How to Keep Your Customers Happy (Even If They’re Wrong)

Customer satisfaction and retention are both necessary for any business's success

Staff providing customer service. Yan Krukov/Pexels

By Donna Peeples

Knowing your customers and putting them first is fundamental to any growth strategy. More and more, companies use approaches like dynamic segmentation to learn who their customers are and to market and communicate in highly targeted and more cost-effective ways to specific groups. Those types of strategies make it obvious that not all buyers are created equal and show how important it is to measure what matters. Yet, sometimes customers are unhappy even when you’ve done everything well.

However, it is possible to improve customers’ attitudes and get them back in your court if you proactively address the problem. Remember that your customers are always looking to be delighted, but they do want interactions to be fast, easy, and accurate every time.

1. Get Ahead of the Issue

It wasn’t that long ago that research indicated dissatisfied customers would tell ten people about their negative experience and only two about their positive experience. But today, in the digital age, people can share their experiences with thousands of people in just seconds. That’s great if a customer wants to praise you, but the reality is that customers who have a bad experience are 50 percent more likely to share it on social media than those who have had good experiences. Customers also expect companies to respond to their social media engagement quickly. Therefore, it’s important to try to respond to reviews and social media posts often to inspire confidence, meet expectations, and keep the bad press from spreading.