Every business, big or small, needs one thing to succeed: customers. The most imaginative marketing strategy, an innovative product or service and a forward-thinking company culture all do not matter if a company fails to attract customers. Essentially, the customers keep the office lights on, pay the employee’s salary and ensure your business is making a profit. In return, it is up to you to make sure your customers feel valued and appreciated and turn them into loyal patrons.

In light of this, any business that is successful should make customer satisfaction the absolute core of the company. Every decision that is made should revolve around the customer and in turn be informed by the customer’s needs and wants. To further the success of your own business, it is absolutely vital that customer-centricity is the driving force behind your company culture, that this value is internalised not just by the company, but by every single employee.

Get to know your customer

Of course, you are probably aware of the basic demographics like age and gender of your customer base, but are you really making the most out of modern advances in e-commerce marketing to fully understand your customers? Nowadays, you can access information on individual customers and their buying behaviour. This allows you to better anticipate their wants and needs and tailor your services accordingly.

Provide more than one payment method

To make the payment process as pleasant as it can be, provide your customers with as many payment options as possible, so they can pick and choose which one they feel the most comfortable with. There are of course the traditional payment methods like credit or debit card, but many customers still don’t trust using these online. Especially with e-stores, you might even be surprised at all the options available when it comes to providing an online payment method.

Make your customers success your own

If your company provides a service for other businesses, such as marketing, you should learn to thrive on the success of your clients as much as your own. Motivate your employees by rewarding them when one of your customers does well on account of the service you provided. Not only will this keep your own employees motivated and driven, your client will feel you truly care about them.

Develop with your customers

Once you are familiar with the behaviour of your customers, you can adjust the development of your company to it. By looking at data on customer behaviour and long-term trends in the purchasing decisions your customers make, your company will ultimately work more efficiently as you will know which areas of your business or which times of the year are particularly worth investing time, energy and money in. Adjust the workflow of your company to match your customer’s needs and you will benefit not only them, but your employees and finances too.

Take care of yourself

The often-quoted motto for establishing a customer centric company culture is ‘outside in’. No doubt a valuable mantra to live by, but do not forget to take care of internal affairs as well. Keeping employees motivated and happy will ultimately benefit your customers too, as the performance of your business as a whole depends largely on the performance of your employees. You can make sure every employee feels personally involved in ensuring customer satisfaction by rewarding individual employees for their achievements wherever possible.

Invest in your customer service

This sounds incredibly obvious, which makes the fact that so many companies still have subpar customer service all the more shocking. If your customers need to contact your customer service, usually they already have a problem. This makes it all the more important that they have a competent, professional and friendly customer service to turn to when necessary. Invest in properly training those employees and afford them the same attention as you do your other employees.

Take feedback onboard

You should learn to embrace any complaints or criticism from your customers and see them as an opportunity to grow as a company. Deal with them swiftly and make satisfying the customer the top priority. You will find that you can redeem yourself from even the most seemingly image-devastating situation by handling them quickly and professionally. You can find some advice on how to handle customer complaints here.