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When it comes to doing business today, a lot of power has been placed back into the hands of the customer, leaving little room for error for businesses. With the increasing prevalence of technology and the inter connectedness of customers with businesses, those working within the service industry have to keep on their toes.
Here’s 4 things to make sure you’re doing properly in order to keep your customers loyal!
Employee Knowledge/Recommendations
Ensure your employees are given training opportunities to learn all they possibly can about your product and/or services. In a bar restaurant setting, it’s particularly nice when staff give personal recommendations and can comment on the products they are selling. A personal touch shows that you want your customer to have a really great time.
Problem Resolution
Mistakes are inevitable and are they are going to happen whether we like it or not. How we deal with these mistakes is how the customer determines whether or not they will be returning. Problems that are dealt with quickly and attentively show that you care about remedying the situation. If you are prepared to offer a quick solution or even prepared to take loss and offer a discount or voucher for example, shows that as a business you care about how your service is received.
Added Value
What is it that you offer that better than the next place? What are you doing that’s different and gets customers hooked? Ensure that you are reliable and keep true to your promises. If you set the standard at a certain level, make sure you keep hitting that target to make sure you don’t come out looking greedy. Look for ways to add both tangible and intangible value.
Make them feel important
The old saying “treat your oldest customers like royalty” is very true. A significant amount of your turnover comes from this group. But it’s important to keep investing in growing this group also, so treat every new customer as someone that you want to nurture through to the same stage. The more customer you nurture = the greater the long term revenue! It’s a win-win. Customers also appreciate a human element in their dealings with you, so try and put yourselves in their shoes and think about the things you would like should you ever be on the other side of the service deal.
So there you have it. Four easy elements to incorporate into your business that can help you better your service transactions and increase that customer loyalty and retention!
If you are after some more information on customer loyalty and would like some more tips, take a read of one of our blog posts “6 Hurdles Hospitality Managers Commonly Face – Customer Loyalty” for more info!