Speaker 1: Top 10 ways to improve customer satisfaction. You're going to want to get a pen and paper out for this and start making a list and be thinking about how you can actually implement these in your business. First things first, here's the first one. Use the customer's name. Whether you're on the phone, whether you're in person, a person's name is the most important word in any language in the whole world. It's the most important thing a person can hear so be cognizant, be aware of the customer's name and use it as often as is appropriate in your conversations. You don't want to like tack their name on the end of every sentence of course. Using the customer's name is going to create a relationship of trust between you and your customer and it lets them know that you're really interested in who they are and what problems you're solving. Be genuine, be real, be authentic. Here's what I mean by that. If I am at the top of my game, I'm going to give the customer everything I've got. I've also had instances where I am set up to do a mentoring appointment or a coaching appointment with someone and I am not at the top of my game. For my customer's benefit, I'm going to call my customer ahead of time and say, I've had some things that have taken away my hundred percent and I'm not able to deliver that for you right now. In order to give you the best that I'm capable of, I'm actually going to reschedule our appointment to a point where I can give you everything that you came to offer. So be authentic, be genuine with people, be real, share with them you know what what's going on in your world if that's necessary but don't be fake, you don't give promises that you can't fulfill on, don't say that you can do things that you can't actually do, don't over promise and under deliver, be genuine with what you can do, be genuine with what you can offer and be a real person whether you're communicating like this where it's a camera and you and me or whether it's face-to-face, we're actually able to breathe in each other's airspace, be a real genuine authentic human being. I mean as a customer, you know this, you know what it's like to deal with people who are fake, who are disingenuous and who you know over promise and under deliver so don't be that guy, be a real genuine solutions provider. Number three, I call this, the buck stops here. People hate it when they are diverted or handed off to another rep and another rep or email this person or email this person, that's your job. If you're looking to improve customer satisfaction, you're the one to take the initiative even if you don't have the answers right on hand, you're the one that says, okay, I don't have the answer to this right now but what I'm going to do is email this person or call this person and get the information and I will be responsible for getting that problem solved and I will be responsible for giving that solution to you. The buck stops here, don't send your customers off to five or fifty or two even different places to find the solutions, you be the solutions provider and take responsibility for getting that to them. Number four, don't take complaints personally. Now this is like a mind hack, right? This is something that goes on in your brain. When you have customers that are going to question the satisfaction, you know, they're coming with a complaint, you can take that personally if you want to but it's not going to get you anywhere good. Your customer's complaints don't mean anything about you even if they say it does. Yeah, there's maybe some things that you can improve on in your charisma or your personability with the customer but if the customer is coming with a complaint, they're really coming with a complaint about their experience with your company, not you and if you take it personally, that means you can easily get defensive. Don't waste your time with that because the customer is not going to be improved in their customer satisfaction by you being defensive so don't take it personally, just consider how you can solve the customer's problem. Number five, make sure everyone in your company that's going to be interacting with customers has the same training, that they all treat your customers like the customer is the rock star. Your customer experience needs uniformity, it means no matter who's the customer is going to call, their experience should be stellar no matter what. I know that no matter who I talk to over at Apple, I'm going to have an exceptional customer experience because their training is so universal across the board. I know whoever I talk to at Amazon, if I ever need to call or chat or email them with the customer complaint, that my experience is going to be universal across the board. Your customer should never feel like they need to go to a higher-up or a manager to get their problem solved because they need to be treated equally across the board no matter who they're talking to. Number six, focus on what you can do instead of focusing on what you can't. That means if you have a call with a customer and they've got some problem that you don't know how to solve, share with them what is possible. I mean, don't use the word can't over the phone, think about how this sounds. I'm sorry I can't do that, I'm sorry I don't know how to do that, I'm sorry my company can't do that. Think about how that feels, just check in with your energy on that versus this. Here's what I can do, here's what we can do for you, here's a couple options, which one would you like? Here's one that we can do, here's what I can do is I can talk to my manager, let me talk to them and I will get back to you. I mean again, you're not passing off your customer to that manager, you are taking the initiative and spelling out what is possible. When you focus your energy on what is possible, that's where the solutions will come