Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, so I thought we would spend this week talking about love – how you can make your customers love you and how you can stay in love with your business. 

You probably do whatever you can to create a good product or service, but you will have competitors, and one of the key things that can differentiate your business in a crowded marketplace is to provide a great customer experience. 

Here are 7 ways you can make your customers love you so they buy more and refer people to you. 

Make it easy for them to buy

Your prospect has decided that they want to buy your product or service! Woot! In a world of instant gratification and one-click purchasing, you need to make it as easy as possible for your prospect to give you their money.

Don’t antagonize them by making them click a bunch of things to purchase.

Don’t ask for a bunch of information that isn’t needed for them to give you their money. You can learn more about them at another point. 

Communicate clearly 

Talk to your prospects and customers in the language they use, not your internal jargon. Everybody is busy and making a customer have to think too much to understand your process or instructions leads to frustration quickly. 

Ensure every communication is skimmable so people can jump to what they are looking for. Everyone is busy and distracted these days. 

Answer common questions

Make sure you have a FAQ (frequently asked questions) page to hopefully give people the answers they need when they buy initially.

Also consider making short videos to explain anything that needs to be assembled, installed, or customized. Your customers will thank you! 

Prioritize loyal customers

Maybe it is just me, but I get really pissed off when new customers get to pay less than I do as a prior customer. It makes me feel like my business is not appreciated. While I understand that incentives to get people to buy for the first time can be helpful, pissing off your existing customer base may not help you in the long run. 

Instead, maybe you ask loyal customers to refer a friend and both get a discount? People usually socialize with people like themselves, so your customer’s friend could be a good customer for you. 

Personalize whenever possible 

We all like to feel special and valued. If there is a way to make a customer feel special, you might want to consider doing that.

A CRM system can help you keep track of a your customer’s special occasions, like a birthday or an anniversary. 

And calling someone by their name is always a nice touch. Bonus points if you remember something about your last interaction with them.

Listen to customer feedback 

If you listen, your customers will tell you how to improve your product or service, or your customer support. While this isn’t always fun to listen to, if you hear the same thing a few times, you might want to address the issue. 

And sometimes customers will suggest things you hadn’t considered that might be a profitable new offering for you! 

Provide timely support 

I know this seems obvious, but if you’ve ever tried to cancel a recurring subscription with a giant software provider, you may have experienced the feedback loop to hell. Even changing your credit card number or telling your bank to stop the payment may not work. It hasn’t for me. I may have to change banks to get this $15 recurring charge to stop. 

Chatbots can be programmed to answer the easy questions, but make sure a customer has access to a live person if their issue is not resolved. Angry customers are way more likely to write a bad review than a happy customer. 

Happy Valentine’s Day to you. Wishing you a profitable business with lots of customers who love you. 

Photo by Obi – @pixel8propix on Unsplash