How to Manage Proper Customer Follow Up

How many times have you called a company to seek resolution to an issue, only to find that it didn’t care enough to call you back? It’s great if you can get what you need on that first connection, but when the follow up needs to happen and it doesn’t, satisfaction dwindles. Business VoIP providers can fall into the same hole if they don’t pay attention to their customers’ needs.

Nextiva, one of these business VoIP providers, recently posted a blog on how to master the art of the customer follow-up. It put together a list of things you likely already do in your organization, but perhaps lack the right strategy to execute on them in such a way as to drive customer satisfaction. Given that the Harvard Business Review reports the biggest complaint among customers is the failure to properly follow-up, it may be time to make a change.

That change starts with proper training for your staff to ensure the customer experience meets with customer expectations. If you set these expectations through proactive means, you train the customer instead of allowing them to train you to a standard that may not match your business model or capabilities. Communicate clearly to the customer what to expect and then deliver on those expectations each and every time.

Follow up after the sale is important as the satisfied – or unsatisfied – customer will tell friends and family about their experience with your brand. It’s important to demonstrate to the client that they mean more to your company than just the sale if you hope to keep them for the long-term. To help boost these efforts, track milestones and reach out to customers when they have been with you for a year or other timeframe.

Track what’s going on with your products and if there is a specific stage where challenges generally occur, reach out to customer proactively. For instance, Sage Solutions reaches out to clients around tax time to provide support of any problems that could pop up with their accounting solutions. It’s also a great time to reach out with a special offer with no strings attached, remembering to focus on those loyal customers and not just the new ones.

When launching these communications, be sure to get personal. People want to know they matter, especially where a sale is concerned. Being conversational in customer communications is an important customer service tool.

Finally, empower your staff to make decisions, especially when they can positively impact the outcome of an interaction. If they always have to wait for special approval, the customer may lose patience and decide to go somewhere else.

Regardless of the products or services you offer, gauge the level of follow-up desired from your customers and use it as your guide. The same rules don’t always apply across the board, but a proactive approach is always a good idea.