How to Rebuild Trust Among Dissatisfied Customers {Guest Post}

Customers’ experience cogently affects a brand’s reputation in the market. According to Vision Critical, 80% of customers won’t buy from companies with negative reviews.  This means that a mutually satisfactory relationship with customers is a vital element of every growing business.

So, if you want to reduce and eliminate dissatisfaction among your customers, you should react to their worries and frustrations quickly and thoughtfully. A well-thought reaction is essential, having in mind that customers’ dissatisfaction may lead to financial losses of up to $75 billion, as stated by Forbes.

Thus, you shouldn’t simply close your eyes in front of the unhappy customers and refocus on attracting new ones. Instead, you should reach out and improve your existing relationships whenever it’s possible. Solving previous customers’ issues helps you create a more stable market position. Creating new relationships with customers may be up to 16 times more expensive than re-connections with old ones, so it’s not the best way, states Annex Cloud.

Is it possible to re-establish that special connection with your old customers that became frustrated at some point? Read on and find out how to turn dissatisfied customers into loyal ones.

#1 Become aware of the source of their frustrations

The easiest (and probably not so wise) decision is to give up on dissatisfied customers. However, what makes you stand out from the competition is exactly the opposite. Deal with the issues they have.

For instance, 74% of people tend to switch brands if they think that the purchasing process is too complicated. So, instead of ignoring them, try to fight for their attention by showing interest in their behavior. Understand what part of the process is frustrating for them and show them that you appreciate their opinion.

You can reach out to dissatisfied customers in no time by making a quick phone call, using live support chat, or sending an email survey. Once they share their frustrations with you, you should try to figure out at what point this frustration appeared. Analyze what happens in that critical moment, and change the aspect that makes your customers go away. Acting upon the same can help you bring them back.

#2 Show them you’re going to change – for real

A business – customer relationship pretty much resembles love relationships. If you can change for the sake of mutual satisfaction, your customers won’t have a reason to run away from you.

Accordingly, try to address the issue and also show them that you’re working on fixing it. The best way of doing so is to create a list of ideas. The ideas should be in sync with their pain points. You can even ask them what seems like the best solution from their point of view. Also, you can tell them about the reasons that led to the unpleasant situation showing them that you’re more aware of your mistakes.

#3 Transform your improvement ideas into action plans

Achieving customers’ satisfaction requires their wishes and suggestions to become a part of clearly defined re-connection goals. Once you get the customers’ feedback on the changes required, you should do your best to transform their opinions as well as your ideas into actionable plans.

To avoid any type of delays and misunderstandings, these plans should be based on thorough research with well-defined resources and backed up with detailed timelines and deadlines.

#4 Provide safe and real-time service

Did you know that a study by The Chartered Institute of Marketing showed that 57% of respondents are suspicious about the way companies use their personal data? Consequently, reliability should be the main focus in the process of re-connection. The customers will only rely on you again if you provide them with a trustworthy environment that should be based on:

  • Respecting their privacy
  • Providing safe and reliable payment options
  • Real-time communication based using live chat support tools like ProProfs Chat

When it comes to real-time communication, businesses tend to fall into the trap of social media. A large number of brands decide to interact with customers on social networks, putting time efficiency in front of reliability (66% of adult customers state that valuing their time is the most important thing when it comes to customer experience).

The focus should never be only on time efficiency. Privacy of your customers should never be ruled out. You have to understand what type of information can be shared using social media, and, therefore, provide some adequate ways of interaction when it comes to delicate personal information. Once your customers start trusting you, there will be greater chances of gaining their loyalty again.

#5 Motivate dissatisfied customers

Nothing really changes the mind of frustrated customers like well-thought incentives and promotional offers. Apart from reaching out to them in terms of addressing their pain points, a good incentive can be a pretty stimulative way of regaining customers’ loyalty and affection. And if you’re wondering what you can offer to make them reevaluate your business, there are a lot of choices. You may go for special discounts, vouchers, gift cards, promotional kits, giveaways, etc.

However, what’s most important about incentives is to make them widely visible. You don’t want to create a giveaway campaign that won’t reach your target audience. Right? When reaching out to your old customers, make sure to use as many ways as possible to get to them, engaging with them in both the online and offline community.

Conclusion

Dealing with unfulfilled expectations of your customers is something you should not avoid if you want to create a healthy and stable market position for your business.

First, you should find out at what point you failed to meet their expectations. This should be followed by the creation of a clear plan of actions that will take you to a better position.

Finally, when trying to improve your relationship with your customers, it’s essential not only to create attractive special offers but also to make them easily visible by promoting them in various ways.

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Author Bio:

Jared Cornell is a customer-support Specialist, a marketing evangelist and a book lover, associated with ProProfs Chat.

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Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D. is a professional speaker and chief experience officer at The Michelli Experience. A New York Times #1 bestselling author, Dr. Michelli and his team consult with some of the world’s best customer experience companies.

Follow on Twitter: @josephmichelli

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