6 Dos and Don'ts to Ensure Your Customers Remain Loyal
If your business occupies a competitive marketplace and you've worked hard to build up a good customer base, the last thing you want to see is your customers drifting away to spend their money elsewhere. The key to achieving long-term customer loyalty is to build and maintain solid business relationships and have the flexibility to continue providing exactly what they want as times and circumstances change.
Business leaders and sales managers who wish to obtain practical knowledge and guidance on maintaining customer loyalty can obtain the rapport-building and expectation-management skills needed courtesy of the excellent 'Managing Customer Relationships' eLearning module. Delivered by sales training specialists Maguire Training, this introductory module explains how to delight customers, handle complaints, turn them to your advantage and proactively build business relationships which result in long-term customer loyalty.
Today's consumers have more freedom than ever to choose who they do business with, and consequently, any business which seeks to remain profitable should not only attract new customers but make every effort to retain existing customers. A simple, unwitting mistake can cost customer loyalty so here, Maguire Training offers 6 do's and don'ts to ensure that your customers remain loyal.
1) DO put the customer relationship before the sale
Your customer needs to know that you understand their situation and have their best interests at heart. Taking the time to discover their needs and aspirations and building rapport with them will build their confidence in you and better enable you to propose an appropriate solution.
2) DON'T 'leapfrog' a potential customer to close a sale
If your target customer is unresponsive, difficult or non-committal, don't be tempted to bypass them to get to someone else who may close the deal. Doing so is a good way to create an enemy within the organisation you are trying to sell to; this is unlikely to foster long-term loyalty.
3) DO listen as much as you talk
If you want to turn a customer off, simply launch into a long and uninterruptible sales pitch without stopping to listen to their comments, questions or concerns. The customer relationship is a two-way street and you need to demonstrate that you are listening to them and understand them.
4) DON'T blatantly criticise or insult your competitors
By all means, give the reasons why you feel your product or service is better than similar offerings, but be respectful of your competitors in the same way that you'd hope they'd be respectful to you. Customers may interpret your criticism as a sign that you feel insecure when compared with your competitors.
5) DO treat your customers as equals
Irrespective of the status of your customers, you must assume neither superiority nor subservience to them if you wish to forge a mutually respectful and beneficial relationship and retain your customers' loyalty.
6) DON'T spare the truth to close a sale
Nothing destroys customer loyalty more effectively than dishonesty or failing to give a true picture of what the customer can expect from you. Don't recommend a product or service that you are not 100% sure will completely fulfil the needs of the customer purely for the purpose of closing a sale. Their likely dissatisfaction at being "sold short" may make it the last sale you ever receive from them.
How can we help?
Maguire Training can help business managers and sales managers with all aspects of customer service delivery and customer retention, helping businesses to succeed and remain profitable. 'Managing Customer Relationships' is just one of many excellent modules and for the complete convenience of delegates can be obtained as online training, accessible from anywhere via Maguire Training's innovative E-learning platform.
