Let’s face it, Black businesses have a horrible reputation when it comes to offering a great customer experience or customer service.
Whether this stigma is justified or not, the fact remains that businesses should always strive to offer the best customer experience possible.
Keep these stats in mind:
- 78% of consumers did not make an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. Source: American Express Survey
- It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one. Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs
- A 2016 study found that 75% of companies said their top objective was to improve customer experience.
So, what can Black owned businesses do to improve their customer experience and keep their customer coming back? Glad you asked!
1) Help customers to help themselves
The majority of consumers will always check a website for information before calling or e-mailing a business, so make it easy for them to find answers to their questions quickly and easily by deploying an online FAQ, or live Q&A sessions.
2) Listen to customer feedback and react
In order to improve your product and service offering, you need to have the best possible understanding of what your customer’s needs are.
Providing customers with several ways to provide feedback (social media, email, on-site suggestion box, etc) will enable you to monitor and implement changes and address issues when they arise.
3) Don’t take it personally
The ability to swallow one’s pride and accept blame or negative feedback is crucial. Whether your team works directly with customers or looking for feedback on social media, they’ve got to keep the customer’s happiness in mind.
4) Listen to your team/staff feedback
If you have a team or staff that are on the front lines dealing with frustrated and agitated customers, be aware that they are knowledgeable about the customer’s wants, needs, and pain points.
They should be given the opportunity to provide this customer insight regularly, via a method that is most comfortable for them.
5) Embrace the complaints
When a customer takes the time to share suggestions or vent frustrations, you can be sure that they are one of several customers that share the same frustration — or soon will, unless an improvement occurs.
Better for you to hear it and make the change before these customers move on to your competitor.
Subscribe and Follow SHOPPE BLACK on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter
You might be interested in
