How Good is Your Customer Satisfaction Record?

The money is in the list. Build a big list of responsive people. Create exceptional products. All of those are great advice for building an online business. Many experts even bring up taking care of your customers, but how well do you really take care of your customers? Why isn’t this stressed as much as it should be?

Is your customer support top notch?

I’ve been taking an online course. Each weekly lesson is unlocked and available for download on a certain day at midnight. The money for that lesson is then withdrawn from my Paypal account. This week, I downloaded the lesson, but I’d let my Paypal account fall below the amount of the weekly payment. However, it shouldn’t have been a problem because Paypal has back-up funding for times like this. I was also expecting a payment from a client that is always on time. No worries, right?

Well, Paypal didn’t pull from my back-up source and my client didn’t pay on time. So when the course subscription requested payment, it was denied and automatically cancelled my weekly subscription. I emailed support and explained that Paypal didn’t use my back-up funding, I needed to pay them for this week and reinstate my weekly course so I could finish it up. I had 7 lessons left out of a 20 week course.

The support manager replies and tells me no problem, but instead of requesting another payment, she’s upgraded me to a lifetime membership at no extra charge and I have access to the remaining lessons. To say I was floored would be an understatement. I’ve purchased many things from this business owner and I’ve experienced technical glitches on several occasions–these things do happen. Each time I’ve had a problem; they’ve taken care of it quickly and are extremely friendly through the whole process. This is one reason why I remain a customer. I know that even if a problem occurs it will be dealt with.

This time, they went above and beyond the call of duty. I would have been happy to pay for the current week and the remaining six weeks. I would have been happy if they’d taken one weekly payment off for my troubles. Instead, they upgraded my account.

Why would someone do this if they might lose money in the process? Because they know I’m a repeat customer, so that increases my value to them. They know I will tell others how great the products are and how great customer support is if they have any problems. But mostly, they know that’s how you do good business. That’s how you get a repeat customer, that’s how you turn a repeat customer into a high-value, life-long customer.

The Customer is always right. I know, if you’ve ever worked in a retail environment you cringe at those words. The customer can be a pain in the behind, especially when you’re face to face with them. And with some, it wouldn’t matter if you gave them a gold brick on a silver platter; they’d still be nasty and never do business with you again. But, for every customer like that, there’s 10 more who are great and will stick with you through all the glitches because you put them first and made them feel special.

Always give your customer something for their troubles. If it’s a weekly membership, upgrade it for free. If it’s just a technical glitch they’ve had to deal with, offer them another one of your products for free. Give them something of value to show that you care and that you’re worth doing business with.

In a sense, you’re not really building a business, you’re building relationships and creating high-value, life-long customers. If you treat your customers like gold, the money will come. You don’t have to worry about how you’ll make money, because you’ll be increasing your income every time you build a new, trusting relationship with a customer.

To wrap up, here’s some quick tips to put you above the competition and give your customers great satisfaction:

*Always put your customer first.

*Go above and beyond the call of duty.

*Deliver more than you promise.

*Ask yourself constantly how you can deliver more value than anyone else.

How do you give value to your customers? We’d love to hear your tips and things you’ve learned. Please share in comments.