Hubspot 7 Steps to Delighting Customers

Many businesses spend more time money and time on acquiring new customers than focusing on existing customers. As a result, the existing customers feel left out and you risk losing their loyalty. Did you know that it is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire new customers than retain the existing customers? After hearing this  you would think it is more reasonable to spend more time on existing customers, but many businesses fail to delight their customers. Only 7% of consumers say that their customer service experience exceed their expectations. So, if your business provides proper customer delight, you will have a competitive advantage. As long as you have trust with your customers, you will have lasting relationships. There are 7 customer delight guidelines that you should follow if you want to create an Inbound Experience.

1. Delight Employees: Simon Sinek said, "Customers will never love a company until the employees

love it first." If you have happy employees you will have happy customers, which are a company's greatest assets. Hiring methodology is a key feature in creating happy employees. Before you hire employees, you should test their skills, culture, beliefs, experiences, and ideas. If the employee doesn't fit well in the company's culture they will not be able to properly delight customers.

2. Educate Employees: In previous blog posts I have talked about buyer personas. EVERY employee should be able to identity the buyer persona. They need to know who they are trying to delight, so that they can best meet their needs. Small interactions with customers make a major difference in the overall experience. Employees should be able to make a customers experience the best it can be. To do this, they should attend on-going training, share experiences, and learn by doing, NOT lecturing.

3. Empower Employees: People see employees as the face of a business. So, they should be able to solve problems, provide recommendations, and be enthusiastic and fun. Most  importantly, their personalities should be able to shine. After all, you did hire them for a reason, so if you let their personalities be apparent to the customer, it will help build trust and loyalty.

4. Listen: Listening is crucial. When customers say something, repeat what they say so that you better understand what they are saying. Silence is key. Let the customers talk and you can listen to solve their problem. Collecting data also helps with this step. You can tell a lot from social media websites, so it is important to monitor them and know why the results are the way they are.

5. Ask Questions: Exploring with a customer helps to better know what you need to do to meet their needs. A way to start is by asking questions such as: how, what, where, why, when, and who. Paying attention to non-verbal cues are also important. You can tell a lot from a person from just their body language and facial expressions.

6. Help and Educate: An effective way to help and educate is by creating content just for the customer. It's not what you say, but how you deliver and make them feel about their overall experience. For instance, a customer representative might promise to have someone give the customer a call back within the hour. The customer will be expecting a call within the hour, and if they do not receive the call, they will not be delighted.

7. Follow-Up: It is important to make sure that you ALWAYS resolve the customers problem. A tip to remember is to solve for the customer, not the number. If you solve their problem, there is a higher chance that they will stay a loyal customer. As I mentioned above, being on time is important. You can promise them a number of things they want to hear, but you must deliver those promises on time.

Tip: Trust is key to lasting relationships. Promoters will help attract more strangers to your business, so you should spend more time on trying to delight existing customers.