Thanks to capitalism, businesses are getting more competitive over time. I’m not talking trash about capitalism. I’m just saying as more businesses want the same customer, you need to think of new ways to retain customers. And sometimes, you have to go back to the basics. One of those basics is maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

There’s something about customer satisfaction that pulls a customer back to the business that offered great service. But if you start to get negative feedback consistently, it directly translates to fewer sales.

Customer satisfaction is far more than just getting positive reviews. And in a world where people would buy 5-star reviews for their business, only true customers can tell how well a business offers great services.

So if you want your customers to be satisfied with your business, share their experience with friends, and become loyal to your business, I have a few methods for you. Start implementing them right away.

Compensate Staff Based on Customer Satisfaction Levels

If you start to compensate staff based on the revenue generated, you may see a high turnover of customers. That’s because if you are rewarding employees, they feel appreciated and work harder to provide better service to the customer.

It doesn’t have to be based on the revenue they generate. You can compensate them on the basis of other performance metrics as well. But the idea is to make employees feel special.

On the flip side, you’ll find businesses that create an ominous environment for employees. They do it by always threatening them if the customer is not satisfied. This leads to fear, which means the staff is intimidated to serve customers. Worst case scenario: The staff starts to find ways to ruin your business by fending off customers.

Sure, you can always find which employee is doing that, but it always comes back to you. If you were polite with them since the beginning and offered them compensation, they would have happily increased your company’s customer satisfaction. So start integrating customer satisfaction rates into the compensation structure.

Ask Customers to Complete a Survey

Surveys can help you learn a lot about your customer satisfaction and customer service. You can then use this feedback to improve your business.

However, not all surveys are successful for you. For example, if your employees are doing surveys, people are more inclined to leave positive feedback. Or if you incentivized your surveys heavily, like giving free food or samples, people may leave careless responses just to get the free stuff.

So come up with a feedback structure that gets honest responses. If a survey is done anonymously, it has more chances of getting real answers. For example, a customer may give you honest feedback if he/she is at home, but if you stopped them during a visit to the mall, they may just be polite and give you positive but wrong answers.

Have a Support Line to Resolve Complaints

Of course, you want someone at different parts of your business to listen to customers and resolve complaints. You’ll find a lot of companies who don’t solve complaints first and lose customer satisfaction.

Research suggests that if you have a system to effectively resolve customer complaints, your customer loyalty will increase. So work on that because most people will try to contact you if they have a problem before writing a negative review online.

That means you’ll have to work on different touchpoints of your business. This includes working on social media, email, forums, texts, phone calls, and everywhere else a customer can contact you.

Have Monthly Employee Reviews

Remind your employees that their most important objective should be the satisfaction of their customers.

If you consider your company responsible for customer satisfaction, you’ll more likely increase it and have the input from staff. But not all companies do that. They don’t extract any time for employee meetings.

Have groups meetings to get feedback from employees because they are at the forefront of your business. They know things that you don’t know. Have your teams on board and talk about the satisfaction level of the customer and key issues. Then, try to resolve those issues.

Hire Friendly Staff

Last, but not least, have a staff that looks and sounds friendly. If a person can’t smile, he/she is more likely to put off customers. Employees should know that customer satisfaction is dictated by their friendliness. They are here to service customers, and for that, they should put in an effort.

Don’t hire people that reflect a negative emotion to customers. It will negatively impact your brand image. Even the most evil corporation you can think of knows this rule. They hire people who sound friendly and have a positive outlook.

You can have basic training for your staff. The ones that teach the basics of handling humans. For example, they should be taught that humans respond well when you listen to them. Humans like honest appreciation, not fake ones.

You can ask former employers about the demeanor of each employee when interacting with customers.

Final Words on Increasing Customer Satisfaction

At the end of the day, you may not be able to find all things that lead to customer satisfaction. And some things will be out of your control. For example, a depressed customer is more likely to give negative feedback even if you provided the best service.

We are experiencing these kinds of things here in the US. Some people are refusing to wear a mask and blaming the business for bad service.

However, the five things I discussed in this article will pave the way to increasing your company’s customer satisfaction. Apply them today and witness positive changes.

Also, if you have any other topic suggestions, let me know in the comments. I’ll try my best to cover them next time.