Good manners are good business practice
by Brian Turner
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There’s an ancient saying – Good manners are worth gold.
Applying them to your business isn’t simply good practice – it can also increase revenues through customer retention and acquisition.
Here’s a few tips in how to apply good manners in a customer-centric business model:
1. Communicate
When a customer asks for help, reassure them that you are there to help resolve their issue in a timely manner.
Remember to communicate especially when things go wrong – customers are far more forgiving in a crisis when kept informed of how you are trying to help resolve it for them. Silence creates uncertainty.
Whether you are dealing with consumers or business clients, both want re-assurance that you can deliver on your relationship with.
Fail to communicate that, and it’s easy for them to find another company that promises better.
2. Please and Thank You
Don’t be unnecessarily cold – use simple good manners such as “please” and “thank you”.
These aren’t empty words – they show that you respect your customer, and care about how they think about you.
Thank them for their patience and understanding in dealing with support issues, and ask politely if there’s anything else you can help them with.
If a customer knows you care more about them than your competitor, it’s them who lose business, not you.
3. Be sincere
Don’t resort to simply having a saved template or signature to express how much you value your customers.
After a few e-mails, it’ll be noticed and may well be perceived as insincere. And that’s almost as bad as having made no effort at all.
Take the time and effort to personalise all aspects of your correspondence, excepting your name and website link/contact info.
4. The 3 to 10 rule
Happy customers are very happy to refer others to your services. Unhappy customers are even happier to report your bad products/service to others.
People like to spread bad news instead of good – pick up any paper if you don’t believe me.
So when dealing with customers, consider the 3 to 10 rule:
- for every happy customer you create, you generate 3 sales,
- for every unhappy customer you create, you lose 10 sales
Which do you want?
5. Dealing with churn
Customer churn is inevitable in most businesses.
Don’t think for a moment, though, that just because you lost a customer to competitor, means that the customer won’t come back.
It’s not unusual for consumers to buy from different providers, see which they like best, then stick with that one.
Do what you can to make every customer lost welcome to come back again, and some of them will.
6. Develop reputation with customers
Reputations aren’t bought by marketing budgets – they are earned through the goodwill of your customers.
Just being polite isn’t always enough – sometimes you need good manners in action as well as words.
So be gracious by putting in that little bit extra to ensure that your customers are not simply happy, but delighted.
7. You are your business
How you deal with people in public, reflects on how people think you deal with customers in private.
So if you are rude to people in public, people will presume you are rude in private to your customers.
So be polite and accommodating even to your accusers and competitors in public, and people will know you can only be that and more to your customers.
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