Customers and clients who feel they’ve had a good experience with a company will tell an average of nine people. Conversely, they’ll tell up to sixteen people about a negative experience (Source: American Express Survey, 2011). Clearly, a huge incentive exists for companies to offer positive experiences to their customers. Here at The Records Company, not only do we aim to keep our customers happy, we also seek to surpass expectations at every opportunity. Below are three valuable lessons we’ve learned through the years on how to surprise and delight clients.
Anticipate Their Needs
Of course, there are many things companies can do to make their customers happier but few things go as far as anticipating your clients’ needs. In situations where the client/service provider relationship ongoing, both sides will get to know one another over the course of the relationship. It’s vital that the service provider takes advantage of this to learn what’s important to the client so that they can start anticipating their needs and preemptively offer services or solutions to potential problems. Anticipating your clients’ needs will let them know you care about them, know their business, and are willing to do what needs to be done to best serve them. It’s a win-win.
Over-Deliver on Promises
Something else we strive to do here at The Records Company (whenever we can) is over-deliver on promises. If we can turn something back around to a client sooner than promised, great—we’ll do it. If we locate more relevant records than we expected to find, fantastic—we send them over to our client. This doesn’t mean we set the bar unnecessarily low so we can look like heroes. No, we always set a high bar for ourselves from the beginning and seek to over-deliver every time. When we conduct business that way, we show our clients that they are valuable to us and that we care about them and their success. Over-delivering is an effective way strengthen a client/firm relationship and to surprise and delight your customers in the course of business.
Offer a Personal Touch
With so many companies trying to squeeze every ounce of profitability out of each client, the temptation exists to treat clients as faceless numbers. That’s directly opposite of how we treat our clients—we invest in each for the long-term and get to know them as well as our relationship allows. Interacting genuinely and personally with clients not only surprises and delights them but also builds a stronger relationship between you and your client. You’ll both feel like you know each other better, which will foster mutual trust and make it easier to work together. Getting to know your clients will serve you both very well, at all times.
Over the years we’ve practiced what we’re advocating here and it’s reaped benefits in spades for us and for our clients. Making it a point to regularly surprise and delight clients is one of our top customer service strategies. We’re always aiming to anticipate our clients’ needs, over-deliver on our promises, and treat each client with a personal touch. That’s just how we do things around here. If that approach aligns with your company’s values and you’re in the marketing for a medical records retrieval service, give us a try. It’s free to sign up for an account and we don’t require hefty fees or long contracts. You only pay per request—it’s that simple.
For more on our customer service philosophy, check out our previous blog posts: How to Build Lasting Client Relationships and Customer Service: Why We Are Here.