Something I’ve been very fortunate to have in my career as a business owner in the craft industry is amazing customers. Now, the crafting community and our customers are some of the most engaged and loyal customers that I think I have ever seen in any industry.
So, when it comes to customer service and gaining loyal customers, I think I’m quite fortunate in the fact that we’re engaging with such an amazing group of people who are so supportive and receptive to all of the things that we do.
Having said that, customer service is something that I am asked about an awful lot because let’s face it without the support of our customers, how are we ever going to be successful?
Now, the good news is that there are always things that we can do to improve our customer service offering and to increase the loyalty in the customers that you do have. In this video I’m focusing on my top tips on what you can do to really engage those customers and get that loyalty.
First of all, and this seems super obvious, but it’s really important to have at the forefront of your mind, it goes without saying that you should treat each and every customer as an individual.
Address them by their name, be pleasant, ask them how their day is going or how they’re doing. It’s the little personal touches like that that always make your customers feel really valued.
Also, train your team to be knowledgeable about the products and services that you offer so that when someone does ring up with a query, they know how to help. For example, it’s not uncommon for one of our customers at Crafter’s Companion to call and ask about the best way to use one of our products. My customer services team will be able to help them with that because they’ve all got that real ingrained in-depth knowledge and understanding of all of our products.
Make sure that you resolve any issues that they have in a really quick and efficient manner and empower your team to be able to make decisions to resolve issues on the spot – this is key.
Whether it’s via email or telephone, this will massively increase customer satisfaction.
Another great way to improve customer service is just to listen to your customers because they can be such a valuable source of information.
If you make use of what they’ve got to say and listen all the time, you can use surveys, reviews, social media to gather feedback and really understand what the customer’s like, what they perhaps don’t like or what they want to see improved.
It’s also a brilliant way to find out what sort of products they might want to see in the future. And don’t just listen to them, act on what they say, show them that their feedback has made the difference and has led to some tangible results that will be massively empowering for the customers.
Now, so many companies offer brilliant rewards and loyalty schemes and it’s no wonder because they’re a brilliant way to incentivise customers to stay engaged with your company and also keep them coming back, especially if you’re offering something like a point scheme where the more they spend, the better the reward. It gives something back to the customer so that they feel like they’re getting more out of their purchase.
And often it doesn’t have to have a great financial impact on you as a business, it can be a win for you, win for the customer. Now in the same vein, you could also offer your customers things like exclusive perks, for example, this could be early access to sales on new products that you have coming out. It just makes them customers feel really special and as though they are being rewarded for the continued support that they give you as a company.
Now, as I said earlier, the craft industry has a really engaged community, but you should absolutely try to create your own sense of community amongst your customers. You can do this by keeping them up to date about what’s going on with newsletters and emails. Or if you want to use platforms where your customers can interact with you, then utilise the social media channels that you’ve got.
Not only can you chat to your customers through things like posts, but also there’s a brilliant way you can create dedicated private groups. Facebook is brilliant for this, customers can chat amongst themselves and then you can offer things like exclusive content, you can put updates in there where they can be the first to know.
Another tip for improving customer service and loyalty is clear communication.
It is so important to keep customers informed about changes that you’re making. Any big decisions that you’ve made in the company that’ll have an impact on them or delays to deliveries and shipping, which we all know when you’re waiting for a package and you expect to be delivered in a certain timeframe and it isn’t, it can be really, really annoying.
Proactive communication with the customer can really alleviate a lot of the stress around that. We’re all human and all businesses make mistakes and while we might be expecting a big influx of orders at a time when we’ve got a new product coming out or a sale on, we might not anticipate that it might have such a big impact on things like how quickly you can dispatch your products.
The biggest thing that you need to remember is that if something goes wrong, you categorically need to own it. You’re going to own up to the customer, take responsibility, and apologise because I promise you, being upfront and apologising will go such a long way with your customers. They will understand!
My last tip is make sure that no matter how your customer is shopping with you, especially if you’re an omni-channel business so people can shop in different areas, the level of customer service that they get needs to be the same wherever they shop.
Whether they shop in-store, online, or through a third party, they should know that the quality that they’re getting is the same, the service is the same, and that the aftercare that you’re offering as a business is absolutely top-notch.
So to summarise, improving customer service doesn’t have to be difficult. Focus on personalized interactions, active listening, quick issue resolution and train, support and empower your team to feel and do the same. I promise you, you’ll never regret it!