Four ways you can ensure customer satisfaction at every stage of the engagement journey

Ensuring customer satisfaction is usually towards the top of every business owner’s priorities as, simply put, happy customers create more sales. However, ensuring customer satisfaction should not just be focused on the point of sale, and instead should be upheld throughout the customer’s entire relationship with your company. Doing this will help to encourage return purchases with your company and thus help to establish customer loyalty. Read on to discover four ways that you can ensure customer satisfaction at every stage of the engagement journey.

• Create a customer success journey map

The first thing you should do is draw up a customer success journey map. Simply put, this maps out every step that the customer takes through your business, from being initially drawn in to making a purchase and eventually becoming loyal to your business. Considering each separate step enables you to use analytics and customer engagement tools more effectively, thus making your sales more successful. Customers will be able to clearly see the value in what you are offering and keep coming back for more, forging a bond of customer loyalty. 

• Send welcome emails

Let a new customer know exactly how much their business means to you by sending them a welcome email. You could also send a welcome email to new subscribers to your newsletter or social media sites – after all, any new subscribers have shown an interest in your business and could potentially be converted into customers. Ensuring that you strike the right tone is key to a good welcome email. Keep it polite but friendly, and emphasise all the benefits that come with being a subscriber. However, make sure that you do not overburden subscribers with emails, as studies show that people quickly unsubscribe if they feel that they are being overloaded with communications. 

• Follow-up phone calls

In addition to welcome emails, you could check in on customers a week or two after their purchase with a follow-up phone call. This should include obviously enquiring over the customer’s satisfaction with their purchase – in addition to providing you with direct feedback, it is also an opportunity to resolve any issues if the customer is less than satisfied before they snowball out of control. You should also ask the customer if they have any questions about the product that they would like clearing up. Certain things might have arisen in the weeks since purchasing that they may feel embarrassed to ask about, such as operation details. 

• Prospecting at certain points in the contract 

If the customer has purchased a product on a contract – a car or phone, for instance – there will come a point when that contract is nearly up and the customer has the choice of either staying with your company or going elsewhere. Check in with your customer at certain points in their contract, perhaps offering discounts and extras if they choose to renew their contract with you.