4 Tips to Help Employees Increase Customer Satisfaction

With the need to create and market innovative products and services to consumers, some business owners overlook customer satisfaction. While providing great customer service may seem like a basic idea, many businesses fail because they don’t address customer concerns. Customer satisfaction is important because people who are happy with your company are more willing to recommend it to their friends and work with you again. By taking active steps to emphasize customer service to employees, you can give your business a better chance of succeeding and growing.

Get Every Employee Involved

Within your business, you want to create a culture of customer satisfaction. This means that employees at the lowest and highest levels need to be committed to providing quality customer service. If you have a new business, it is important that you make customer satisfaction part of your training from the beginning. Make sure your employees understand and feel committed to providing the best possible experience possible for customers, whether you operate a storefront business or ecommerce website. Employee recruitment can also be an important part of this. When hiring supervisors or everyday workers, look for individuals who not only have the skills and knowledge to do the job but have strong interpersonal skills. People are more apt to have a positive customer service experience if they are dealing with people who can smile, listen to them and provide knowledgeable information.

Keep Customer Service in Mind

Every interaction your employees have with customers can have an impact on their overall satisfaction. Customer service involves greeting customers at the door, asking them if they need any help, and being helpful in general. It’s also important to approach individuals who look like they have questions, answering direct inquiries or finding someone who can, making sure customers have the speediest and simplest checkout process possible. You can also use an expert’s guide to providing excellent customer service to help learn how to respond to any complaints or issues effectively. Through training, you can teach your employees to make everything they do, no matter how small the task, about customer satisfaction. The ultimate goal is to show that your customers are valued during every interaction.

Address Customer Complaints

Your company isn’t going to be perfect, and mistakes will happen. It is how your employees deal with these issues that can impact your customers’ view of your business. Many companies lose customers because they don’t adequately address customer problems. If consumers feel brushed off or ignored, they are less likely to work with your company again or tell their friends and family about you. Whether you are operating a small local business or a larger corporation, you want to make sure your employees address customer complaints in a timely manner, with minimal work for your customers. Developing guidelines for your employees and customers can help, but you want your team to be flexible and calm when handling customer complaints. A clearly-defined policy for returns, outlined on paperwork for employees and customers, can help to avoid confusion. Try to involve your employees in developing and reworking your return process, if necessary. Employees at different levels often can provide valuable feedback on how to simplify your policy or make it more customer-friendly. Make sure to include your customers in the return process, if possible. Your team can involve them by offering them different solutions to problems that arise. If customers feel your staff is willing to work with them, they will likely have a more positive view of your business.

Seek Feedback from Customers

Often, business owners don’t know when customers aren’t satisfied and aren’t able to provide suggestions to their employees as a result. You can help your employees to improve individually and as a team by actively gathering feedback from your customer base. Have your employees look at social media and ratings websites and keep track of comments. This will make your employees part of the process and allow you to get some insight on how your company can better address customer needs. You can also get your team involved in collecting customer feedback through in-store or online surveys. Have your employees help to develop and initiate the surveys and use the information gathered to guide you as you make changes your business.

Customer satisfaction isn’t just a phrase you want to throw around to draw in consumers. It is something that your business needs to be committed to wholeheartedly to be able to survive in a competitive, oversaturated market. To be able to succeed, you need to make employees and customers a part of the customer service process and create an overall culture that encourage positive and constructive employee-customer interactions.

About the author

Rachelle Wilber is a freelance writer living in the San Diego, California area. She graduated from San Diego State University with her Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and Media Studies. She tries to find an interest in all topics and themes, which prompts her writing.

When she isn't on her porch writing in the sun, you can find her shopping, at the beach, or at the gym. Follow her on Twitter and

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