Every day, we encounter problems and hiccups that cause annoyance and stress. Even the most minute and trivial problem can decrease joy when repeated and multiplied – especially when you’re having “one of those days.”
Take your phone, for example. Have you ever had an app shut down on you while you were in the middle of doing something? What about the view flipping between landscape and portrait while you’re trying to show someone a photo you took? Or what about when you’re too fast for your unlock passcode and think your phone has registered four numbers when it’s only registered three? These are little, meaningless annoyances – #FirstWorldProblems in the grand scheme of things. But when you’re having a bad day, every one of these can be the “last straw.”
What if you could put a stop to all of those little annoyances? As small as they are, wouldn’t that make you just a tinge less stressed and more content? Of course it would. And the same goes for your customers. What may seem like a seemingly small problem or annoyance can compound into major frustration for your customers. And when you, as a company, are committed to pinpointing those little problems and hiccups in relation to your services and eliminating them for a more seamless and pleasant customer experience, you have the power to reduce the stress levels and boost the contentment levels of your customers. You have the power to create a more pleasant customer experience and keep the association positive and stress-free.
And in many cases, eliminating those little problems is easy. But you can’t eradicate what you can’t see – and you can’t see what you aren’t looking for. Are you looking? Here are a few tips to help you identify where you can eliminate little annoyances and make your customers’ experiences and lives just a little bit better…
Read into reviews and feedback. Feedback and reviews aren’t just for other customers – they’re for you! Really analyze what your customer liked about the experience and what they didn’t like about the experience. Sometimes the wording used and the things your customer chooses to mention or leave out can reveal so much. Pro tip: look for the big “but” in each review. What follows will usually let you know where the customer felt discomfort, stress, or disappointment.
Ask your customers, family, and friends. I know it’s crazy, but have you considered asking your customers and others in your life what little problems or hiccups in service reduced their overall satisfaction? Maybe they found it annoying that the service provider didn’t ask before using their restroom. Maybe it bothered them that no one mentioned the service charge when the appointment was made. These are things that, as the business owner, you may not think about. Asking those on the customer side of things can reveal what’s hidden to you, but obvious to the customer.
Hire your own company or another company to perform the service in your home. If you can be objective, take things a step further and actually spend some time in the customer’s shoes. Hire your own company or another company to come out and do a job in your home. The perk of hiring your own company is that you’ll get a true idea of what type of experience your customers are having, given that the techs really do treat you just like a normal customer. The perk of hiring another company is that you’ll see what they do better or worse than you, which may open your eyes to opportunities to improve and surpass their level of service.
Read the reviews of your competitors. So many business owners are obsessed with their competitors, but they don’t take the time to really use their competitors for their own growth. When you read your competitors’ reviews, you can see what their customers liked and disliked about their experience. Use that to better your business. After all, you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be better. So look for where your competitors are succeeding and failing and use that knowledge to improve your business and win over new customers.
You have a lot more power than you may think. So don’t just perform a service – improve your customers’ lives, every little way you can.