Successful businesses can receive up to 80% of their sales from only 20% of their customers. How do we take advantage of those numbers? Customer loyalty.

Here are five tips to keep your customers happy, and keep them coming back to spend.

Tip #1: Make the sale, and your customer’s day, by letting employees offer free shipping or other small discounts.

First off, it’s crucial all of your employees are trained to interact properly with your customers. Is customer service going the extra mile to best meet your customer’s needs? Are they providing more value than the customer expects or the bare minimum to just skate by?

Empower your employees to make decisions that benefit the customer. When an employee has to run to a manager for answers, the customer will find the employee obsolete. Smart customers want to save time and bypass the employee altogether and speak directly to the manager every time.

Customers are impatient. When they have a question they want and answer, and don’t want to sit on hold while Jack asks Jill about free shipping.

Tip #2: Personalized messages keep your company and its products fresh in your customers’ minds.

Communicate with your customers. Use email, phone calls or a newsletter. Tell them about upcoming sales, new products, or just ask about their satisfaction on a previous purchase.

With the holidays sneaking up around the corner, a simple holiday card could do the trick. Be sure customers are thanked in writing for purchasing your service or product. Personalize the message and don’t just bulk blast them. Each customer needs to know they’re special.

I don’t know anyone who feels special as part of a 5000-person bulk mail.

Tip #3: Co-ordinate your emails with social media for a 1-2 punch of customer engagement.

Are you using social networks? They’re a fast and easy way to get a message out when you’re between newsletters. Use Twitter and Facebook to offer promotions to existing “VIP” customers. These can be done daily, weekly or monthly depending on your product set. It takes all of about 30 seconds to make a short post with a coupon code.

And don’t forget, communication with your customers is a two-way street. Ask your customers questions and listen to what they say. If someone asks a question get them an answer and reward their participation.

Best part? It’s FREE!!!

Tip #4: Be honest with your customers, even if it’s hard.

Never make false promises to make a customer happy in the now. You’ll regret it in the future.

If something can’t be done on short notice, tell the customer. Most of us can relate to being overloaded with work. Don’t you think the customers feel the same way? We are all human after all.

It is better to be upfront about a delayed response or delivery than to disappoint a customer with a promise you can’t keep. They may not remember all the good things you do for them, but they won’t forget the bad.

Tip #5: Enjoy Your Customers.

This can be hard, but try to truly enjoy the wide-range of characters we call customers. Take an interest in them beyond “the sale.” Have fun and make it fun for them!

Most of these tips seem obvious. But, maybe that’s why they’re so easily forgotten. Put in the extra effort and your customers will be happy. And a happy customer is a returning customers.

-Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.-Jeffrey Gitomer

Our customers have spoken!  We have evaluated the responses received from a recent AspDotNetStorefront survey.  One major item that we focused on was our support policy. 

In order to provide the greatest level of customer service and support to our customers, AspDotNetStorefront must remain focused on our current release and collaborate with our customers to ensure we have the best version possible moving forward. For these reasons, in order to receive support, a customer must be running the latest version that AspDotNetStorefront has available and have an up-to-date and current upgrade protection contract for the license.

Customers who do not meet these requirements may still obtain community-based support through the online forums at http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.com (registration is required to view the support area).

To recap, customers must be running the latest version of AspDotNetStorefront software AND have current continuous updates and support.  All others will be directed to the community forums for assistance.

To purchase upgrades, please visit http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/mylicenses.aspx

Are YOU listening?   My guess is that most of you will answer "yes" when asked this question.  The truth is that there IS a difference between hearing someone and actually listening to what they are saying. 

Hearing - The act of perceiving sound by the ear.  It happens without thought or effort.

Listening - Something you consciously choose to do.  It requires concentration so your brain can process the meaning of the words and sentences that you are hearing.

