Businesses strive for getting as many customers as they can handle. They develop advertising campaigns that attract those customers. They build company culture that suits customer ideals. And they interact with customers in a way that promotes growth and maintenance.
Everything a business does revolves around customers. It’s no wonder why, either.
Without customers, there is no business.
Many companies go through a trial-and-error period when it comes to customer interactions. They see what works and what doesn’t work by making mistakes and learning from them.
There isn’t anything wrong with the trial-and-error method. It works for many businesses. But, some business owners don’t have time for trial-and-error. Even worse, some mistakes damage a company so much it closes. The risk is not always worth it.
Fortunately, we live in a time where information is more available than ever before. Going through the trial-and-error period is no longer a requirement for business owners. They have access to what works and what doesn’t. All because other people went through the trial-and-error period for them.
So, what are some of the common mistakes made when interacting with customers?
Why Good Customer Relationships Matter
I will briefly discuss the importance of having good customer relationships, first.
The reason is customer retention and, by extension, business performance.
Good customer relationships mean customers are happier and satisfied with your service. This happiness keeps them returning. And increases the likelihood that they will share your company name with others. Repeat business and referrals play significant roles in success and growth.
Beyond that, you’ll see positive effects for your brand. With better customer relationships, your business gets fewer bad reviews. There are also fewer complaints made about your company. As a result, your online reputation improves. This also attracts new customers. You not only enjoy referrals and repeat customers, you also enjoy an increase in sales.
When customers are unhappy with the service, they take their business to a competitor. Over 60% of customers switch brands because of bad customer relationships. Many of these customers don’t complain, either. They won’t warn you before leaving. They’ll leave quietly and you won’t know until you are seeing the effects in your sales records.
Common Customer Relationship Mistakes
There are a lot of common mistakes that business owners make when it comes to interacting with customers. Interacting with customers is not cut-and-dry. It’s a complicated process. And not recognizing that often results in these mistakes.
Not Actively Listening to Customers
As a business owner, your goal is increasing sales and success. In the rush toward that goal, customer engagement becomes an obstacle instead of part of the path. Because of that, you rush interactions with customers. Feedback gets ignored (especially when it’s only a few customers). As do suggestions and complaints.
You don’t intentionally ignore your customers. But you aren’t giving them the correct attention for maintaining a good relationship.
All feedback from customers is valuable insight. Customer complaints or suggestions may be minimal, at first. Yet, ignoring that insight risks the issue growing. Over time, most of your customers are making those same complaints. At this point, though, fixing the issue is more difficult. If not impossible.
When you ignore customers, they lose trust in your brand. This decrease in trust damages your business’ reputation. Not only are you missing valuable insight, but any professional relationship weakens.
Stay ahead of any growing issue by actively listening. Train any individuals handling customer interactions for empathy. Ensure they ask thoughtful questions. Make sure they focus on each piece of feedback and understand what customers are saying.
Take complaints and suggestions seriously and make changes, when necessary. This shows customers that you listen. Thus, helping them feel more connected to your business.
Not Following Through on Promises
You’ve likely seen it referenced in sales: never, ever over-promise and under-deliver with clients. This causes serious issues.
The main issue it causes is that it erodes trust. Imagine someone keeps promising you that they will start doing the dishes more. Yet, they don’t do the dishes. What happens? Your belief in their word diminishes. They can say they’ll do the dishes all they want. All you think in your head is “yeah, right.”
It’s the same with customers.
You keep making promises to them and don’t deliver on those promises. They stop believing you. This creates a negative domino effect. Customers have a bad experience with your business. They share that bad experience with others. Plus, they start requesting refunds and sending in complaints at a higher rate. Not only are you losing prospective sales, you are inundated with support issues.
Rebuilding the damage caused by over-promising and under-delivering is difficult. In some cases, you can’t. You’ve pushed the customer too far. They ran out of forgiveness. They’ve taken their business elsewhere, now.
The best way of fixing this is by not having it happen. When interacting with customers, be realistic about what you can do. Be clear about what customers can expect. And, if there are issues or delays, communicate those with customers. Being transparent and honest about your services keeps customers happy.
Not Personalizing Customer Interactions
We’ve all received generic responses before. There are generic mailers advertising some sort of product. Or the generic phone messages left by automated calls. When we call customer service, we get generic, according-to-the-script responses for our grievance.
We are tired of the generic.
Well, so are customers. Giving generic responses to their issues makes them feel unheard. They don’t feel valued by your company. Generic responses alienate customers. It leaves them feeling frustrated and misunderstood. Due to this experience, they don’t form positive connections with your brand.
With customer interactions, implement uniqueness. Use data for gathering information on customer preferences and purchase history. With this information, you respond in a way more tailored to their experience. Ensure automated responses (if you must use them) feel human and genuine. With the use of AI, it’s possible to blend automation with personalization.
Making your customer engagements feel more personalized is not a large task, either. Employing something simple, like summarizing a customer’s grievance, goes a long way.
Not Being Available When Customers Need You
Customers, as all of us, do not have leisure days all the time. They have schedules and meetings and a life that needs their attention. They do not have the time for searching around for a way of communicating with your business. Nor do they have time for waiting 30 minutes or longer on the phone.
