To stand out in any market as a business owner, requires a lot of extra efforts, something above ordinary. A great customer service is key to achieving high level of customer satisfaction, which in turn lead to repeated sales as well as referrals, which are considered the most advanced form of selling. I started my entrepreneurial journey some years ago choosing one of the less tapped sector in the tech space: online Advertising, and a very unique niche of advertising student hostel. Here, I work with two sects of difficult clients; students and hostel managers. If there is anything I know about students, it is that they have great taste and are not easily satisfied. I had to learn some customer service skills by trial and error, it was a tough experience. To save you from the hurdles that most startups face with customers and get you a high customer retention rate, I would be sharing with you what I have learnt that you as a startup owner/founder/co-founder can use to achieve high level of customer satisfaction
1. Build Trust: As startup, you need to get people to trust you, as people are skeptical on their first visit to your website or store. The feeling a customer gets on their first visit to your website or store is similar to the feeling you get when a stranger approach you. So it is your job to let them feel comfortable and make them realize that they can really trust you. This requires that you keep your promise whenever you make one. I once have a client who told me the reason he constantly do business with me is because he trust me. This same client has referred his friends to using my service. When people refer you to their friends or families, their integrity is also at stake. This is why to get more sales, you have to build trust. People will not refer you to their friends or families if they don’t trust you. Some ways you can build trust as a startup is by partnering with already trusted brands, guest posting and other means of offline marketing.
2. Be available always even on weekends: Many sales have been lost as a result of negligence on the part of startup owners who think weekends are not meant for work. You will be surprise at how many sales you could make on weekends. As Jon Hunt, founder of Foxton home (sold for €390million) said

“40% of our viewings are carried out in the evening and at weekends”

Whenever you reject a customer order because you are not available on weekend, you are sending some signals; one is, your client already know you are not business minded, he/she knows you are lazy and probably not the right person for the job. Note that, for every sales you lose, you are indirectly losing 200 more, as every customer knows at least 200 more prospective customers.
3. Never outsource customer service: It is surprising that some startups outsource customer service, which is consider the most important aspect in customer retention, in the name of freeing up time to get more clients. Remember, the aim is never to get more clients, the aim is to make your existing clients happy so that they can refer you to more people. As it is less work to get new clients via referral than to get them without referrals. If at all you are going to outsource your customer service, make sure you set the tone.
4. Have a good return policy: This is particular for ecommerce business where your customers can’t feel the product until they pay. In this type of business, you have to give customers some assurance that if there is any fault in the product or service, you will refund their money without extra charge to them. Most startup founders are afraid to make this type of agreement thinking many people will want to return the product. Here is the truth, those that have tried using this technique have confess that only few customer requested for refund, this numbers were incomparable to the number of extra sales they were able to make by adopting this policy.
5. Speak their language: This is psychology 101 in action. As human being, we tend to like people who share the same convictions and believe with us than those who don’t. So, if your customer speak for example his native language in your conversation and you know how to speak the same language, always use this language, as this establish a form of connection between you. This also extend to other human behavior apart from language, but don’t fake things, because you will get caught easily and that is even more dangerous.
I hope these tips will help you get more customer satisfaction, more sales and more referrals. This is to your success. Cheers

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