While being the mother to a 4-year-old, I always thought that my customers are my second babies. The ground rule for every mother is to trust her instincts and remember that every baby is different. Just like there are no tried and tested practices in motherhood, there are no tried and tested strategies in Customer Success.
Every customer is an individual. And every individual needs to be catered as a separate identity and nurtured with a distinct pace.
We need to learn and adapt to the working style, mode of communication and timing each of our customers prefer as swiftly as possible and then tailor our interactions accordingly. The better we adapt to their ways, the stronger the bond becomes. Afterall, strong customer relationship is the foundation of any business organization.
Putting ourselves in their shoes is the best way to get a second look at our services and understand their perspective. Many a time, forethinking and analyzing their behavior patterns help us a long way in meeting the customer satisfaction.
By having our finger on the pulse of the customer’s needs, we acquire the authority to control the situation without taking away the power from the customers.
There is no winning formula as such which can guarantee you the customer loyalty. Doing our best to make the customers understand that they are our priority, our center of the universe in the good times as well as the bad times, will definitely help you earn the much needed brownie points.
Turning your happy customers into your brand advocates is just a cake walk then!
As the competition heats up, it is always good to have a strong backing from your genuine customers who can go an extra mile to help you get the new business.
To make this happen, every customer’s journey should have a WOW factor to make it memorable. A magic ingredient which will make them cherish your service forever.
Below are few magic sprinkles that I keep using for my wonderful customers. Mind you, they are no rocket science but simple gestures that count! 🙂
- Onboarding Welcome Kit
Like the babies, any new customer always craves for constant attention in the initial stage. Breaking the ice and making a lasting impression here is the key.
As an ice-breaker I always make sure I send a warm welcome email to the client which not only strikes “assurance” chord but also gives them a sneak peek of the process ahead.
For this, an onboarding kit as a welcome gift always helps.
This welcome kit should include
- A short bio of the CSM who will be managing this account along with his/her snapshot.
Having a face to the name whom the customer will be interacting daily adds a personal touch.
- Introduction to the company, process flows, the execution lifecycles of the product/services the customer has bought, Instruction Manual
- Project plan
- TAT charts
- Support Information
- Relevant Video Tutorial links (if any) of the products or services
- FAQs
- Escalation Hierarchy
- Frequent Roundtable Interaction
This adds a lot of value to your retainer clients. Having frequent interactions with the client helps build trust.
It also gives the client a feeling that they are a part of something big!
- User-friendly Documentation
Always share the documents that are easy to understand. The language and the content in the document should be compatible and presented in a form which the user can comprehend and apply as needed. The documents should be clear, concise, accessible and complete.
- Mid-Project Surveys
Survey is an unbiased approach to decision-making. They help you understand the customer perspective and analyze where the service needs to improve based on the results.
Instead of conducting surveys at the end of the project, mid-project surveys help us gather insights into the ongoing project journey and convert the downers into customer happiness.
- LinkedIn – Add them in your network
As customers can be advocates of any business, they can be advocates of your personal brand too.
Impressing your client with a strong LinkedIn profile is the key. And as you collaborate with them for work, asking for recommendation at the end never hurts!
There are multiple ways a customer can be serviced. A curious mind and a will to serve better is all we need.
At the end making customers look like heroes is all that matters.
So, folks, how do you serve your customers? Do you follow any unique approach? What are your differentiators? Let me know, I am all ears!
Archana Gaonkar | Customer Success Diary 