It’s crucial that your brand is well perceived by the public. One of the most significant factors to running a successful business is brand awareness. It’s in your best interests to make a lasting first impression that can increase your consumer base and help you to become a key thought-leader in your chosen sector.
By having an internal focus across your company, be it investing in properly tailored uniforms or changing your training courses for your employees, there are various ways you can improve your customer experience and drive remarkable results.
Here, we take a look how businesses across every sector can improve their customer service and boost their brand image in a bid to reap financial benefits. From retail to hospitality, there’s always room for improvement regarding both your own staff and customer retention.
The Customer’s Perspective
Studies have found that 76% of adults in Britain think that a positive customer experience is the most important aspect of the shopping experience – even more so than the actual product they’re thinking about buying. Although you should also be prioritising the quality of your products (to reduce returns and negative reviews), you should be constantly reviewing your current customer service methods and continually think of ways that you can improve the overall service.
However, businesses mustn’t be blinded by how they currently deliver customer service. According to one study, 80% of businesses already believe that they deliver a superior service to their consumers – but only 8% of shoppers actually agree with this statement.
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As 48% of consumers have stated that they are likely to become more loyal after their first purchase, it’s vital that your brand makes a good first impression. Not only that, but if you’re looking to increase your consumer acquisition rates – this is a good avenue to go down. 84% of people make a purchase because of a referral; so, if your first impression is worthwhile, it could lead to additional business.
But, how do you offer a customer service that is head and shoulders about your competitors?
What Your Business Can Do
It’s crucial to make sure your employees are identifiable to your customers, so uniforms are an essential business decision. By having a uniform rather than just a generic dress code, you will spend less time monitoring what employees are wearing on a daily basis which otherwise could become extremely costly. As well as this, uniforms represent your business – so you must design them in the correct way and prioritise employee comfort to ensure you receive the best delivery from them.
Your company should also look to developing the skills of your employees to make sure they provide the best customer service possible. This should cover ways that they interact with consumers of all kind (race, religion, disability) and offer the most efficient service possible to show that you’re a reputable brand. On top of this training, you should also make your staff aware of any new products or services that you begin to offer so that they can give customers all of the information that they require.
While it’s obvious that your workers are a key part of making your business run smoothly, you should consider other options available too. Research has suggested that customers will spend up to 13 minutes in a store — so it’s important that you deliver an exceptional service. Queues are notoriously long here in the UK and can be the biggest contributing factor to a customer’s walk-out. To combat this, why not look at queue management software and point of sales service?
Remember, it’s crucial to provide good customer service if you want your business to be a success. Do it right.
