There is no better way to follow the cliché "Stay close to your customer" than to actually be your customer. Experience doing business with your company as much as possible, just as your customer does.
Test Your Product and Services:
- Try the Assembly Instructions: If you are not familiar with the assembly instructions that accompany your product, give them a try. If you are familiar with the assembly, give them to a non-technical person to do the assembly. This can provide valuable insights into potential areas of confusion or difficulty for your customers.
Evaluate Your Customer Service:
- Call Your 800 Number: Call with a tricky question, one you discovered reading customer complaint letters or quality surveys. How long does it take to get connected to a person? What do you think of the tunes played while you wait? Does the person you're connected to have the authority to solve your problem? If you get the problem solved, or if you don't, call back and do it all over again. See if there is a difference in outcome from the two calls. This approach can help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your customer service team.
Monitor Your Marketing Response:
- Fill Out Inquiry Cards: Fill out your advertising inquiry cards and monitor the response. Fill out a business reply card and monitor the response. Put a note on the bottom of the form saying, "To anyone reading this form: You, or the charity of your choice, will get $25.00 if you call me. My number is..."
Engage with Customer Feedback:
- Read Customer Complaints: Read any and all customer complaints, especially old ones. Call the customers. It is not easy to be your own customer, especially when the sales cycle is long, when the purchase involves a lot of money, or when the product or service experience is complex. Yet, when it is hard to be a customer is exactly when you must be one. For instance, using a registered voters mailing list can help you identify and reach out to customers who have provided feedback, ensuring their issues are addressed.
Improve Your Customer Experience:
- Reflect on Personal Experience: Do you think your doctor waits an hour in a patient waiting room when they see their doctor? If they did wait an hour, maybe you wouldn't be kept waiting in their waiting room. When you are your own customer and you are happy and pleased, your business will do well, and vice versa.
By actively engaging in the customer experience, you can identify and resolve pain points, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately enhance your business's performance. Utilizing targeted mailing lists, such as a physicians mailing list, can help you gather specific feedback from key demographics, ensuring that your improvements are well-informed and effective.