Me, the customer, my requirements, my expectations, and 15 actions to satisfy me

Hello, I'm your customer: do you know how to satisfy me? I'm going to be nice to you: I'm handing you my 15 most pressing demands on a platter (shhh, it's a secret, don't tell your competitors). Find out exactly what my needs and expectations are : your customer relations, and therefore your sales, depend on it.

Does your company know how to make a customer happy? If you ask me, there's nothing like tried-and-tested, high-quality customer support: personally, I can't do without it.

Of course, appvizer recommends dedicated tools, but also 15 concrete actions to put in place to keep a customer happy. ✨

See all software Customer Support

My 15 customer requirements

What is a satisfied customer? I, the customer, am personally satisfied when I feel that my experience with your company is positive: your product or service corresponds to what I expect, and the relationship I have with the salesperson, the sales assistant, or an agent in your customer service department, or on an online sales site, leaves me with an excellent memory. I radiate contentment, pleasure and fulfilled desire.

I complete my definition of customer satisfaction with 15 requirements.

My No. 1 customer requirement: to be listened to attentively

My #2 customer requirement: that my needs and expectations be identified

I don't like repeating myself. Sometimes I know exactly what I want. Sometimes I'm indecisive or hesitant. I can be contradictory and not consciously admit what I want to buy.

It's up to you to clarify my intentions, advise and guide me: what are my needs, my budget? I like the design of a coupé, but is it really the right car for a desert rally?

My No. 3 customer requirement: a reliable service or product offer

I hate being promised the moon. I'd much rather know what I'm getting. I work a lot by word of mouth and avoid companies with a bad reputation on the Internet, as well as in the mouths of my friends.

I keep an eye on a company's brand image and reputation before making a decision. When choosing a restaurant or buying an item from an e-commerce site, for example, I first look at reviews and comments.

For 40% of Internet users, online reviews are the main factor influencing their purchasing decision.

Source: IT Social article summarizing the survey conducted by Researchscape for Talend.

My #4 customer requirement: transparency

Customer requirement n°5: a close relationship

Technology saves us time, but it imposes relationships devoid of human warmth and emotion: I'd rather talk to a woman, a man, than a machine (we have more to talk about). Sometimes technology gets "stuck" in the face of very simple questions, because they are purely human in nature.

Human beings are irreplaceable when it comes to establishing a certain closeness, trust or expressing emotions: human exchanges, a voice, a tone, a vocabulary, a laugh, a joke, exchanges on common points that bring people together (written, geographical, audio, visual, etc.).

Successful communication is an experience in human relations: most sales people have it in their blood, and that's why they perform so well.

My customer requirement n°6: empathy

The person who knows how to put himself in my shoes understands me better. By understanding me, the salesperson is already halfway to the sale.

And when the company knows my expectations well, it serves me better: it calls this customer knowledge.

My No. 7 customer requirement: quality service

My No. 8 customer requirement: responsive handling of my complaints

Who likes to wait a long time for customer service to get back to you? I don't. I consider a reasonable waiting time to be no more than 2 minutes.

As I don't like repeating myself, I want to get in touch with the right person to satisfy my request, solve my problem, in short deal with my complaint as quickly as possible.

57% of Internet users stop their relationship with a brand when they don't see a response to a negative comment, even though they are still being commercially solicited.

Source: IT Social article summarizing the survey conducted by Researchscape for Talend

I want to understand where the problem is coming from. And if a technician has to come to my home, I'll have to be accommodating, because I've got a job too.

My No. 9 customer requirement: customized, personalized support

How do you satisfy a bank customer? When I walk into a bank, the first thing that interests me is what has to do with my financial capabilities, not cell phone offers or health insurance. Up-selling can be attractive, but it has to remain in context, dear banker friend.

Real estate brokers are renowned for tailoring realistic offers to their customers: the personalization of their offers and the sound advice they give their clients have earned them a high level of well-deserved trust.

