Category: Learning Zone

One Last Opportunity To Make Unhappy Customers Raving Fans

Patrick Griffin 1 Comment

Make Unhappy Customers Raving Fans

Despite all your best efforts every now and again you will have to deal with customer complaints. It takes some effort to make unhappy customers raving fans.

Even if you do an outstanding job it is just impossible to please everybody all the time.

The worst kind of unhappy customer are the ones who just stop using your goods and services because they are dissatisfied and yet they never tell you why.

They are unhappy, they may tell all their friends that they are unhappy and yet they don’t even give you the opportunity to put things right.

Last time we spoke about how it was the expectations of your customer – how they perceive in their own minds the value of your goods or services to be – which will determine whether they will go on to buy from you again or not.

Sometimes you are given a golden opportunity to convert a customer from unsatisfied to highly satisfied when they complain about their purchase.

Maybe they reply to your RocketResponder email (always check your business email account regularly for communication from customers) or reach out to you via social media.

If you are going to stand any chance of converting them into happy customers then you must do the following:

  • Deal with their complaint promptly
  • Immediately you receive the complaint contact them back to let them know the matter has your personal and urgent attention
  • If you need more information to deal with the matter then ask for it.
  • If the customer is being angry or abusive resist the temptation to respond in a like manner, remain professional at all times.
  • If you made a mistake admit it and put things right – offer a refund, replacement, compensation or whatever you think is appropriate in the circumstances.
  • Above all leave the customer in no doubt that you are taking their complaint seriously.

Do this and there is a good chance that a dissatisfied customer has been transformed into a loyal fan because their expectations have now been exceeded.

This can especially be the case if their initial reaction was abusive and/or completely over the top, which can often happen when people are angry.

Remember a service like RocketResponder is not only to provide a one way flow of traffic from you to the customer. Use it for efficient two way dialogue and you can get even better results.

Customers may respond directly to emails you send out and don’t forget that you can, and should, ask questions of your customers to find out how they perceive you and your business and to gain insight about how you could do things better.

Influencing Perceived Value Of Your Customers – Exceeding Expectation

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 Influencing Perceived Value

Last time we explained that it was important to give your customers value but that the customer’s perception of value is key to making them feel good about the purchase. Today we are discussing the influencing perceived value of your customers.

This leads to the rather paradoxical conclusion that your customers can feel really happy about an inferior product and really unhappy about a superior one.

Thankfully it is not totally hit and miss and you can really go a long way to influencing this perception of value.

The trick is to understand that your customer will have some expected value for the performance they want your products or services to live up to.

If, when they examine and use the goods they have paid for, the performance is better than their expectations then they will be satisfied and the perceived value will be high.

If, on the other hand, the product falls short of their expectations for it, then the perceived value will be low and they are unlikely to buy from you again.

This is why you will see that a lot of companies put huge emphasis on the notion of exceeding customer expectation because this is the performance standard which will almost guarantee happy, loyal and repeat custom.

Think of it like this, there are three things you can do in this regard:

  • fail to meet expectation – the customer will be unhappy, disappointed, maybe even angry with you and will not want to buy again. They may even demand a refund and fire off an angry email or letter to you.
  • meet expectation – you have delivered exactly what the customer wanted. They expected “x” and they got exactly that. You have not really triggered any deep emotions here and so you have not won any really loyal fans. Your product will be easily forgotten.
  • exceed expectations – You have gone over and above what the customer thought they would get. If they thought they were already getting something of good value, now they think they have got something of extra-ordinary value. You have won raving fans who are likely to encourage their friends and family to buy from you too.

Try and look at the goods and services you offer from the point of view of your customers. Do you think you meet, fail to meet or exceed their expectations and could you do anything differently to do even better.

One thing you could do is use your RocketResponder broadcast message function to ask your customers to tell you how you are doing…the feedback could prove invaluable.

Why The Feelgood Factor Is Absolutely Critical

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 keep your customers happy

The chances are that in business you will want to keep your customers happy.

