5 Of The Most Reliable Ways To Improve Your Clients’ Experiences

“The customer is always right.”

Right?

If you’re an expert at what you do, this phrase can sometimes come off as a bit of a trigger, as the customer is certainly NOT always right. As the hired expert you usually know better.

But if delivering for your clients is truly a top priority, there is another way of reading this phrase without interpreting it as having to bend over backwards for never-ending or out-of-scope client requests. If I were to rephrase it more accurately, it would sound something like: “The project can’t be a success if the client isn’t satisfied.”

Whether your customer is right or wrong, meeting your client’s expectations for the project is the central tenet of any service-driven business.

If you can’t satisfy customers, you just … don’t have a business.

And unhappy customers don’t tend to stick around. Not unless you’re a monopoly, anyway. You can make your customer experience better and keep them happy. And it’s not that hard. You just need a few simple tips.

It’s Simple, Really: Under-Promise And Over-Deliver

You cannot skip this …

“Under-promise and over-deliver” is a well known phrase in sales. Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk calls it the “51/49” rule, saying that if you want to succeed you need to give more than you get back.

It’s not only a good principle, it’s good business. When you under-promise and over-deliver you make your customer happier. A happy customer is more likely to be understanding in the future if and when something goes wrong.

Murphy’s Law still exists, and sooner or later even the most capable companies have something that runs late, doesn’t deliver as planned or isn’t what the customer wanted. If you’ve been under-promising and over-delivering, that little disruption isn’t going to blow up the relationship.

Get (Appropriately) Personal With Customers

Your customers want personalization, and they’re willing to give up a bit of privacy to get it…

Just ask them.

90% of U.S. consumers find personalization very or somewhat appealing. They want more customized recommendations, more personal emails, more individual preferences. You need to dive deep into your data and find out what makes your customers tick.

“Retailers have been invested in understanding their customers for years,” said Antonio Perini, CEO of Milkman, in an email exchange. “Now it’s bleeding into every facet of the customer experience, even logistics. Understanding consumers’ home delivery preferences, combined with learning algorithms and AI, can help optimize customer experiences and give them the personalization they want. People will get more and more customized experiences as time goes on.”

Getting to know your customers more deeply allows you to create better messaging and a better overall experience. There is a pretty big caveat here, though: given the way the privacy landscape has changed in the last couple of years, people are beginning to be aware how much information they have out there about themselves. Make sure your customers know you’re not using their data in a poor or unsafe way.

Keep Customers In The Loop (As Much As They Like, At Least)

Surprises can be fun. A message that says “Hey, we want to show our appreciation for our customers. Here’s a 20% off coupon!” might be a pretty welcome surprise for your customers.

But other surprises can be less exciting. Surprises like “Sorry, your project is going over budget.” Or “Whoops, we just exposed your data to Russian hackers.” Or “Sorry, we just spent years opening unwanted bank accounts under your name.”

Many companies will only bring situations to their customers once the problem has been leaked to the press or is so large it can’t be ignored any more. Lean into transparency. For better or worse, let your customers know what’s going on. Make sure there are as few bad surprises as possible. They’ll appreciate the communication.

Go Out Of Your Way To Protect Your Customers’ Time

Time isn’t money. It’s more valuable than money. Which is why people (especially successful people) are so protective of it.

Your customers will appreciate it when you save them time.

Personalization can help with this. So can consistent, effective delivery strategies. Even being deliberate with your communication and not wasting your clients’ time with too many questions can play into this.

Save your customers time whenever possible. You can use my Price to Freedom Calculator to crunch your most important business numbers and see where you might be spending too much time or money.

Work To Build A Culture Of Genuine Customer Appreciation

You can’t fake appreciation.

Sooner or later if your company doesn’t really appreciate its customers, it will show up in the way you treat them. Great companies care. And they show it through their culture.

Even if you’re only working with a project manager or another mid-level contact it matters. You can’t just focus on the C-suite. A culture of genuine customer appreciation requires that you treat everyone in every company you deal with well — whether they’re the CEO or the mail room employee.

Your culture flows from the top. If you as an owner or founder don’t care about your customers, your employees will pick up on that. Remember: without customers, your business fails. Their money keeps your company running. They deserve to be treated well by your business.

Customer experience is something that big companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to get right. Something like the size of a button on a homepage, the direction of an email campaign or the level of customization in a recommendation engine may take up a pretty big chunk of a large corporation’s focus.

Your company is no different. Big or small, you have to prioritize customer experience. And though you might not have the same level of resources to throw at it, if you keep these five areas top of mind you’ll be ahead of the curve.