into play and that's where your customer satisfaction will actually go up. Number seven, that being said, focusing on what you can do, you cannot over promise and under deliver. Do not tell your clients that you can do something that you're actually not capable of doing. So this is going to set up your expectations for your client. If you share with your client that you really want to solve their problem, really want to retain them as a client, you really want to make sure their answers get to them, there you run the risk of over promising. If you for example, promise that you can do something in two weeks when you know it's going to take three, don't set yourself up for an unrealistic expectation. If you know it's going to take three weeks, tell your customer, it could take three weeks, it could take four weeks, I will get that to you as soon as I possibly can, I'll even put a rush order on it, expect it no less than or no more than three weeks. Make sure that you're setting up the proper expectations. One of the biggest problems that you'll run into with customer service is just setting out unrealistic expectations. If your customers knows and want to expect, you can over deliver if maybe you get your product and problem solved within two weeks, that's an over delivery because you're shaving a week off the expectation but don't set your expectations to the point where you can't fulfill on them. Number eight, apologize if it's needed. This is where you get to eat some humble pie, eat some crow, whatever you want to call it. Your customer is coming to you with a complaint, apologize on behalf of your company. Again, don't take it personally, it's not necessarily about you but offer your customer an apology. I'm sorry that that happened to you, I'm sorry that whatever it is and be detailed in the apology. I apologize that this didn't come when expected, let me find the solution to that problem for you. When you are able to offer a sincere apology to your customer, that helps them know that they're a valued customer and that their complaint was actually heard. It also lets them know that whatever you're apologizing for, isn't the run-of-the-mill, it's not the standard for your business so be willing to eat a little bit of humble pie and apologize on behalf of you or from behalf of your company for whatever your customer is complaining for. Number nine, I call this stacking your solutions. So this is when we add value upon value upon value for our client. So if you have something, again, remember that you don't want to over promise and under deliver but stack the value for your client. I love doing this with my clients. You know, I had a client come to me the other day and say, you know, I'm having a problem with how this is changing, with how this program is changing. I say, great, will you actually be willing to compose an email for me and tell me about all the things that you're struggling with in this particular program? And she said, yes, I'd be happy to do that. There's a reason that I do that because I want everything documented. I want it documented for me and I want to document it for them. What actually happened when I invited that email to come to my email box is that the customer, after we had talked, we talked about for 20 minutes or so analyzing the problem. I took the time to listen to this customer and this customer came to me a few days later and I said, hey, I haven't seen the email. Did you ever end up sending that? And she said, no. I said, oh, why was that? And she said, well, it's because I realized I had a lot more to complain about than actually needed solutions and I just needed you to hear me and hear what I had to say. And I say, great, is there anything else I can do to help? She said, not that I can think of and then here's where I started stacking the solutions. I said, let me see where I can add more value to your experience. Would it be beneficial for you to have some one-on- one sessions with me? Now, can I deliver on that? Absolutely. And did we set up times? Yeah, we're in the process of doing that as we speak. In fact, with several of our clients, we're offering that added bonus. So stack the solutions. If you can offer extra value and over deliver, this is your opportunity to do that. Number ten, follow up. Especially if your customer is having a positive experience. Now, usually we'd say, yeah, follow up if they're having a negative experience. Yes, you're going to want to follow up there, that's absolute given. But once you've provided the solutions to your customers, take the time to really show that you are invested in them and that you care about them by following up after the solution has been delivered. Send a text to them, send an email to them, ask them how that solution is working for them, if there's anything else that you can do to improve their customer experience. It really elevates their experience with you and will elevate the feedback when and if it's time for them to give that to you. When you follow up, no matter what. Whether you follow up if the solution hasn't been handled or especially if it has, in both cases, again, the fortune is in the follow-up. It's an opportunity for you to collect testimonials and it's an opportunity for you to get referrals or perhaps solve a problem should another one arise. Those ten steps are absolutely critical to your customer satisfaction. If you follow each of those ten steps, you have all of your bases covered. Now, this is just my top ten ways to improve customer satisfaction. If you're in business for yourself and you have tips and tricks of the trade or in even if you have questions on how you can even more improve your customer satisfaction, drop in the comments below. Let's have a conversation, let's start the mastermind. Hit the subscribe button and let's chat. I'll see you tomorrow.