The online market has evolved quite a bit over the past few years. New trends dominate the market and force companies to adapt quickly or lose their relevance for good. One such trend is customer satisfaction. Up until recently, many companies had to provide exceptional quality products or services to ensure their success on the market. Today, that is not enough anymore. The fact of the matter is that you have to ensure customer satisfaction as well.
Simply put, if consumers aren’t happy with how you treat them, they’ll simply move to the next business in line, regardless of how great your products or services may be. It’s also safe to say that providing seamless and exceptional customer experience that will guarantee customer satisfaction is now one of the most important factors in business success. With that in mind, here are a few reasons why customer satisfaction is so important.
Retaining customers
It’s no secret that customer retention is crucial for companies these days. The main reason is that retaining a customer is 6 to 7 times cheaper than acquiring a new customer. What’s more, customer retention has a positive impact on your bottom line. The fact of the matter is that repeat customers oftentimes spend 67% more than new customers.
However, you cannot ensure customer retention without ensuring their satisfaction first. One of the best things you can do is provide your customers with exceptional experience based on seamless customer service and support. The more you cater to customer needs, the greater the likelihood that they’ll come back for repeat business.
A great promotion
Happy customers can do more for your business than you can imagine. As a matter of fact, customer satisfaction can be one of the most efficient promotions for your business. Word-of-mouth is still one of the best methods of attracting new customers and ensuring their loyalty. That said, satisfied customers will be more than willing to leave positive reviews about your business. What’s more, 91% of online consumers read these reviews while 84% of them trust such reviews as much as they’d trust personal recommendations from friends and family. In other words, by ensuring customer satisfaction, your customers will continue to promote your business further.
Profitability
Every company is interested in profits, there’s no reason to deny it. Customer satisfaction can also help you become more profitable. As mentioned before, customer retention as a result of customer satisfaction can impact your bottom line. The fact of the matter is that by increasing customer retention rates by only 5%, you can improve your company’s profitability by 95%. What’s more, satisfied customers are more likely to pay their dues in time, but that requires you to provide a bit of convenience beforehand. For instance, by allowing customers to pay via invoices, you also provide them with convenience. However, late or missed invoice payments can hurt your cash flow, but that can be remedied with a proper debtor finance strategy. The more your customer satisfaction grows, the more profitable your company will become.
A competitive advantage
Today’s market is a crowded and highly competitive landscape. No company can afford to make a mistake these days. That goes for the way you both interact and treat your customers. That’s why customer satisfaction can be a major competitive advantage in such market conditions. The fact of the matter is that consumers prefer to do business with companies that treat them well, and they’re even willing to pay more for an exceptional experience. Namely, 86% of consumers are willing to pay up to 25% more for seamless customer experience. Your relationship with your customers that fosters trust and loyalty can be one of your biggest advantages in the market that will allow you to outrun even the most developed competitors.
Improved reputation
As mentioned before, satisfied customers leave positive reviews about your business, which can help you attract more customers. However, that’s not the only advantage of referrals and word-of-mouth promotions. The fact of the matter is that customer satisfaction improves your company’s reputation, and reputation is a vital factor for business success. As you may already know, news travels fast across the online community, especially over social media. When the word gets out that your business is treating customers with care and respect, your company will soon favor a good reputation in the online world, which can easily open new doors for you and present you with unique growth opportunities.
Customer satisfaction is now a major factor every company must focus on. At the end of the day, consumers decide with whom to do business. If you don’t ensure your customers are satisfied, you will lose both the customers and relevance, which can easily ensure business failure in today’s market conditions.