Are satisfied customers important to a business? Are satisfied customers especially important to a business during a global pandemic? Of course, the answers to both questions are an empathic “yes!”
When customers purchase from a business – any type of business – they seek benefits and solutions to problems and want satisfaction for the money they spend. If they cannot find benefits, solutions, and satisfaction from one business, they will seek these same things from another business…and with intense competition in today’s marketplace for almost any product or service, purchasers can generally find what they want from numerous sellers.
Create Satisfied Customers
Assuming a business provides needed benefits, solutions to various customer problems, and satisfaction for money spent, then it might be assumed that every customer will be ultimately satisfied with the buying experience from a particular business. Obviously, this is not always the case.
If a business wants satisfied customers, then it must also decide how to handle the dissatisfied customer, so they can quickly be converted into satisfied customers. This can be accomplished with a unique tactic known as a creative license.
A creative license gives employees the authorization to do whatever it takes within reason to satisfy a customer. When employees are given a creative license, they then have the ability to ensure that customers are satisfied as much as possible.
Satisfied customers are vitally important to any business since long-term sustainable growth depends on a combination of loyal customers repeating their buying experience and new customers ready to test their satisfaction level with a business. When new customers are satisfied, they will repeat their buying experience, and they then become loyal customers. On the flip side, when customers are disappointed and dissatisfied, they will seek an alternative source for their next purchase rather than repeating an unpleasant buying experience. This holds true for any type of business – retail, service, manufacturing, or professional practices.
Whose Responsibility Is Customer Satisfaction?
In order to ensure customer satisfaction, it should be every employee’s responsibility to work toward this goal. Every employee, regardless of position, should be a salesperson and advocate for the business trying to accomplish the goal of ensuring complete customer satisfaction all the time. It’s important for every employee to remember that without customers there is no business, and when there is no business, there are no jobs!
The Creative License
A creative license authorizes each individual employee who encounters a customer who is not completely satisfied for any reason the ability to do what is necessary (within reason) to turn that dissatisfied customer into a satisfied customer. This means that an employee is not confined only to the boundaries of his or her own department but can step outside their own areas of responsibility when encountering a dissatisfied customer and do what is necessary to change a dissatisfied customer into a satisfied customer.
A few examples might be:
- A discount
- A gift card
- A previous sale price honored
- An expedited shipment at no cost
- Etc.
Ideas are endless…that’s why it’s called a “creative license.” Based on the business, the industry, and the customer base, businesses can be creative when thinking what employees can do to practice a “customer first” philosophy.
Be Transformative
Understanding the importance of total customer satisfaction on long-term growth and success and giving employees a creative license to ensure customer satisfaction when dealing with customers can transform an ordinary business into a growth business. This is an important concept and, especially, important when businesses are still feeling the negative effects of the global pandemic even though there are brighter days ahead. Beating the competition with satisfied customers can be a transformative philosophy and one that should be tried by every business.
