Ways to Improve Your Customer Experience in 2020

When you run a retail business, there are many things you have to take into consideration. This includes vital factors such as finances, business premises, and staffing. In addition, you need to think about your target audience, your customers, and how you will provide the best customer experience and service. This is something that is very important, as it could have a profound impact on the success of your business.

Making sure you offer excellent customer service is more important today than ever before. These days, people have far more choice with regard to the provider or company they use for goods and services. So, if you do not provide an impressive customer experience, you could end up losing many customers to rival retail businesses. Naturally, this is something you want to avoid, so you need to look at ways of ensuring you provide the best customer service and experience possible.

How Can You Do This?

There are various ways in which you can improve customer service and provide the best experience for your customers. This is something that will really pay off in the long run, as people will not only continue to come to you but they will also be more likely to recommend you to friends, family members, and work colleagues. This can boost your retail business success hugely.

Some of the ways in which you can ensure you provide a better customer experience include:

Put Yourself in the Customer’s Shoes

One of the vital things you should do is to put yourself in the shoes of the customer. While you may be the owner or managed of a retail business, you are also a customer of other businesses. So, when you deal with other businesses as a customer, think about how you want to be treated, what sort of experience impresses you, and what improvements you feel some businesses you deal with need to make.

This will give you a far better idea of what you need to do in order to improve the experience and service for your own customers. If you are the customer of a business that you feel offers exemplary service, aim to reach their level with your own customer service and experiences. If you are impressed by the service, the chances are that other people will be too. So, use examples of good customer service as a starting point for improving your own. 

Make Use of Different Platforms

Customer service is something that is no longer all about verbal communication. These days, customers expect service via a range of platforms, and you need to be ready to provide them with this. In today’s digital era, many people will go online in order to get in touch with you for help and assistance. So, you need to be ready to respond using their preferred platform. 

Of course, you still need to maintain excellent service by phone and face to face. However, you should also make sure you provide an equal level of service by email and via platforms such as social media. Customers these days are looking for fast responses without being left hanging on the line waiting for a customer service representative to become available. With social media and email service, it can save them a lot of time and enables you to provide a higher level of service.

Ensure Speedy Resolutions

Another thing you need to do is ensure you provide speedy resolutions for customers who are experiencing issues. Even if the issue arises after the sale has been made, you should not focus solely on customers who have yet to make a purchase. You need to provide answers and resolutions for all customers as quickly as possible.

Naturally, you may not be able resolve all issues right away, as you may need to investigate and do some research. However, you should still ensure the customer is not left hanging. Make sure you keep them up to date with regard to progress and let them know of any delays with the resolution. As long as they know what is going on, you will be able to keep them satisfied. 

Develop Proper Procedures

It is also important to have proper procedures in place so that employees know exactly what they should be aiming for when it comes to customer services. This will help to ensure your service levels are always consistent and means that employees will work toward a common goal when it comes to providing the best customer service and experience.

For instance, if you take calls from customers, aim to have them answered within a certain number of rings. With email and social media messages, set a timescale within which responses must be sent. If you have set aims and goals with regard to response times, it will be easier for your employees to ensure they are meeting the goals and providing the level of service you expect them to provide. 

Offer Online Facilities

In today’s digital age, most people want to go online at some point during the purchasing process. This could be to look at products, browse prices, get answers to questions, and make purchases. So, you need to ensure you make this as easy as possible for them. Make sure you have a high-quality website that is responsive and can be used on mobile devices as well as desktops. Also, ensure you have accurate and up to date online content and product descriptions, and clear ways of making contact with you.

All of these steps will make it easier for you to provide an excellent customer experience.