The Customer is King

When I was 15, my first job was bagging groceries at a local supermarket. It was boring, underpaid, and sometimes frustrating—especially when customers took their moods out on me. After one such encounter, I retreated to the break room where a sign read, “The Customer is Always Right.” I scoffed. It was irritating to read, but I understood the gist of the mantra anyway.

While critics of this customer service philosophy contend that it risks enabling rude or entitled customers, the phrase isn’t supposed to be taken so literally. The point isn’t that customers should always get their way, no matter how outrageous their demands are. On the contrary, the phrase is intended to prompt businesses to stop and truly listen to their customers.

The reality is that customer experience is a key competitive differentiator. Here are three reasons why:

Meet and Exceed Standards

Customers have high standards and are willing to take their business elsewhere if you don’t meet their expectations. Over 60 percent of customers say they would switch to a company’s competitor after just one bad customer service experience. Make it more than one bad experience, and that number snowballs to 76 percent

Happy Customers = Better Business

With consumers having more choices than ever before, the way a company treats its customers is now a key differentiator in the eyes of customers and companies alike.
In fact, 60 percent of customers have purchased something from one brand over another based on the service they expect to receive

Loyal Customers Stay

When businesses invest in their customers and make them feel like a priority, they can build customer relationships that will last through difficult times. Sixty percent of customers who often interact with support say that a bad interaction with a business can ruin their day, so it’s crucial for your team to build and invest in customer experience.

Customer Service is Marketing

The bottom line is that customer service is your best marketing tactic. Preventative measures are key. Bad customer service can tank your business’s reputation, and more times than not, it’s incredibly difficult to recover from.

Read more on how to build customer centric attitudes with your team at the next blog post.