Customer satisfaction and retail business
It should come as no surprise that customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance for retail businesses in order to be successful. If your customers aren’t happy with your products, your service, your prices, your facilities, or other apsects of your business, you can expect your sales to go down and your competition to take the lead. Thankfully, retail customer satisfaction is at an all-time high; brick-and-mortar businesses are boasting strong customer service records, and e-commerce businesses have even higher approval ratings. However, that is not to say that the industry is without its customer service concerns. A recent article from USA Today takes a close look at data released by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and shows how some popular retailers in the nation are among the lower scoring businesses for customer satisfaction.
Of course, bigger businesses tend to have more trouble appeasing the needs of their vast consumer base, and often they are involved in practices or situations that lower overall reputation. That’s why it’s not so surprising to see names like Wal-Mart on the list for least satisfying retailers. But what can you do as a retail professional to ensure that you maintain a high level of customer satisfaction? Here are a couple of tips that might help:
- Get feedback from your customers. Take polls, surveys, ask them questions casually, or offer some form of incentive to respond regarding your business’s performance and customer service.
- Use a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management tool. These will keep things organized and help you answer customer concerns, run promotional campaigns, and much more.
- Maintain a high quality of customer service staff and systems. Ensure that the people your customers interact with are friendly, helpful, and caring.
Customers will always have something to complain about – it might be prices, the layout of your store, changes, or any other petty thing that isn’t really a good indicator of your customer service. What’s important is that you handle the big issues professionally and with a mindset of caring about your customers. Keep your retail business strong with excellent customer service!