According to a recent survey report by Microsoft, 54% of customers have higher expectations for customer service. This number of customer satisfaction increases up to an alarming 66% among the younger demographic. As a brand, it’s time for you to pause your activities for a moment and think about it, are your customers satisfied with your products and/or services?
Yes, excellence and quality in products and services matter a lot. Yes, competing in the market against your competitors is another important factor. But what builds and benefits your brand in the long term is customer retention. Lower rates of customer satisfaction lead to lower retention which equals bad sales funnel. Apart from halting plummeting sales, as a brand, your priority should be customer satisfaction. Since your services and products are aimed directly towards your target market, it’s important they feel included and satisfied by them.
It comes down to how your customer experiences the brand – and how that brand makes a person feel.
–Alex Allwood, The Holla Agency
What does Customer Satisfaction Mean?
Before we dive further, let’s explore what customer satisfaction is. Simply defined, customer satisfaction is how your product and/or service makes your customer feel towards your brand as a whole. It is the measure of how the overall experience falls short, meets or exceeds the customer’s expectations.
Now, there are multiple ways in which a brand or a company can measure how satisfied its customers are. Some measure it according to retention. If more customers return, they see it as a success on their part. While other companies rely on statistical numbers and data to observe customer’s feedback. This includes generating reports and using the data to improve the customer’s experience. In any case, the purpose is to rate, control and manage how a customer feels interacting with your brand. It’s as simple as a happy customer is more likely to benefit your business.
Net Promoter Score
Many companies have now started to measure customer satisfaction through the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Are you thinking what is NPS? Glad, you are. Let us break it down for you.
Net Promoter or Net Promoter Score is a management tool. It is used to gauge the loyalty of a firm’s customer relationships. It is a metric through which the company can assess a customer’s loyalty for their products, services, and brand as a whole. The reason why it is a good option for companies is that it serves as an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research.
Importance of Customer Satisfaction
At this point, you might be wondering how this affects your business. We’re glad that you are thinking that way. Simply put, companies and brands that prioritize customer satisfaction are likely to succeed. It’s simple math. Since the end product of your brand is aimed towards a customer, it’s equally important they feel satisfied with its results as well. That is the reason why brands should give more importance to this aspect than they already do.
According to HubSpot, growing companies are most likely to succeed if they prioritize their customers. In the long run, this essentially means organic growth and reach for your business.
Benefits
There are several long-term benefits of ensuring that your customers are satisfied with your services. Let’s have a look at some of the most important ones.
Brand Awareness
73% of customers fall in love with a brand and remain loyal because of a friendly customer service representative. Not just that, but a positive word of mouth can also help your brand. For instance, people are more likely to trust a brand if their family member or close friend recommends it. similarly, bad-mouthing can also tarnish the image of a brand.
Our doors at Be the Bean are always open to our customers. We ensure that each interaction is as helpful and informative to the customer as possible. We also feel that to build a good rapport and positive publicity, a brand must prioritize treating its current customer in the best manner possible.
That is why, to retain and attract new customers, your representative must be helpful.
Brand Loyalty
Think of Apple as a case study. Why do you think people buy Apple products even when there are numerous other alternatives? The answer is simple. It’s because of brand loyalty. The idea is that if a customer feels satisfied with the quality of products and services, they’re more likely to stay with the existing brand instead of looking for alternatives.
In the long-run, this can prove extremely fruitful to the brand. According to a report, 75% of people would return to a company with excellent services.
Brand Buzz
Imagine a significant number of people chanting your praise on social media? Seems like a utopic dream, right? Well, it’s not. If you treat your customers right and prioritize their satisfaction, chances are they will spread the word around. In the status quo, social media is the most effective tool to create buzz around anything. That is why you shouldn’t leave that end alone. If you have a social media account, use it to engage more with your customers. Make them feel included in your culture and reach out to them.
However, if you don’t have a social media presence, it’s high time that you go digital.
Brand Trust
Bridging the trust barrier can be a strenuous task. But if you do it right, you’d be in for a treat. An important aspect of building trust with your potential customers is through good content marketing. Advertisements don’t count as content. They are solely for a liquating sales funnel. But what does count is good content creation. Use your blog’s section and social media purpose to do that.
Another way of building brand trust is through marketing your content and communicating with your customers. Regular communication adds transparency and builds trust in your brand. However, keep in mind that these communications should be with consent. That is to say that using a customer’s data to pester them with unwanted newsletters wouldn’t land you anywhere. No one likes to receive content that they never signed up for.
Instead, you should present a subscription option to your customers. That way, you’d not only have their consent but would also be able to gauge the demographic subscribing to the newsletter. In a nutshell, you can then modify your content strategy to appeal more to the demographic who enjoys your content.
What Should be my Goals?
Now that you know the importance and benefits of customer satisfaction, you should be working towards your goals. Realistically speaking, your goals should be achievable. You shouldn’t start with setting off unachievable goals for your brand. Failure to fulfill goals can lead to demotivation. That is why you should set achievable and realistic goals while considering the company’s current data.
You can use the age-old method of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Based). This would help you in keeping your goals realistic and attainable.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction
While there are several different ways in which you can measure how satisfied your customers are, a decisive formula will help you go a long way. So, break down your plan into the following constituents.
- Identify the problems in the current system.
- Outline goals and plan for improving the system.
- Create a customer survey where your current customers can give their feedback.
- Analyze the data collected from the feedback.
- Analyze the existing data through other channels that your brand uses. (such as customers quarterly or annual report)
- Make adjustments to the plan and improve it according to the received data.
This simple methodology will help you create a better experience for your customers. Another important aspect of measuring satisfaction involves working on ways to improve it simultaneously.
You can do that by remaining consistent in your efforts to get feedback. Use your social media page as a tool to get reviews from your customers and help their user journey.
Conclusion
In conclusion, customer satisfaction will determine how successful your business is going to be. The quality and competitive pricing of your product and service are secondary to how a customer feels in their buyer journey. Therefore, you must make it your brand’s priority. The relevance and importance of customer experience will only increase with the coming years. So, you should pivot your brand’s boat towards that direction.
Dig into your data and analyze it to improve your customer’s journey. View every interaction and comment as an opportunity for you to improve. And of course, pay great attention to feedbacks and reviews by your customers.
That is how your brand will gain an audience. It will grow and your customers will become loyal to your brand.
Do let us know which of these suggestions helped you the most in improving your customer’s journey.
Alina Zahid Khan is an entrepreneur, a poet, a writer and a content creator. She runs her own content and publishing house by the name of Storyteller’s Saga. Her passion is to share knowledge, helpful content and stories with people all around the world.
