and potential clients. A simple step towards this would be to create automatic email replies when you’re out of office – letting the client know you will get to them as soon as you can.
- Send them a personal message
This doesn’t have to be as time consuming as it sounds. Delivering personal messages e.g. in the holiday season, could be a nice way to thank clients for their business, and show that you are thinking of them. Positive surprises are always appreciated.
- Celebrate their successes
Whether this is due to a service or product you have provided or not, you should celebrate with them their successes. Make sure to keep up to date with your clients, an easy way to do this is by following them on social media, and actively engaging with their posts, maybe resharing them.
- Listen to feedback
It is often hard to listen to criticism, but this can be one of your most helpful tools when deciding how you need to do better. Once you’ve asked for feedback and you’ve altered the way you do things – make sure to let them know that you are doing things differently and took on what they said. It will make them feel like they are being heard.
- Communicate
Make sure to keep your clients up to date with your business and what you are doing. This is important to make sure that they feel like they are part of your business, and get to know you too. This could be done through email newsletters and through social media.
Having a great team can make or break your entire business. When your employees feel valued, they are going to brag about working for you and how wonderful it is. You don’t inspire employee loyalty solely from employee discounts. Instead, treat them well. Thank them for working for you. Acknowledge them in front of others when you can without overdoing it and appearing false. Reward creative ideas or when you do an amazing job. Feature a section in a regular newsletter with an employee product or pick of the month or quarter. Help them if they are struggling in certain areas. I don’t know if you have noticed, but there has been a recurring theme throughout the above ways to make your clients feel truly valued. It is to treat people well. In some cases, you have to treat people better than they may even deserve. But putting real effort into making your clients and customers feel special can have amazing rewards for your business. It will not only make your customers feel special, but it will make your business special as a result.