Happy or Horrified? 4 Clues Your Customers Are Delighted
As a business owner, you know you need to keep a pulse on customer happiness. Yet how do you know if you have an accurate picture of customer satisfaction?
Some companies assume that if customers are not complaining, they must be happy. The truth is, many unhappy customers may not tell you directly that they are dissatisfied. They may, however, be sharing their bad experience with family, friends, or even online.
While neutral customers aren’t complaining, it doesn’t mean they are delighted enough to stay or refer you to friends and family. In fact, a neutral customer who thinks your service was satisfactory can easily be swayed to move to another company.
The key to repeat business and growing your customer base through referrals and positive online reviews is to have a plan in place to make every single customer feel valued.
So how do you know if you have a significant base of truly delighted customers?
4 Signs of Delighted Customers
To gauge if you are well on the way to having a solid base of happy fans, look for these four signs.
1. They return for additional purchases or services.
Repeated business over a period of time is one sign customers are happy. Are you tracking how many customers make another purchase? Do you know how many come back for more service, and how many just quietly slip away, never to be heard from again? Not only should you be able to measure repeat business, you should have effective strategies in place to build relationships with customers. Customers who feel valued are likely to return.
2. They refer friends to your company.
If your team frequently hears that new customers were referred by a friend or family member, you know you’re headed in the right direction in building customer loyalty. Be sure you have a way to record how new clients discovered your business so that you can track marketing and customer satisfaction efforts. The more “free” advertising you can get from delighted customers who are talking up your business in person or online, the less you’ll have to put into traditional marketing efforts.
3. They share their experiences in online reviews.
Many companies are surprised when a few negative reviews pop up online. The best way to combat those damaging reviews is to strengthen customer relationships and consistently ask for reviews. If you’re not finding many reviews, it may reflect a neutral customer base or poor communication.
You can help build reviews with a two-part plan: consider how you can consistently delight customers, and then consistently ask them to write a review. If a customer offers feedback in person, immediately ask if they would share their thoughts online. It’s important to give them the direct link to your Google or other listing; providing customers with an easy pathway is critical for your customers.
4. They tell you they’re happy on customer surveys.
Do you regularly send out customer surveys and monitor responses? A regular trend of high survey marks shows your customers are happy; however, getting the most out of surveys goes beyond looking at a few high-level metrics.
Quick response time is critical. The right tools need to alert you to customer issues in real-time and gather meaningful data to drive long-term decisions. Many programs let you drill down to measure satisfaction by location, department, or team member. If your customer feedback is just sitting in a report without follow-up action, you’re not getting the most from your survey efforts.
Need Help Tracking and Retaining Customers?
If you’ve struggled with finding the time needed to build customer relationships or track customer happiness, To Your Success offers a complete customer loyalty program that lets you focus on day-to-day operations while wowing your customers. Our easy four-step program includes premium thank-you gifts that help build emotional connections; a customized eTouch® survey platform that is proven to have high response rates; up-to-the-minute analytics and reports; and an automated platform to move rave reviews to your website and other valuable channels. Learn more about how To Your Success can help your company measure and build customer happiness!