After all happy customers are good because they:

  • don’t complain about you
  • don’t cause any problems
  • buy more from you and
  • encourage their friends to buy from you

One of the reasons you use a service like RocketResponder to communicate with your customers is to help ensure they feel valued by you.

You want to keep them happy and one way of doing that is in the communications you have with them via email.

It makes sense that another way you keep them happy is by ensuring that the goods or services you provide are of real value to them and constantly exceed their expectations.

The concept of value here is a very interesting one. Consider the following question:

What is more important, the actual value provided by the goods ore services you offer or the perceived value that the customer has of it?”

If you think it is the absolute, actual value then studies have shown that you are wrong.

Your customers will be more influenced by the value that they perceive their purchase to have – irrespective of its actual value to them.

This means:

  • your customers will be satisfied if the perceived value is better than the actual value
  • your customers will not be happy – and thus unlikely to make further purchases from you – if the actual performance of what they bought is quite good but they perceive it to be bad.

Basically they want to feel good about the purchase and feel good that the purchase is right for them and for their lives.

Think about what you offer and think how you consider your customers would perceive the value to be.

Next time we will look at what influences this perceived value.

The Danger of Discounting Prices Too Often

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Discounting Prices Too Often

You will already know about the importance of communicating with your subscribers and customers. Now we discuss the danger of discounting prices too often.

RocketResponder is a tool which allows you to ensure that important messages are always sent out regularly and on time.

This post deals with another important message which you may be inadvertently sending out if you are in a position where you set your own prices.

Obviously if you are an affiliate marketer then you don’t control the price but this information is still important to you if you offer bonuses or other extras to tempt in customers to buy from you.

Your customer will tend to have a price in their head which they consider a “fair price” for whatever it is they are buying.

This applies to everything from a can of soft drink to a new car or a luxury holiday.

If you sell goods which are at or below the “fair price” level then it is far more likely that someone will buy from you than a higher priced competitor.

Often marketers will try to give themselves an edge over their competition by lowering their prices – maybe for a holiday-themed special offer, a special sale or some other reason to discount on the normal higher price.

Similarly affiliate marketers will often include an exclusive package of bonuses to customers who buy the goods or services being promoted through their affiliate link. Bonuses could include a cash-back payment, free bonus products, free reports or free training on how to use the item being purchased.

As one off tactics – such as during an initial product launch or over a Black Friday weekend – these can be very lucrative indeed.

The danger comes if, in order to continue gaining a competitive advantage, you offer the discounted deal over and over again.

Now the discounted deal or the deal with all the added bonuses is so generally expected that this becomes the new “fair price” in the buyer’s mind.

So if you try to raise it to the old “normal” price again your customers will be less likely to buy from you and will tend to wait until you offer the discount again.

The lesson is that it is always a good marketing tactic to offer discounts – especially seasonal discounts – but don’t discount so often that the lower prices become regarded as normal in the mind of the consumer.

 

 

Branding Is More Important Now Than Ever It Was

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Email communication tips

Email communication tips: In the last post we discussed how branding has been compared to a religious experience for many.

Today I heard a new way of describing branding…and it certainly helps demonstrate how important it is in today’s marketplace.

Marketing expert Liz Papagni said this:

“Marketing without branding is like fishing without a hook.”

Think about that for a moment.

What Liz is saying here is that without branding, then marketing is futile.

Maybe her message is a little extreme because marketing will certainly get your message out to people but it is a laborious process which needs to repeated well..for ever or for as long as you want to remain in business.

But branding is the opposite. Branding is a tool which will pull customers in to you. Use marketing to push your message out there and use branding to pull customers in to you.

Liz goes on to say in her post:

“In an ideal world, a solid brand should precede your marketing. However, that’s not to say it’s ever too late to begin developing a branding plan for the future. No matter when you start, it’s sure to offer immense benefit to your marketing program and outcomes.”

Branding, done properly will also help you to better communicate with your customers and RocketResponder is one of the best tools you could use to ensure your email communication is done effortlessly and efficiently.

If you have never really thought about branding before then check out Liz’s post as it sets out some very important points about why branding is such a powerful too.

After all you wouldn’t go fishing without a hook on the end of the line.