How to make my customers happy?

• Answer:

  Give them reasons to want to come back. Good product. Good service. Fair and respectful treatment. Make doing business with you such an event that they will want to tell their friends. This applies to the retail AND the wholesale ends of the business. For virtually all types of businesses, it breaks down into three important parts: 1. Preparation. Know your product or services. Know the features and capabilites of these. Research your customers. Know what they need and what they expect from your company. Find ways that your goods and services meet these needs. Train your employees. Keep your place of business clean and safe. 2. Execution. Whether it is sales, or services, an owner needs to know what is going on. If your training program is working, learn to trust those that do the jobs to best know how to do them. Don't micro manage, but DO micro observe. Watch what is going on and talk to the people to learn what you are unable to observe. If you have to make changes, except for emergencies, make the changes behind the scenes, and not in front of your clients. If it is YOU who is doing the job, treat each client as if he is the first, and only client you've had all day. Remember, that, if you (or your employees) are having a bad day, it is NOT the customer's fault. Treat clients and employees with respect. 3. Follow through. Even after the sale, or after the service is performed, review the event from first contact to the last step. Track yours, or the employee's performance. Keep good records of product movement, or inventory usage. Learn what was used or sold and when most movement occured. THIS is when changes can be considered. Don't keep a lot of inventory on the shelves. Inventory represents money you've spent that did not earn you any return. A restaurant, for example does not need three years worth of take out boxes, sitting on a back shelf. The few pennies saved on buying this bulk is wasted if the same shelf space was used to store next week's product. Track the pennies, but don't waste the pennies. Learn from past performance. If you ran out of men's black socks last January, think about stocking more next January. Stock up on winter gear in summer and get rid of Summer's inventory by the end of the season. Invite customer comment, either by mail-in comment cards, or face to face and telephone interviews. The clients generate your cash flow. Keep it flowing.