The quality of the advice we give our customers reflects our level of expertise, whether by phone, chat, email or in person.

My customer requirement n°10: a credible discourse

I like to pretend I'm stupid, just to see if I'm being taken for a sucker, and also to test the integrity of the person I'm talking to.

If their arguments seem credible, and they give me step-by-step, factual and personalized advice, with no intention of doing it "backwards", then I know I can trust them and go further in the buying cycle.

My customer requirement n°11: fair treatment

My customer requirement n°12: thanks

The words "thank you for your trust" are the right notes of a sweet melody that must ring in my head with every purchase. Because that's what it's all about (again): the trust I place in every contact with the company.

My trust must not be misled. Disappointment can quickly lead to a change in brand preference. When I renew my trust over time, I'm a loyal customer.

My loyalty to your brand depends on your ability to deserve the trust I place in you.

That's why you thank me every time I contact you.

My customer requirement n°13: that my loyalty be rewarded

What's the value of a customer? Seven times more than a prospect!

Converting a prospect costs seven times more than retaining an existing customer.

Sources: Reichheld F.F., The loyalty effect, the hidden force behind growth, profits and lasting value, Harvard Business School Press, and White House Office of Consumer Affairs

Since I've been a loyal customer of yours for some time now, I think I'm entitled to a few perks from you:

• a gift,
• an exclusive promotion,
• an invitation, etc.

These new little attentions reinforce the positive perception I have of your brand, and also increase my confidence.

My customer requirement n°14: that my level of satisfaction be assessed

A company needs to measure customer satisfaction in order to identify strengths and areas for improvement: are delivery times respected? Are new customers well received? Have they been properly oriented? Were they satisfied with the service?

I personally assessed the quality of service provided by certain Club Med staff members. I emphasized the special attention and quality of service of certain members of staff, because I think they go far beyond the "minimum" required to offer me exceptional service and relations.

Whether positive or negative, customer experiences must be taken into consideration.

Objectives :

• improve the customer journey,
• their experience with your brand,
• maintain customer confidence,
• build loyalty,
• in short, to be the best company in your market at meeting your customers' expectations.

My customer requirement n°15: respect for my personal data

The CNIL guarantees and protects my rights as a citizen in this area. You must therefore be clear about how you use my data.

In addition, it's useful to find out about your obligations to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD / GDPR), which comes into force on May 25, 2018, applicable throughout Europe.

The essential tools for offering quality customer service

Customer satisfaction has become the only (or almost the only) element of differentiation to provoke preference ... and loyalty! Excellent customer service quality is the unavoidable goal to achieve to meet your customers' demands. appvizer brings you revealing arguments, and recommends two solutions to achieve this goal.

10 reasons to choose a dedicated customer relations solution :

• Reason no. 1: 89% of French people demand quality customer service,
• Reason no. 2: they demand a response to their query within 24 hours,
• Reason no. 3: 61% will unburden the brand if customer service doesn't meet their expectations,
• Reason no. 4: 70% disown the brand if it makes a mistake more than twice,
• Reason n°5: 34% demand that the sales team master their history,
• Reason n°6 : Satisfying a customer helps prevent customer volatility,
• Reason 7: A satisfied customer is a loyal customer,
• Reason n°8 : a happy customer buys more or more regularly,
• Reason no. 9: Satisfying and building customer loyalty enables the company to develop its reputation,
• Reason n°10 : happy customers generate a positive brand image and reputation.

iAdvize, enriching the customer experience with expert advice

Detect Internet users in need of information and provide them with concrete, expert answers and advice.

iAdvize acts as customer support software , drawing on a community of hand-picked, passionate experts who are paid to answer users' questions.

The conversational commerce platform enables you to personalize your customer's experience and optimize the buying journey, whatever the channel of contact with the web user: social networks, messaging on your site, etc.

Within a single interface, your customer support team responds to all requests via a single messaging tool:

• video,
• chat,
• voice,
• VoIP phone calls,
• SMS,
• and notifications.

