10 Tips for Becoming a Customer-Focused Organization

admin | Uncategorized | automotive appointment scheduling, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, customer service, customer-focused

You’ve likely heard that “customer-focused” businesses are more successful because they focus completely on their client relationships and client satisfaction. But that’s only part the story. In full, a customer-focused business fosters a company culture of its own that is solely dedicated to enhancing the customer experience through relationships and customer service. These organizations not only practice what they preach but proactively seek to hire talent that is empathetic, patient, and easy to talk to. They focus more on the customer experience and the various touch points their brand has with a customer at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Becoming a customer-focused organization can be the true key to running a successful, and profitable, business. Interested in learning more? Here are 10 things a company should do to become or maintain a good customer-focused organization.

Know Your Customer

To fully serve your customers, and your business, you need to know who they are, what they want, and how to get it to them. Market research is a great way to determine you overall strategy. Running data to find out demographics, locations, and spending habits of your customers is good, but getting it straight from the source will be your key to success. Gaining personal insights right from the customer will give you something research never can. Ask them questions, send out surveys, read their reviews and questions—and develop a customer profile you can divide into more specific segments to target more granularly.

Figure Out Their Challenge and Solve for it

Figuring out the shared problem your target customer has and solving it will build a good business model. A niche problem can help focus what and how you deliver a solution to your customers. For example, Customer Traac knows that dealerships have problems maintaining high volume inbound calls, appointment scheduling, and service follow-up. That niche allows us to focus on the customer’s problem and solve it. Trying to provide solutions for every possible challenge a customer may be experiencing will make it difficult to get good at one thing.

Build Trust with Your Customers

If your customers don’t trust you, they won’t stick around. They may even prevent others from coming to you with their challenges. Some ways to build trust amongst your customers are:

• Solving their problem before they become more frustrated
• Gaining immediate feedback from customers and making them feel like you care and they are part of the process
• Being present when they leave comments and reviews—be appreciative and helpful

When customers see their problems are not only being solved, but any issues they’ve voiced have been used to better the business, they feel appreciated. This gains their trust and, hopefully, long-term loyalty.

Keep Up with Your Industry

Industries like tech, healthcare, and automotive are ever-changing. It seems as though they are on to the next big thing before you can fully utilize the last one. Keeping up to date with industry trends and changes is crucial to getting ahead of the curve when it comes to solving your customers’ future problems. Knowing what to expect down the line with industry changes and problems, is going to be beneficial to you and your clients. And they will be shocked to learn you solved their problem before they can even asked for the fix.

Utilize Customer Feedback

Customer reviews and feedback are a GOOD THING. You should actually want and crave their feedback. In a customer-focused organization, seeing good numbers on your sales reports doesn’t matter as much as how your customers are feeling and how satisfied they are. Interacting with a customer personally, asking for their feedback, is the best way to learn how to improve your business. Check reviews on Yelp, Google, and other review sites on a frequent basis. And don’t forget to view the negative reviews as opportunities, not failures!

Tie Your Customers into Your Brand

Your brand should represent your customer. One way to do this is to develop brand advocates. These are customers who love your services or have had great experiences with you, and may be willing to advocate for you to others. After all, most consumers say they would trust a recommendation from a family member or friend over any other advertising. So, don’t miss out on this free marketing! Some ways to use customers in your branding are:

• Social media – Utilize tags and hashtags to find people who are talking about you and share their posts. People love to see their posts shared by the brands they love (and follow).
• Videos – Some companies have even compiled videos of real customer reviews or social posts into marketing videos for their business. It makes your customer feel like they are part of the team, and what they say matters.
• Website Testimonials – Pull your five-star reviews onto your website so prospective customers can see for themselves what kind of customer experience they can expect from your business.

Customer Experience is Key

From the beginning to the end of your customer interaction, they should feel cared for, happy with the service, and be having a good time! Putting personality into the customer experience is a huge difference between a customer who will come back, and one who won’t. Send thoughtful and engaging email campaigns, post interactive social media updates, and when you’re on the phone with them be cheerful, helpful, and personable. Going above and beyond with your customer service can increase customer satisfaction tenfold.

Also, for those rare instances when someone isn’t happy, make sure your employees know how to remain poised and calm. The customer who is upset may become one of your best ambassadors if they are treated with respect and care, and their problem is solved.

Continually Improve Products and Processes

A mentality of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t really work for your customer-focused business. You should always be striving to improve your process, no matter what. The goal should always be to achieve 100% customer satisfaction. Of course, there is always room for growth. So, try new tactics, switch up your customer conversations, and considering trying new methods to motivate and encourage employees. Never settle, even when things are good. A successful company is always looking for and trying to achieve the next best thing.

Be Proactive

Be proactive in everything you do. Send follow-up emails, SMS text messages, or call customers from time-to-time to make sure your relationship stays strong. Be proactive in solving their problems and knowing what they want before they even ask. For example, you can proactively call recent car buyers a few months after delivery to offer them a special on their first oil change. Customers will appreciate that you remembered them and are more likely to return to your dealership’s service bay for future maintenance if they have a great experience.

Invest in Your Employees

Finally, the heart and soul of your customer-focused organization is your customer service team. To get good people, you need to treat your current team well. Invest in their well-being and encourage growth through coaching, mentoring, and upskilling opportunities. Making your employees feel wanted, needed, and cared for is the highest motivator and will encourage them to give the best customer service they can. If you feel good, you perform better. That’s why the first step towards generating satisfied customers is to manage satisfied and engaged employees.

These tips apply to everyone from the top to the bottom of the organization. And, if they are followed, a company is sure to be set up for success. Becoming a customer-focused organization will require you to be mindful, respectful, and proactive. Put the customer first to gain their trust—and increase your growth.

If you enjoyed this article, check out “Dealership Customer Service in a Post-Covid World.” And if you would like to learn more about how Customer Traac partners with dealerships to improve performance and profitability, contact us today.