By Marilyn Vinch

Are you looking after your loyal customers? Your marketing and sales departments can be as slick as you like, but if they’re oriented mainly towards wooing and wowing new customers, your business is wasting serious potential. According to Headway Capital, businesses are losing out on billions of dollars each year because they’re failing to capitalize on repeat sales and to ensure their clients are not just buyers, but ambassadors for their service. A neglected customer is far more likely to tell their friends about the experience than to report it to you. Next time they gossip about your business, you want to make sure they’re describing it in positive terms.

Customer service means treating existing customers as loyal guests. That means proactively checking how their experience has been, and whether they’re happy with the service or product your providing. These clients are the best indication you can have of what direction your business needs to go in if it is to prevail. You don’t need to do exactly what they say, but entering a dialogue about their needs and preferences can indicate the trends that your sector can expect to deal with over coming months and years.

And when you make a mistake, as will inevitably happen from time to time, it is important to see it as an opportunity and not just write it off as another customer lost. If you have prepared the ground by developing a relationship with your customers, it will be easier to negotiate a happy outcome from a bad situation. And if you show that your are willing to put in extra effort to ensure they are satisfied, you can retain their patronage over the years, and spread good will towards your business. An unhappy customer isn’t just a financial loss, it’s a blow to your reputation.

Study the infographic below in detail, and be sure to apply these principles in the day to day running of your business. Make a customer happy, and it could be the start of a beautiful friendship!

About Marilyn Vinch