How to keep your customers happy

By Catalogs Editorial Staff

Some tips for how to keep your customers happy and increase store profits

No matter what kind of business you?re in, you likely have to rely on the comfort and satisfaction of your customers. One of the ways to make sure your customers appreciate what you have to offer is to tailor your business to those customers. The way you tailor your business often times has more to do with the kind of business you are running.

If your firm is one that is tailored to customers, there are a couple of tips you can keep in mind that apply across the business spectrum as a whole. Practice these approaches and you will know keep your customers happy.

Quality Products

The top way to make sure your customers are happy is to make sure the products you offer are of the top quality. Whether you are selling fashionable clothing, electronics, toys, food or any other product you want to make sure you aren?t skimping on what makes your offerings great. This approach might cost you a little bit more on the front end, but the customer satisfaction on the other end will bring in a more steady cash flow.

Make it a priority to source the trendiest, highest quality and most unique items for your store, boutique or website. Your merchandise is what will set you apart from the competition, and keep your customers both happy and willing to spend money.

Those who attempt to skimp on their offerings might see a bit more profit at the beginning, but the customers are not going to keep coming to that particular company. In the end, the money will stop flowing at a very impressive pace as the news gets out the company is offering shoddy products or services.

Genuine Interactions

Some companies believe that all customers want it to get some sort of interaction. This had lead companies to send out mass emails that are pretty clearly form letters to their customers. The key is to make sure that your company interactions are genuine and tailored to the customers. Social media is playing a key part in helping firms do this, especially when they weren?t particularly used to doing this kind of thing before.

Operating a Twitter or Facebook account is something small businesses especially simply don?t do enough. Some company owners believe they don?t have the time to each of their customers but there needs to be some time laid aside for this kind of thing.

People want to feel as though they are important to the firm. When they make a comment or a complaint on your social media site you should go out of your way to acknowledge they made the comment. Don?t stop there though. Once you have acknowledged the issue you should go out of your way to try and solve the problem. If this is something you can?t solve right away, make sure the customer knows you are going to try and stop the issue from happening again.

Evaluate Employees Often

Evaluating employees often doesn?t mean you have to give them tests or some other evaluation techniques over and over. This means you should be there when your employees are working and see how they work with the customers around. If you have a business that has a number of different shifts you should make sure and actually work those shifts.

If you see an employee that isn?t interacting with customers in a positive way, you need to decide whether a change can be made in their behavior or whether you need to make a change in staffing. No one likes to see someone get fired, but your customers are going to be happier if they are interacting with someone they trust and who they feel actually cares about their wants and needs.

Keep Customers Abreast of Changes

If you are planning to make a big change in the way your company operates, make sure your customers know well in advance. There?s nothing that will make you customers more unhappy than being ambushed by a big change. You might even consider weighing their opinions on whether the change should be made at all.