Using the experts means :

• 91% satisfaction,
• 20% conversion rate,
• +36% average shopping basket.

Source: figures observed by iAdvize with its customer ManoMano

Discover iAdvize on video:

Highlights:

• Real-time analysis and targeting capabilities: define your own rules according to your target audience and selection criteria (shopping basket size, type of response required, etc.), and the expected assistance is launched via messaging;
• Putting you in touch with the best advisor: this is clearly the trump card in terms of service quality. Customers are guided through their purchase by an expert in the field - they couldn't dream of anything better. Some companies using iAdvize have reported a 20% increase in the conversion rate and a 36% increase in the average shopping basket;
• Salesforce integration: yet another time-saver for your advisors when it comes to processing information. There's no need to leave iAdvize to enter a customer's details: they're automatically synchronized with your CRM.

Q°emotion, to find out what your customers love or hate

What emotions do your customers feel about your in-store service quality? Are they satisfied with their purchase? What do they like best, what do they dislike and what do they need to improve?

Q°emotion's SaaS platform and APIs enable major groups to pinpoint positive trends and areas for improvement on each of their sales channels, whether virtual or real. The semantic and emotional analysis engine integrated into the solution scrutinizes opinions, comments, conversations via chabots, complaints received via online forms and emails received by your customer support.

Q°emotion digests Big Data to provide you with key indicators and areas for improvement. Clearly, you can identify and distinguish the strong points of your customer journey, and anticipate the points that may ultimately drive them away.

👉 A concrete example: a marketing manager may find that the reputation of the company's products is excellent, but that the welcome at the point of sale is mixed. He can then implement an effective improvement plan.

Our priority at Corsair is to satisfy our customers. The Q ° emotion solution quickly and accurately tracks sources of dissatisfaction in the minds of our passengers. This enables us to propose concrete solutions and significantly improve our services.

Download a free sample satisfaction questionnaire to collect feedback:

Stéphanie de la Roncière, Marketing and Customer Experience Manager, Corsair.

Discover Q°emotion on video:

Highlights:

• Automated analysis of millions of verbatims, with a classification that qualifies feelings,
• Each element of the customer journey (online or offline) is analyzed to identify emotional triggers,
• You detect and anticipate potential bad buzz, sensitive or delicate situations, thanks to alerts configured according to your own degrees of urgency, your emotional scoring system, etc.
• You detect opportunities to develop or improve products by identifying new customer needs or expectations.

👉 And don't forget: the platform is also a powerful tool for HR managers, enabling them to analyze the company's social climate by detecting the positive levers that motivate employees.

Salesforce Service Cloud, for excellent customer service

Salesforce's ability to adapt to any size of business means you can customize the modules that make this customer service software so powerful, and the scope of which is increased tenfold when coupled with CRM.

Start with the customer's question and turn it into a business opportunity. The solution offers all the tools you need to react quickly and intelligently.

Communication tools and channels are brought together and centralized:

• telephone
• email,
• social networks,
• video chat.

Tickets are automatically created as soon as a customer makes a request, and assigned to the relevant agents.

Advisors have instant access to the contact's file, with a detailed view of the customer and his or her history. They can also use predefined answers to provide the best response as quickly as possible.

Salesforce Service Cloud offers the opportunity to align customer satisfaction and sales: functionalities:

• up-selling,
• activity reporting,
• success indicators,
• and peak activity prediction (...) are grouped together on a dashboard for better customer support management.

Companies using Salesforce Service Cloud increase customer satisfaction by 35% and customer loyalty by 26%.

Source: Salesforce figures

Discover Salesforce Service Cloud in video :

Highlights:

• Artificial intelligence sees the wave coming before you and warns you: the Einstein module observes and exploits your data to warn you of upcoming peaks and fluctuations. You anticipate;
• Accessibility of the solution: the software's ergonomics and customization enable international or multi-site companies, as well as start-ups, to perfect their customer service activities;
• Concrete answers to empower the customer: knowledge base, forums, self-help communities and educational or value-for-money articles all provide quality answers to the questions your customers ask, and ultimately, reactive help in the form of ready answers for your advisors.

