Article written by Bob Green, Business Advisor, Western Sydney Business Centre.
In my last article I wrote about the need for you to use all your marketing tools to gain and retain customers. Use the time if you are not frantically dealing with customers to take stock of your service, especially if you have a face to face service such as a café, restaurant, shop etc.
The first thing you need to do is to analyse your customer base. Who are they, what age groups, estimate their disposable income, what have been the main complaints you have received, what are the best compliments you have received? All of these things are major influences on your business and the direction of your marketing thrust.
U.S.research has shown that “dissatisfied customers typically tell nine to 15 other people about their experience; some tell 20 or more”. You can’t shake your head, throw your arms in the air and walk away from a dissatisfied customer (or social media reviews). Rather than having to deal with the next dissatisfied customer, take steps to remove the things that may make them dissatisfied before the event.
For instance, people in their 70’s and upward have different expectations of how you will communicate and deal with them than do those in their 30-40’s and those sub-30. Having a great product is not sufficient, have a really great attitude and service standard will win the day.
Use the negative feedback as a steppingstone to improve your service!
So how do you start to do it? Well, you have advisors available through the Business Connect program. Go to the Business Connect website, look at the Western Sydney Business Centre advisor bios and book a call back from one of them or call Western Sydney Business Centre direct on 02 4721 5011. I can also help NDIS providers, Bob Green.