“Happy Customers have the deepest pockets, focus on delivering as much creative value as you can” – SayQuotable
It seems self-explanatory that there the value of happy customers is extremely high for companies. Research proves that customers, who have a great experience with a brand, spend at least one-third of their income on such brands – the reason being that customers place a lot more importance on experiences than the actual products or services from a brand. It becomes the responsibility of companies to use this information to their advantage, ensuring that they have happy customers, and the number of such customers continues to increase. Statistics show that at least 73% customers are willing to spend more on a brand they love. On the other hand, 65% customers said they would stop buying from a brand even they received poor treatment and bad experiences, even if they loved the brand and its products. Strangely, 43% admitted that they would buy inferior products from a brand that they loved, rather than higher quality from another company / brand. These are astounding ‘facts and figures’, and shows the high value of happy customers, and should be enough reason to motivate companies to work relentlessly towards this.
Experts say that one satisfied customer would tell about one or two people about their experiences, while a disgruntled one would tell about ten. Not surprising since anger is a far stronger emotion than simple satisfaction! However, experts also say that while an unhappy customer would be a lot more vocal than a satisfied one, consistently happy customers would be the most vocal and enthusiastic of all – the value of happy customers. This is great news for brands and companies – if only they would strive to make their entire customer base happy. Happy customers, consistently that is, become enthusiastic about sharing reviews and become the best form of advertising ever. There is value of happy customers because they tend to be loyal and over time becoming raving fans, recommending the company to everyone they know.
The fact is that despite best efforts, there will be times when even the best of customers will be concerned or unsatisfied with something with the company. However, the company should use it as an opportunity to improve, give the customer more than they expect, and quickly make amends through empathy, respect, and transparency. In doing so, even the most disgruntled customer could become the company’s most ardent admirer, supporter, and brand ambassador. A customer who becomes dissatisfied, when treated right can prove to be extremely invaluable for a company in several ways. Companies that are great and successful are the ones that have understood this and focused on keeping both keeping customers happy and responding swiftly and effectively when something does go amiss. This may sound easy, but those companies that meticulously do this will confirm that keeping happy customers and retaining disgruntled ones are possibly two of the hardest things. It is necessary for companies to have dedicated teams to address customer issues and focus on providing elevated customer experiences. All must have a common aim, and must know the proper methodology to address customer complaints and issues, in order to ensure happy customers.
Experts say that in order to build an ‘army’ of happy customers, companies must focus on ‘selling an experience’ – over and above the products and or services, they may offer. The customers must gain enjoyment from the entire purchasing process – the buying, the waiting to receive, opening the package, and then sharing and or using the products. This entire process, if pleasant and exciting, would make happy customers ready to make the decision to buy again. The same applies to services – if they help the user save time, easy to work with, and is able to make life easier, customers would be happy enough to buy the services again. The more renewals on services and reorders on products a company receives would be an indicator of an increasing number of happy customers.
Experts also say that companies must have a policy of getting customers to pay for subscriptions to services and products upfront. The logic behind putting such a process in place is to put the ‘psychological pain’ behind of the spending and then customers would be able to enjoy their purchases without having to think about any more payments. This in turn would elevate their experiences, and allow customers to focus only on the benefits of their ‘purchase’. It would also be prudent to space out payments from customers, making the billing cycle quarterly or yearly – this makes happy customers since they would be paying less frequently and the company would have more time to create increasingly better experiences for its customers.
Today customers are increasingly aware of values and giving back to society. Companies must therefore, link their product marketing with certain ‘causes’ – cause based marketing. Customers feel closer to companies that are high on value – forming a stronger bond and forging a longer relationship with such companies. Companies must give customers a ‘choice’ of contributing to the social and other causes – not coerce them in any form. However, companies could, for better results, show customers how their contribution would affect the ‘cause’. The satisfaction they could derive from the realisation of doing something for the lesser privileged, could increase their desire to purchase and contribute.
A company / brands can see the value of happy customers only when they realise that more than product features and design, customers want to associate with companies that treat them as important and value their business. Happy customers would automatically buy. The statistics mentioned at the beginning of this exposition clearly indicate customer preferences. However, on the flip side, what is also true is that 76% customers will refuse to associate again with a brand even after a single poor experience, and at least 57% of such customers will relentlessly share their poor experience with others. With social media being used extensively, the negative word of mouth could potentially lead to other customers running away, and could stop prospective customers from associating.
With so much support, technology, and other modern means, customers today have increasingly high expectations from brands, and refuse to settle for anything but the best. This is reason enough to make companies sit up and take notice, ensuring happy customers. It is necessary for businesses to discover in-depth not only what would make happy customers, but also how they can consistently delight customers by providing top class experiences across platforms for all customers. We have spoken about dipping loyalty and short attention spans of customers – it is therefore, imperative for companies to aim to keep all customers happy, and even if there were reason for dissatisfaction, they would instantly remedy it and make things even better for their customers.
Today companies and brands do not dictate the terms of the relationship with customers. Happy customers only come about when companies connect with customers as, when, where, and how customers expect. Research shows that only about 27% customers are willing to connect with a company through its website, or social media sites or blogs. About 60% do not take it kindly when brands ‘ignore’ them on social media, and for them this would classify as a poor experience. Customers know their worth, and are increasingly sensitive to how, and at what pace companies respond to them. Happy customers do not come easy – it is time for companies to wake up and realize that top class service and experiences are the only way to attracting and retain customers. Are you ready to get happy customers?
