Without a doubt, one of the major determining factors of the success or failure of any business is whether their clients are happy with the service and the treatment they receive. Businesses with the most success are extremely serious about how they choose to develop and implement their client care plans. Often, they pay great attention to what people have to say and how they feel about their services. They value their clients and it shows.
Are you having a tough time satisfying the pressing needs of your clients on a daily basis? If your answer is yes, then it’s important that you take a look at improving the methods you currently use to care for your clients.
Isn’t Client Care Expensive?
Generally, small businesses are concerned with the potential cost associated with implementing a client care plan. The good news is that you don’t need to break the bank. While spending money is often necessary to improve your business and attract new clients, you can use some cost effective methods to take care of your clients. And taking care of your clients is important. Happy clients are a great source for referrals. Here are four ways you can improve your client care without bankrupting your business.
Take Client Feedback Seriously
Ignoring feedback provided by your clients is an action that has the potential to be a ‘business killer.’ If you could study the most successful businesses around, you’ll notice that they pay great attention to feedback from their clients. Listening to and considering both positive and negative feedback is the best way for you to improve client care. You learn what you’re doing well and where you may need to improve. Often, businesses struggling to get themselves into a successful position think they already know what their clients want or need. Then, they face the cold truth that they really didn’t know their market as well as they thought. They tend to ignore the feedback they receive instead of implementing it. Feedback doesn’t just help you improve the way you run your business. When you respond to feedback from your clients, it makes them feel important. At the end of the day, taking client’s feedback seriously becomes a win-win situation for you and your clients. The best part? Client feedback is free.
Train Staff Members to Uphold Your Standard of Client Care
Client care is a team effort. Every member of your team should be thoroughly trained (and expected to uphold) in your client care methods. You can review the total quality management guide we’ve put together by clicking here. The purpose of ensuring that everyone is on the same page is to make sure that all of your clients receive the fair, just, and client-focused care they deserve.
So, how can your business do this in a way that is inexpensive? One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways is to create a written policies and procedures guide that explains the standards required for every task. This guide can be used for training and for future reference.
Give Discounts to Loyal Clients
The truth is that caring for your clients is incomplete if you don’t think about rewarding them from time to time. Most businesses understand the importance of specials to attract new clients. Yet, their loyal clients go unrewarded. We have heard stories about how not feeling appreciate is the single reason why clients ditch the businesses they patronized.
On the other end, there are business owners who lament that they do not really have the financial ability sufficient to give their current clients an occasional discount. Listen, this stuff kills businesses and brands. Most of your competitors are probably happy to give discounts when and where they can. The good thing about giving discounts is that it is very strategic. How? Studies have it that giving discounts to clients is likely to help your business experience more sales and referrals than you’d normally have. At the same time, by giving out discounts (even small ones), you are making your clients even happier to continue to spend their money on your services. To provide these discounts, you just need to work with a budget that wouldn’t impact your financial state in a way that could cripple it. You could consider on-time payment discounts, discounts for paying in advance, or even discounts for birthdays or client anniversaries. Once again, this is purely a win-win situation for both parties.
Be Ever Present on Social Media
As you may already know, we are now in a society where people and businesses are now found on social media. Thankfully, social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are built with amazing features that makes it very easy for businesses and brands to connect with their audience easily. Social media provides an easy and inexpensive way to establish and maintain an excellent relationship with your clients. Checking for comments and mentions and responding is a quick and easy way to offer 24/7 customer care. It also makes it easier for others to see how you care for your clients. With smartphones and apps, it’s easy to ensure that you appear to be ever present on social media. Platforms like Buffer and HootSuite make it easy for you to schedule your posts. HootSuite makes it easy for you to see mentions. Social media accounts are free to set-up. Both Buffer and HootSuite also have free versions. Their paid versions cost as little as $10 a month.
Need More Help With Client Care?
At Client ARM, we are passionate at helping businesses to keep their clients happy. You want to know more about providing more client care without breaking the bank? Book a free consultation with us!