Now, the question is...are you hearing your customers or are you listening to them?  Most people tend to be "hard of listening" rather than "hard of hearing".  I am going to share some great tips that will help improve your customer service listening skills.  Why?  Because listening leads to learning!  The more you know about your customers' issues, feelings, emotions, etc., the easier it is to resolve the issue at hand.

First off,  STAY FOCUSED!  Don't get distracted by your surroundings (e.g. co-workers, radio, reading emails).  Give your customers 100% of your undivided attention.  Believe me; they will know if you are not!

DON'T INTERUPT!  You can listen more effectively when you are not talking.  Wait for your customer to finish, as to not interupt their thought process.

TAKE NOTES!  Keep a pen and paper handy for questions or comments that may pop into your head while listening to your customer.  Wait for them to finish and then ask away!

DON'T GUESS  how they will finish their sentences.  Besides the fact that you will most likely be wrong...it is just plain, old annoying!

WHAT?  If you missed something, don't be shy about asking them to repeat it.  You have to know what they are in need of in order to help them.

DON'T ASSUME!  Most of us have heard the old adage of what happens when we assume.  Basically, don't jump the gun on how you think the customer will react or what they will say.  For example, if a customer calls in with their "angry" voice, don't assume that cursing and swearing will follow.

By utilizing some of the given advice, your customer service agents will be able to provide a higher level of support to your customer base.  By knowing what your customers' needs are, you will be able to keep your customers happy.  We all know that happy customers are repeat customers!

Feel free to email me at gretchen.robinson@aspdotnetstorefront.com.  I welcome all questions, suggestions, comments and concerns. Email your ideas for future customer service blogs!

"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."  ~ Robert McCloskey

First off, please let me introduce myself.  My name is Gretchen Robinson.   I won’t bore you with the blah, blah, blahs of my background, experience, etc., but you may wonder what I do for AspDotNetStorefront now.  The answer…a little bit of everything.  Officially, I am your Customer Service connection to everyone and everything that AspDotNetStorefront entails.  

If you need assistance with an order in anyway…call me.  If you have questions about our demo site, transferring a license, our pricing…call me.  If you have submitted a ticket or left a voicemail and have yet to receive a response…you definitely can call me.  I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I hold all the answers.  That is about as far from the truth as it gets.  Prior to working for AspDotNetStorefront, I did not have any ecommerce experience or training.  What I do have is a drive to keep our customers happy.  This is the sole reason that I am here.  I am constantly peeking into support and sales tickets to check progress.  You will even see me in the pre-sales chat helping out where I can.  If you call in, it is my voice that you will hear on the other end of the line.

My theme of the week is a bit of advice for all AspDotNetStorefront customers.  When calling in or emailing, please be prepared!  The more information that you have for us, the more efficient we become for you.  Help us to help you!  For instance, have your customer ID, the email address associated with your account or even an old order number on hand.  This expedites things on our end when locating your account.  We will be able to spend less time finding your information and more time working on the actual issues.  This is true with sales and support tickets, as well.  When submitting a ticket, please use the information that I previously suggested (customer id, email, etc.) along with detailed information about the issues or questions that you are having.  If you have questions about an error that you are receiving, copy and paste that error into the support ticket.  The more specific that you can be, the better. 

Each of our Customer Service Representatives and Sales Engineers spend a lot of time with their phones glued to their ears.  We pride ourselves on giving 100% of our attention to our customers, one at a time, so please...leave a message if you happen to get our voicemail.  I want to ensure you receive the best customer service experience possible.  I promise you that I will go out of my way to meet and exceed your expectations.  If I don’t have the answer…I will do everything in my power to find it and fast.  I will hold the coffee hostage until I get an answer!  

Feel free to email me at gretchen.robinson@aspdotnetstorefront.com.  I welcome all questions, comments and concerns and cannot wait to blog more about customer service-related themes to help make your organization more customer-friendly.  If you have any suggestions for future topics, please feel free to drop me a note!

To my customer,
I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.
I may not have the time, but I’ll make it.
AUTHOR UNKNOWN