There are a few different issues at play with this. We’ll start with not having a clear method of communication. This means not having a clear phone number, email, or social media contact method. If you only have one contact method, that method doesn’t fit into every customer’s day.
For instance, you have a customer service telephone number. You have a customer with an issue. And that customer is not available for making a phone call. Now they must choose between taking a break at work for a call, or not having their issue handled at all.
Most customers choose the latter. They will accept the issue and not buy from you again in the future. They way many of them see it, it’s a “lesson learned” situation.
Many of your customers can make a phone call. So, this issue remains unrecognized. It is silently damaging your company, though. Have multiple contact options for customers, instead. Depending on their day, each customer has their issue handled. They aren’t choosing between responsibilities and buying from you. They can enjoy both.
The other matter is having long wait times. When customers do call you, don’t leave them on hold for a long time. They will get frustrated and many end the call with the decision of not purchasing from you again. Use self-service options so customers can solve their issue without a long wait. And make sure you have the appropriate amount of staff for handling the amount of communication you are receiving.
Sometimes, you can’t eliminate long wait times. There are moments when you’ll receive more communication than usual. Keep customers updated about their place in line and the expected response time. These updates reduce frustration.
Not Keeping Customers with the Same Agent
Being transferred between multiple service agents is problematic. It’s common, especially among large companies with different staff for every problem.
Transferring customers between several agents creates more negative experiences. It takes more time and customers become frustrated with re-explaining their issue. Further, it conveys that you don’t care.
With too many transfers, customers start wondering why they contacted you.
When improving this, start at the source. This means figuring out the group that can best help the customer from the get-go. Direct customers to someone capable of helping them instead of transferring them.
For instances when you aren’t sure what customers need, train the frontline support staff. Prepare them for first-contact resolution. Unless necessary, they will solve many customer issues without transferring them.
Now, no matter what, there will be situations when transferring is necessary. Don’t fear transferring customers. But keep it to a minimum. Check your service process and streamline any areas so customers aren’t tied up with the process.
Also, have notes shared between support staff. When transfers happen, the next individual already knows the basics about the issue.
Not Accepting Responsibility
There are a lot of reasons why you will interact with customers. In instances where they have an issue, they rarely care about who is at fault. They reached out because they expect that you’ll fix it for them. Shifting the blame around won’t do anything except irritate the customer.
When you don’t take ownership of the issue, customers lose respect. Their trust in your brand diminishes and they feel neglected. None of this is positive. In fact, it often results in customers leaving and going where their concerns matter.
Ensure you are providing a consistent customer experience. Never claim the issue lies with someone else. Take responsibility and lay out the next steps where you’ll fix it.
Not Following Up
After a customer reaches out to you, follow up. Obviously, not every situation requires a follow up, but it’s important you evaluate each one. Don’t treat every customer interaction the same.
When customers have a suggestion or other feedback, you often don’t need a follow-up. But, it doesn’t hurt. And it requires minimal effort. A quick message asking if the customer had any additional thoughts or ideas come to mind is enough. It makes customers feel valued and heard by your business.
In instances when you deal with a customer who has a complaint or issue, always follow-up. This ensures that you solved the customer’s problem. It also gives you an opportunity for feedback about your service and how you handled the issue.
Follow-ups do not take up much time. Automate a follow-up system and send an email or text a couple days after the initial interaction. Large interactions with customers require more detailed follow-ups. Have a staff member – or yourself – write out these follow-ups instead.
Interacting with customers is only part of the process. After they reach out, follow-up with them so they feel valued.
Not Training Support Staff
Training the employees handling customer interactions is crucial. Without it, you have inconsistent customer experiences, non-empathetic interactions, and poor etiquette. Your staff is not knowledgeable about handling the issues presented to them. As a result, they don’t handle those issues in the way you and your customers want.
A good training regiment is routine. Every new staff member goes through some training when on-boarding. But the on-boarding training is not sufficient in the long-run. Over time, the reasons customers reach out evolve. It makes sense that support staff knowledge also evolves.
There are several aspects that you may include in the training for support staff. One aspect is their empathy when handling customer feedback and complaints. Demonstrating empathy keeps minor issues from becoming larger. It also aids in providing responses that seem genuine to customers, not generic. When customers feel heard, their loyalty increases.
Another aspect of training is preparing them for handling various types of feedback. This ensures each staff member is on the same page. They know what you expect of them. So, they handle each customer interaction with confidence and familiarity. Training staff in this aspect ensures everyone stays on the same page.
Customer interaction etiquette is another aspect. Having your support staff respond rudely makes matters worse. Having good etiquette keeps the conversation on the right track.
There are several ways of training support staff depending on your desired outcome. The point is to train them. And train them regularly. Providing a great experience when interacting with customers is possible. But not if you don’t train your support staff.
Interacting with customers is a routine part of running a business. It’s important that you get those interactions done well. Fixing any of the above mistakes requires minimal effort. You just need the conviction and motivation for it.
What other mistakes have all of you discovered?