The Customer is Always Right:
A customer’s opinion has to be heard in order for a business to be successful. The modern technologies these days allow businesses to hear the customer’s voice easily. Customers have the right to speak their opinion and if they do not like a service provided by a business, they always have other options in the market. So customer care is an important parameter for a business, whether it supplying products or services. If the customers are happy, they will get more frequent buys from them. What customer say about us in the market decides the success of our business and also keeps the reputation high. This brings new customers to us through referrals as well as testimonials from satisfied customers.
Rights of Customers:
- Listen to the customers requirement and understand their need and challenges
- Make it clear to them about what service they will receive and what they wont
- Customers should be treated well, the way that best suits them.
- Honesty, clarity and communication
- Value their opinions and seek to exceed their expectations
- Stick to agreed commitments (or advised honestly and openly in the event of an unavoidable problem)
Building Customer focused Businesses
In the Early 20th Century “Marshall Field”, a department store in Chicago introduced the power of consumers among the other retailers. The company created a buzz in their field through sales and new promotions. Consumers were impressed by the excellent service provided by the company and their business grew exponentially. The approach used by Marshall Fields inspired a lot of businesses around the world and soon new generation of entrepreneurs started believing customers as the centre of their business and started building customer focused organizations.
Power of Customer Word on Social Media
Social Media platforms such as Facebook and twitter have given powers to both consumers as well as businesses. It allows the businesses to create a brand and reputation in the market through digitally marketing their products/services and making an impression among the consumers around the world. Whereas consumers could make their voice loud on the internet and give their opinions. That is customers who were not treated well had a platform to shout about their treatment and be heard. Social crowdsourcing and crowdfunding tools give businesses an opportunity to ask, “How do you think we’re doing?” and get actionable answers. This approach has the power to create a new consumer class where the customer is always right. Businesses should listen to what’s being said about them on social media so that they can react and drive the conversation in the right direction. Businesses who do well on social media work hard to resolve issues quickly, and thank consumers for kind words. Businesses that ignore social media suffer a great deal from negative publicity. Thus whether the customer is right or wrong having an effective communication is important.
Effective Communication
Sometimes we could get criticism from clients where we feel the client is wrong. The customer may not be always right but by communicating effectively we should make sure they don’t feel wrong. Thus the best result is when the client feels he/she is listened and understood. If the people in the business have communicated effectively then the solution attained at the end would be better.
Thus making the customer’s right are in the hands of the business by being successful in the service they provide.
