How to regain customer trust after losing it
A single miscommunication or mistake can turn a customer away, as losing customer trust means losing business. A high-quality product or service is only half the story, customer's trust, and loyalty are the most essential aspect of a business. Building customer and prospects trust is one of the toughest phases in business and it is even harder to win back a customer's trust than it is to maintain that trust.
If you've lost a customer's trust because of some known or unknown glitches such as unsatisfactory service or unhappy with the treatment they receive or your service/product didn't meet expectations, it's up to you to restore faith in your brand and regain their trust. It is important to have an effective strategy in repair the customer relationship after losing their trust and here are the few steps to regain your customer's trust and retain a loyal fanbase.
Identify the source of the problem and make changes
Before being to strategies on regaining a customer's trust, you must understand why it was lost. Only 15% of customers complain to a company that they were wronged, while the other 85% stop buying and tell their peers about the problem. To avoid this collect customer feedback through creating automated satisfaction surveys, review websites, customer service follow up and acknowledge inactive customers. Analyze the feedback, take accountability for what happened, and respond to them with honesty and empathy, even if the mistake was not necessarily your fault - this shows your serious intent to repair the breach of customer trust and that you truly care about your customer's feelings.
Correct the problem with appropriate measures
At this point, you have identified the reason for losing your customer trust and you've apologized for the problem, but just apologizing doesn't work it must be followed up with action and stop it from occurring again. Ask your customer if there is anything your company can do to improve the customer experience, if it makes sense to you, implement it, and provide tangible proof by offering them a step-by-step breakdown of the changes you plan to make or try to find a potential compromise.
Offer great customer service and an additional incentive
Offer an efficient, professional, and personable experience for your customers by addressing their issues - know your customer concerns and figure out an enticing solution to address those concerns. Just fixing the problem is not enough, show your customers that you care for them by offering additional incentives such as discounts, coupons, or free samples - this shows that you appreciate your customers and go to lengths to right your wrongs.
Ignoring lost customers and chasing new clients isn't going to take your business towards success, research shows that companies have a greater chance of selling to a previous customer than to new prospects who have never done business with the company. There are no shortcuts to foster customer trust, it's pretty much simple- make your customers your top priority at all times, own up to your mistakes and give them excellent products with responsive and personalized customer service. Follow the above steps to secure your loyal fandom and boost your sales in the process.
Bonus Point
Just a 5% increase in your customer retention can boost your profit by as much as 95%.
Check-in on your customer's pain points, understand their needs, and then deliver on those needs