Starting a new business can be incredibly rewarding, but full of challenges for any entrepreneur. Getting customers ‘through the door’ can be one challenge, and it immediately leads to the next; how to keep your customers coming back for more. Customer engagement is an important part of any business, but for a small business, it is of paramount importance to keep your customers well-served and loyal to protect your profits and give you a customer base you can build your company upon. Here we are going to look at four simple steps any entrepreneur can take to increase customer engagement, and keep your company in a customer’s thoughts so they keep coming back to you.
Use Good Manners to Keep Customers Coming Back
Even if a customer leaves empty handed, by using good manners and showing an interest in satisfying a customer’s needs, you will bring them back to you for a future purchase. Most customers value good service most of all, so if your customer interactions are pleasant and helpful, and you use good manners, then customers will remember you in the future.
Create Opportunities for More Contact
You can create customer interactions with the right marketing strategies and content. You don’t even have to offer a product; a lot of inquires can be generated from reminding customers of your service and giving them information. By creating a regular email newsletter that you send to customers, you can give them a regular reminder that keeps your business in their thoughts. There are many excellent templates available for businesses to use, see here for five free html templates from Sendinblue. Sendinblue have lots of experience in helping businesses grow through online marketing, and offer an all-in-one software solution to help businesses with sales, marketing and customer relationship management.
Handle Sales and Inquiries Quickly – Faster is Always Better
It isn’t always enough to offer customers a pleasant and helpful service; you need to be efficient too. The quicker you deal with a customer inquiry or sale, the sooner they will be back for more. This is particularly important when handling sales. If a customer has to wait for a product, or their delivery is delayed, then they are much less likely to use you again, especially if this is their first purchase with you.
Ensure Your Standards Are Followed Company Wide
If you have staff working for you, it is important that you make sure they are following the standards you set for customer engagement and service. A staff member that is rude or unhelpful can cost a small business a lot of sales. Whether interacting with a customer face-to-face, on the phone, or through email and social media, the standards you set must be met companywide in order for them to be effective and keep customers coming back for more.
Running a small business can be a very rewarding experience, and not just financially. By setting high standards for customer engagement throughout the customer, you can create a customer base that is not just profitable, but also happy and loyal to your business.