15 things you can do to satisfy a customer

How do you satisfy a customer in a call center, by chat or by other means? appvizer shows you in concrete terms how to satisfy a customer's requirements by carrying out 15 actions. In view of the customer's requirements and the figures, he's not going to mince his words. But that's all to the good: the more you know, the better prepared you are - provided you're equipped with the right tools, of course.

Action #1: Know your customer

A good knowledge of your customer enables you to adapt your approach, your arguments and your sales offer. Who are they? What are their needs, expectations and budget? What's their problem? What can you do to solve it?

It all starts with listening. Customer data is invaluable to your customer service department, as it informs support agents and enables them to prepare for contact, and even anticipate requests.

Your sales force intervenes at the right moment and focuses on hot prospects. Your marketing department sends the right message to the right person at the right time.

Action n°2: centralize information and communication channels

Customer support and service software lets you centralize information, tools and means of communication.

Advantages :

• your teams record, update and centralize all information on your customers, the contact channels through which they arrive, the history of requests and purchases,
• data is cross-referenced to offer the best service and seize sales opportunities,
• you make no mistakes and gain in responsiveness.

Action No. 3: Commit to and defend laudable values

Action No. 4: Train your staff

This may seem obvious to the most astute of managers, but it's much less so to those lacking in perspective. Salespeople, sales reps, customer support agents, in short: anyone in contact with customers needs to speak with "one voice", to know how to behave when faced with a request.

The best way to do this is to define :

• satisfaction objectives,
• an internal quality charter,
• a level of service commitment.

Secondly, common sense dictates that you train your employees so that they are able to satisfy your customers by delivering the quality you want to achieve.

As we've already described on numerous occasions, software makes it possible to work collaboratively on the same data, resulting in productivity gains and skyrocketing customer satisfaction.

Action n°5: demonstrate your commitment

Asserting something is easy, it's called advertising, but demonstrating it on a daily basis makes all the difference: it's all about proving your commitment. It's the beginning of customer satisfaction.

The essential proof is to offer all the information and expertise needed to help customers make the right choices.

Customer service software enables you to help, inform and guide customers through :

• a knowledge base,
• a forum with topics organized by theme,
• communities (depending on usage, for example).

👉 And don't forget to create your own useful, educational online content: we invite you to (re)read our blog articles on inbound marketing and content marketing!

Action n°6: coordinate physical points of sale and remote customer support

Customers need to hear the same arguments and experience the same quality of service on your e-commerce site, at your physical point of sale, and by telephone or written message with your customer support team.

Don't hesitate to "sow" interactions between real and virtual life... the aim is to ensure that customers always have the information they need to make the right purchasing decision.

In this way, "field" and "virtual" teams must have the same level of information at their disposal, so that they can inform prospects and customers themselves according to the context and the contact established.

Action 7: Segment your customer base

Action n°8: take care of your customer's experience

A customer with a problem is in a negative, even stressed state: he has a worry to manage, a problem to solve. They deserve your full attention: give them the time they need to resolve the problem. Your customer should leave with the solution in hand, happy and stress-free.

Smile on the phone or in a video conversation: you can hear it, you can see it. Put yourself in a positive frame of mind before calling or answering.

Don't do two things at once: you need to be totally attentive to your customer's needs, and avoid surfing on Facebook while you're talking to them.

If the situation is delicate, call your customer directly by telephone: human contact can unblock situations.

Email is too cold, too distant. If you phone your customer, you're reaching out to them and showing consideration.

Share success stories with your colleagues: develop a customer culture!

Action n°9: pamper your internal teams

Internal well-being reflects externally! If your employees feel good and fulfilled at work, they'll naturally pass this on to your customers!

