Customers are starving for courtesy, patience and respect. If you can manage to give them enough of each, they'll keep coming back for it over and over again.
A Public Agenda poll asked customers what turns them off most, and the answers were:
- Being ignored, not acknowledged, no greeting or contact (43%)
- Employees who seem too busy to answer questions, indifference, condescending tones, lack of appreciation (28%)
- Long waits (25%)
- Not honoring commitments or appointments, employees handling personal calls while customers wait (21%)
- Sour attitude, sarcasm, argumentative employees, smart remarks (13%)
- Poor phone practices, long holds, voice mail, unreturned calls (13%)
It should be no surprise that companies who can make customers feel appreciated have a much better chance of turning those customers into repeat business and referrals. 51% of the people responding to the poll said they'd come back and bring others if they received:
- A cheerful, enthusiastic greeting (37%)
- Helpful, intuitive service (36%)
- A listening ear and knowledgeable answers (26%)
- Being treated fairly (21%)
- Prompt follow-up (16%)
- Appreciation (15%)
- Remembering their names (10%)
The information above is basically a roadmap to increasing sales, in any economy.
Share it with your sales team, work on reducing or eliminating the problem areas, and pump up the volume on giving customers the attention they want.
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