Your call center’s main purpose is to provide impeccable customer service to protect and retain your organization’s greatest asset; the customers. However, it is nearly impossible to create customer loyalty with a customer who calls your business once or twice a year, has a 4-6 minute call, and has his/her complaint resolved. Why? Within a short period of time, the customer will forget all about the call and your brand. Keeping in mind that the above scenario represents 85% of customers who call your center, you start to see the urgent need for your business to improve its strategy for retaining customers.

5 Proven Ways to Retain Your Customers

1. Take note of special occasions.

There is an invisible tag around everyone’s neck that reads, “make me feel important.” In other words, your customers want to feel special, so mark your calendars on your clients’ anniversaries, birthdays, and other special occasions. Please make a point to greet them or congratulate them; you can even tie in a gift to their latest purchase to make the gesture even more genuine and memorable.

2. Find out what your customers really want.

The trick to retaining your customers is to reach out to them before they have any complaints about your services. Therefore, you need to reach out to your customers now and survey them. Find out their likes and dislikes about your organization and how you can improve; after all, the customer always knows best, right? You can find out what your customers want by paying attention to their feedback or attending trade shows where you’ll get updated on what customers are looking for and what your competition is up to.

3. Let your Customers in Behind the Scenes

To retain your customers, you need to let them know what services you are doing for them. Needless to say, it is not enough to keep your customers updated on the availability of a product or the status of their shipment. You need to do more; inform them that their paperwork has been filled out, be ready for the next process, or double-checked on the package delivery. At the end of the day, if you don’t tell them what you’re doing, they may never notice.

4. Master the Art of Handling Irate Callers

Realize that customers do not call your business with compliments; they call with complaints. After all, the main purpose of your call center is to help customers solve problems. With this said, your call agents need to be efficient in techniques that turn angry callers into satisfied customers. Avoid excuses such as ‘the system is down,’ avoid transferring calls, and most importantly, do not take anything personally.

5. DO Sweat the small stuff.

Your call center does more than just picking calls; it handles emails and white mail as well. You need to ensure that you are sending the right message to your customers. For instance, instead of sending a one-liner to your customer that says, “I confirm that we have canceled your XYZ,” why not go for something warmer that conveys the regret of losing the opportunity to serve the customer and encouraging their return? As with all other businesses, the devil is always in the details. Retaining your customers is even more critical today than it was 5 years ago. Contact Call Criteria now, and we will help you build customer loyalty and elongate your list of repeat customers.