It's very simple: treat your employees like your customers.

Action #10: personalize and humanize the relationship

For management reasons, many services, such as mutual insurance companies, associate a member or subscriber number with a person.

While it's essential to identify the right person who corresponds to this number to deal with a request, it's de rigueur to refer to her by her first and last name: "Hello Mrs. Juliette FLEX, how can I help you? ".

Likewise, an e-mailing should always begin in this way, so that the recipient clearly recognizes that the message is addressed to him, and to no one else...

A " thank you ", a "have an excellent day", a "at your service" are all little words that don't cost much and that give off positive vibes.

Action #11: Be responsive

Action #12: Efficient customer follow-up

Integrating your customer support solution with a CRM system is essential for real-time data management and improved customer follow-up.

This fosters collaborative working and avoids the scattering of data: your employees all have access to the same information on your customers, and are aware of all the actions taken with them.

80% of your sales are generated by 20% of your customers.

Pareto's law

Pareto's law encourages you to pamper your customers. Ask them, for example, if they have received their order, if the service works well, if they are satisfied with their purchases, if you can help them, if they need information or additional products...

Action 13: Automate tasks that can be automated

As human contact is always preferable, this action should be taken with a pinch of salt, and is only applicable in certain cases.

Software allows you to create response scenarios based on requests: ready-to-use messages and responses, links to a complete online resource, simple answers, etc. These tricks are designed to simplify your agents' work. They simply press a button to provide the best response, as quickly as possible.

Action n°14 : Ask your customers questions

Observe what customers are saying about you on the Internet: Google, social networks, reviews, ratings and comments on third-party sites. Take note of your e-reputation.

Evaluate customer satisfaction by launching a satisfaction survey : ask customers to rate the product, the price, their experience, the perceived quality of service, for example.

A simple online satisfaction questionnaire lets you collect responses and measure results. Feedback from customer service and your sales force is also a valuable barometer.

You can evaluate a large number of indicators, such as purchasing behavior, and compare quality delivered versus perceived quality.

It's also important to be able to collect feelings of dissatisfaction so that you can correct them later...

Offer a suggestion box to ask your customers for their opinions. You can easily take advantage of this: the idea of the century may be hiding in the head of one of your customers!

71% of French people are willing to divulge their personal information in exchange for an optimized customer experience

Source: "Are French consumers the most demanding in the world? ", based on the results of the AP Hybris Consumer Insights 2017 study.

Action n°15: reward loyal customers

A customer's commitment, their loyalty to a brand, their constant trust, can never be taken for granted: it's essential to sustain the relationship, maintain ties, show constant interest.

Small gifts maintain friendship.
Big ones keep love alive.

Decoly, French writer.

If you want a customer to "marry you" and not have "extra-marital" adventures with a competitor, think about his birthday, wish him well!

Think of all the little touches that will make him happy - you too have commitments to keep when it comes to loyalty.

Here are a few ideas for rewarding your customers and building loyalty:

• a free and generous gesture, such as a small welcome gift,
• a little personalized attention, a birthday present,
• a loyalty program offering percentage discounts,
• gifts, small bonuses offered with a purchase,
• a sponsorship offer with advantages for both the sponsor and the sponsored child,
• an exclusive promotion with a privilege code,
• 2 months free when you renew your subscription, etc.

See all software Customer Support

How to satisfy in a nutshell

As a customer, my expectations are clear: a quality relationship, attentive listening and reliable services. By complying with my 15 requirements and implementing the 15 suggested actions, you'll ensure my satisfaction and loyalty.

Customer satisfaction is essential. Use quality tools to enrich and optimize this relationship. Every interaction counts, and loyalty is earned day after day. Invest in:

• attentive listening,
• a reliable service offering,
• and advanced personalization to build a lasting relationship of trust.

A satisfied customer is your best ambassador. Keep this in mind, and your business will prosper 😉