Unless you are a psychic, it will be impossible to read anyone’s mind. Thankfully with technology and the way the market is structured nowadays we don’t have to be. People freely express their inner thoughts on everything. Brands have the opportunity to take part in that conversation, learn from and capitalize on it.
Brands have the unique opportunity to be part of the feedback loop when it comes to customer service. They can listen in, learn and make necessary tweaks.
A brand’s response in this conversation is through its actions. We need to act on the information given to us by customers. Positive and negative feedback presents us with opportunities to learn, grow and capitalize. With the voice they have, customers hold power to shape their experience, affect products, pricing etc. this power has to be ‘harvested’ correctly by brands listening.
A listening culture creates strong relationships, makes people feel valued and attracts business among other things. It starts from the top and goes down and outside of the organization. Remember “Engaged employees give great customer service”? This statement is affirmed by the statement before it. Employees who are listened to, listen to customers and are able to give them exactly what they want thus are leaving a positive impression on a customer’s mind.
Employees who are listened to, listen to customers and give great and appropriately timed customer service.
How does a listening culture benefit an organizations bottom line?
1. Feedback and data
Two sets of eyes are better than one. Customers give real time feedback and your employees are able to pick up on that as they are in the frontline when dealing with customers. Between the two, they can weed out the weaknesses and highlight opportunities there are to create a better customer experience. Remember only 4% of unhappy customers actually give their feedback, make the 4% count in regaining the trust of the 96% who didn’t say anything.
2. Gets you positive stories to share
Bad news travels fast and it is usually the loudest. To counter this, share the positive feedback received on your website, newsletters, brochures etc as part of your marketing. Share these with employees as well to encourage them and highlight that you know they are doing a good job.
3. Happy customers spend more
For example, you call your mobile service provider that your internet isn’t acting right. They listen and respond by apologizing fixing it. They then proceed to give you extra call time to make up for it. You’re more likely to buy more bundle happily as you are happy you were listened to. A report from Applied Marketing Science found that customers who receive responses to their tweets are willing to spend 3-20% more on average-priced items.
4. Customer retention
It is more cost effective to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. This is because about 83% of your existing customers will recommend a business they trust to others. This turns them into your ambassadors. I believe it all starts with customer retention (and satisfaction) through listening.
5. Employee retention
Because they are at the frontline when dealing with customers, their feedback is also very important. Listen to them and act on their suggestions. Customers often use employees to vent their anger. Therefore you want to make sure they have a place to be listened to as well. Happy employees make great sales people and brand ambassadors.