Key takeaways: 

• The foundation of small business success lies in prioritizing customer happiness, which leads to loyalty and retention.
  
• Focus on creating a seamless customer, both online and in-person, backed by excellent customer service from a well-trained team.
• Build lasting relationships and encourage brand loyalty through reward programs and personalized engagement.
• Regularly solicit and analyze customer feedback through surveys, reviews and in conversations to continuously improve your products, services and overall customer journey.
  

One of the most important things you can do to ensure your small business’s success is to make your customers happy. To do this, it is essential that you employ all the strategies that you can to satisfy your customers, gain their loyalty and retain them.

To achieve this, communication is critical. Listen to your customers, ask for their feedback, make them feel heard and respond to concerns.

Utilize the latest technology to help you achieve your goals. Consider investing in customer relationship management (CRM) software designed for small businesses.

This technology tracks and stores data on customer purchases, streamlines marketing and improves communication.

You should also consider establishing omnichannel marketing, which is an advertising and marketing approach to offer consistency for your brand across all channels including physical stores, online shops, email and text messaging and social media.

What makes a good customer experience?

How to improve customer service in the workplace

To keep your customers happy, give them the best possible service you can—before, during and after they purchase your product. As a small business, you can offer that personal touch that large corporations often can’t. Give your customers access to your team so they can ask questions, problem solve and offer feedback. 

 Make sure you coach your employees on how to offer a positive interaction with customers—whether face-to-face in a physical location or online. Train employees to listen to customers, stay calm in the face of frustration, offer empathy, respond in a positive manner, problem solve and always thank them for the business. 

How to build customer loyalty

You can drive loyalty by offering rewards programs to your customers. This holds true whether developing strategies for building customer loyalty in a goods or service business. 

Consider establishing a program through which customers can earn points that lead to discounts, perks, free shipping, early access to sales, etc. You can celebrate milestones with your customers by offering a birthday gift or a discount. CRM software can help you manage this. Personalization is key; customers will be loyal to you if they feel valued.  

Your goal is to have customers so loyal to your brand that they spread the word and refer new customers. So be sure to offer rewards for referrals, which will increase loyalty as well as drive new business. 

Be creative with your marketing. Many companies are building a community around their brands. A brand community is a group of customers that rallies around a brand that they love. It’s an excellent way to drive loyalty and retention.  

How to measure customer satisfaction 

To find out whether your customers are happy, measure customer satisfaction by offering frequent opportunities for feedback. You can ask for immediate feedback at the point of sale, asking about their experience on your site and with their purchase.  

You should also send out surveys periodically to customers, perhaps offering a reward such as a discount off a future purchase for their time. Ask your customers questions such as “How satisfied are you with our products and product selection?”, “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?” and “How satisfied are you with the design of our site?”. Make sure to include text boxes for customers to give additional feedback. Always keep the surveys as brief as possible so you don’t take too much of their time.  

You can also conduct focus groups of customers to gauge their level of satisfaction with your product or service. If you record phone calls or offer messaging services online, you can monitor the interactions with customers to determine how satisfaction can be increased. 

 Also be sure to check social media frequently for reviews and respond to them—good or bad. By engaging customers online in community forums, you have the chance to thank customers for positive reviews, as well as explain your point of view and defend your business in the case of negative reviews. 

Once you’ve collected the customer feedback, you can use that info to improve product development. Identify which feedback can be used to shape your future offerings and act on it. 

How to increase customer retention in marketplaces

Retaining your existing customers is key because research shows that it’s typically less expensive to keep current customers than it is to seek out new ones.  

A good way to increase customer retention is by utilizing CRM software. It allows you to follow your customers’ purchases and reach out with personalized offers. You can automate messaging to alert them when they might need a refill, when service is due, when a new product is available, etc. Messages can be automated across multiple platforms—email, texts and social media. 

Be sure to find a CRM system that is tailored to your type of small business to help with these actions. By personalizing your communication and making things specialized and easy for your customers, you are more likely to retain them. This will drive growth and ultimately ensure the longevity of your business. 

Want to save up to implement new customer programs, increase marketing initiatives or purchase a CRM to delight your customers and keep them coming back? Check out our high-yield business savings! Don’t want to wait? A Live Oak Express offers streamlined working capital loans to achieve your goals. 

FAQs  

Q: What does customer experience mean? 

A: Customer experience (CX) is the way a person perceives your business based on the interactions they have had with it. This could be in-person, browsing your website or even unboxing a product. Every nuance of your business adds to a customer opinion. It’s all about how a customer feels when they leave your business, and what you did to make sure it was a positive outcome.  

Q: Why is customer experience so important to business success? 

A: Customer experience can be the one thing that differentiates your business from others. Creating a positive customer experience can increase customer retention, positive word-of-mouth, manage a good reputation, boosts employee morale and can even lead to revenue growth.  

Q: What are low-cost ways for small businesses to enhance customer experience?

A: Improving customer experience does not have to break the bank! Inside of your business, you can make an impact by training your team to treat every customer like the only customer. You can utilize free tools like Google Forms and Canva to create surveys for feedback or visuals to display. Personalized experiences, like a handwritten thank you note, is an inexpensive but impactful solution.  

Q: How do I handle negative customer feedback?

A: Negative feedback can sting, but it’s also an opportunity to grow and deepen trust, if handled properly. Listen, acknowledge the issue, sincerely apologize, offer a solution (refund, replacement, promise to fix the issue) and make sure to follow up. Showing the guest that you genuinely care makes them feel heard and respected and also protects your business image.