8 Things That Can Damage Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is key to successful businesses. You might have seen that almost all businesses thrive to offer the best services to their customers to improve customer satisfaction and increase positive reviews. Some even use a review management system to manage online reviews.
However, there are certain factors that produce the opposite effect as well. It is important to take a closer look at those factors to prevent potentially threatening situations in the future.
Not Being Available
One of the major factors damaging customer satisfaction is not being available when the customer needs you. Today, businesses have several ways to allow customers to contact the business. On the other hand, the customers expect swift responses. If you take more than a day, the customer most probably won’t even reply because you had kept them waiting for so long.
At this point, the customer has already developed a negative impression of you. So, the best way to prevent such situations is by hiring an expert who is solely responsible for listening to customer concerns and responding accordingly. If there is a genuine reason, communicate it to your customers and apologize before you hear their concerns.
Long Wait Times
If the customers are choosing you over your competitors, they are doing so because they trust your services. This means they will walk out with their desired products and services as soon as they step in. However, sometimes, things can take too long, which can upset the customers.
Customers simply hate waiting hours in lines. If that is the case, you will need to address the problem and maybe hire a few more individuals. If the problem is neglected, your loyal customers will choose your competitors over you regardless of how good your products and services are.
Plus, if the customers have to stand, you should manage a sitting or waiting area. Place a couple of chairs to help people get a bit comfortable while waiting.
Bombarding Customers With Emails And Messages
Keeping your customers informed about new products and services and discount packages and offers is a good practice, but bombarding them every day with emails and messages could result in a turnoff. The last thing your customers want is for their inboxes to continuously ring with emails and messages from the same business or individual.
At most, you should send one email or message a day. Keep in mind that emails and messages are a personal thing for customers. If you are bothering them with unnecessary information multiple times a day, they will simply block you.
Plus, do not make the mistake of sending promotional emails or messages to customers who did not have a good experience previously. This will further irritate them and will more likely cause them to leave for good.
Not Delivering On Promises
Businesses particularly new tend to make promises to attract new customers. There is nothing wrong with it unless you are not able to fulfill them. There have been many cases in the past where businesses had made several promises to their customers only for them to be left disappointed since the businesses could not stand up to them.
Sometimes, businesses are not able to live up to their promises due to external factors. It could be that the entire country is going through a sudden economic and financial transition. In such situations, businesses tend to be extra safe.
So, as long as there is a logical reason, businesses can easily communicate it with customers so they can understand your side of the story as well. However, as a general rule of thumb, businesses should not make promises they cannot keep.
Burying Important Information
Another major factor that negatively influences customer satisfaction is burying important information. Considering the fact that the majority of customers do online purchasing, they will not trust a business that hides the information they need. The first thing customers do when shopping for a particular brand or business is looking for information to ensure authenticity.
For instance, customers will look for contact and location information. If such content is hidden, the customer is most likely to walk away. They will consider you a shady business. On top of that, they won’t like to make extra effort to find the contact number.
Therefore, as a business, it is your job to ensure that the customer gets access to such information as soon as they search for your business on the internet. If they are visiting your site, the information should be mentioned at the top so that the customer cannot miss it.
Your website design should be welcoming for the users and should include the necessary information they need to interact with the site, buy a product, or get contact information. For improvements, try a free website design.
System Failures
Businesses that focus more on their operations and invest less in systems that improve customer satisfaction are not only selfish but bound to fail sooner or later. You might have come across many businesses that choose low-quality equipment to deal with customers.
These systems usually fail when the customer needs it the most. Imagine having numerous customers in line only for the system to give up. Do not be surprised if the customers walk over to your competitor. Furthermore, the customer has to repeat information over and over again for the system to read and expect more or less the same result.
If the customer is spending more time at checkout than they did shopping for products they needed, it means something is wrong and needs to be fixed.
Failing To Work On Customer Feedback
In the beginning, you will find yourself running after your customers for feedback with their expectations that you will take them seriously. But soon, the customers realize that once your business has taken off, you are paying no attention to their words.
This could be a serious situation for your business as your loyal customers can pen down reviews highlighting you as a non-serious business. This is why, be it positive or negative reviews, you should always respond to them.
If the feedback is negative, you should pay close attention to the area the customer is referring to. And once the problem has been fixed, you should inform the customer. This will give the impression that you care about their feedback.
Avoiding Difficult Situations With Customers
It is usual for some businesses to avoid difficult customers and situations. It might save them some time but in the long run, customers will turn heavy on them. Dealing with complicated situations and customers can make or break a business but running away is not the right option.
You need to have a few people on the team who specialize in dealing with complex situations. A simple no can sometimes frustrate a customer. Therefore, as a business, you need to make the right call at the right time. If you observe that at the moment, anything you do will further flame up the situation, you should avoid it.
However, later on, you should contact the customer and ask them what you can do to help improve their customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Concluding, improving, and preventing damage to customer satisfaction is not an easy task. Since you are dealing with different personalities and mindsets, you never know what could go wrong. However, consider the tips mentioned above to avoid common mistakes that usually go unnoticed but have a large impact. With improved customer satisfaction and white label review management software, you can grow the inflow of online reviews.
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