When you have customers who complain and then walk out, you have an understanding of where you’ve made a mistake.
This helps you retarget your efforts and improve your business to give better products and services.
But what if they just become silent? How would you know what made them lose interest in your business?
When it comes to losing customers, sometimes, it all comes down to 5 key mistakes that you might be making.
1. You are not customer-centric
If the question you focus on when it comes to your business is “What can I sell to customers today?” instead of “How can I help my customers today?”, you are not focusing on the most important aspect of your business: your customers. They are the reason your business exists and why you have profit. Focusing only on your own needs will lead you to lose the game.
This can also extend to your channel support – limiting your channels to only what you are comfortable with is likely to frustrate a significant portion of your customer base.
2. You don’t have a strong customer service team
Customer service is difficult, and thus, it must be done by the right people who have a good grasp on your products/services, are good communicators and problem-solvers, and are trained to effectively handle difficult situations. Employees that are properly motivated, trained, managed, and genuinely enjoy their work and the workplace are your sure tickets to happy customers.
3. You failed to deliver on your promise
As a business, you’ve set on yourself a mission that presents itself as a promise from you to your customers. When you fail to deliver on it, your customer base will start to think that you fooled them into believing something but ultimately did not get what they came to your business for.
Whether it’s the quality of your products/services, return policy, delivery times, or anything else, you are essentially asking your customers to trust you because of these factors. Do your absolute best to keep them.
4. You didn’t learn from past negative feedback
Positive feedback is great for your public image, but negative feedback is your greatest resource to learn more about your business, what you’re doing wrong, and where you can still improve. Holding on to your pride and insisting that the negative feedbacks are baseless will only lead you to committing them repeatedly until you’ve driven away a good chunk of your customer base.
Listen to negative customer feedback with a level head and the right attitude. Not only will you know the areas that you are lacking, but you will also show to your customers that their opinions and experiences are important to your business.
5. You haven’t given them a reason to return
You may have the best customer service, products/services, offers, etc., but if you aren’t offering something to your customers that will convince them that you’re worth coming back to, you’re essentially letting them go immediately after your first transaction.
Showing your long-time customers that they are important to your business through benefits like special offers, discounts, exclusive perks, etc. will not only help you retain a loyal customer base, but may also attract new ones who will want to enjoy those same benefits.
Your customers are the most important part of your business. Making sure that they don’t give up on being your customers is no walk in the park, especially when you don’t know where you went wrong. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t do something about it. It all boils down to knowing what could be the cause, and addressing it accordingly.