It can take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get a customer on the line. So the last thing you want to do is lose a customer at the last moment or prevent them from becoming a repeat customer. And yet, while that’s not something that any company would voluntarily do, it is something that they often involuntarily do. It doesn’t take all that much to annoy a customer, and once you have, they’ll be looking for another company to give their business to.
So let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. In this blog, we’ll look at some common customer frustrations and offer advice on how you can avoid them in your own business.
Surprise Charges
If there’s one thing that customers hate, it’s thinking that they’re going to pay one thing and then finding out that they’re expected to pay another. You can’t blame a customer for hitting the ‘x’ button and going elsewhere. In fact, the success rate for this ploy is so low that you wonder why companies do it. Wherever possible, it’s important to be as upfront as possible about the total cost of your services. It’s not like the customer will proceed with the payment if you levy a big additional charge at the end anyway.
Complicated Checkout Processes
If a customer is going to go through the process of picking something they want to buy from you, then you absolutely need to make it possible for them to make that purchase. Though we’d like to think otherwise, a customer is not so committed to buying from you that they’ll spend significant time waiting to make a payment. They’ll just go elsewhere. If you run a “real world” store, then look at getting pos software so you can easily collect payments. If yours is an online business, then take another look at your checkout process, and make sure there aren’t more steps than there need to be.
Hard to Reach
If everything goes well, then your customers will have no need to contact you. But if there’s one thing to know about business, it’s that you can’t rely on everything going well all the time. There’ll be times when your customer has a complaint or question. Nothing annoys a customer more than needing to speak to someone at a business only to find that they can’t find any contact information. On your website, make sure you clearly display your phone number, social media channels, and email address.
Poor Customer Service
And what about when they get in touch? When a customer picks up the phone, they expect to speak to someone at the company who knows things and who can help them. Having poorly trained customer service agents is as bad as having none at all. In fact, it’s probably worse. For all your customer-facing roles, make sure the employee has a good grasp of the company, the process for helping, and so on. Make your staff knowledgeable. Your customers will thank you.