the strategies to follow if you want to build a successful sustainable business. Here goes the list:

Rule 101 of Marketing Strategies:  Keep employees Happy to keep customers Happy.

Sounds cliched. But think about it like this. For your customers, the Employee interacting with them is the company. If he does not handle them well, then for the customer it is the company that is not handling them well. And unless you keep your employees happy, there is no way they will keep your customers happy.

Today Taj Hotels is one of the best hotel brands in the world, not just because of its iconic properties, but also because of amazingly talented and caring staff. They routinely go beyond their call of duty and ensure that guests have a pleasant and wonderful stay.

But what makes the Taj staff so customer focused? Well, this is what an employee of Taj hotels had to say about the company on Glassdoor.  “Best thing is not 1 thing but the whole package itself. The company is a public limited company but has the value system of a family run organization where each and every one is important. In my 5 years I saw multiple times exceptions made for long term serving team members to ensure that no stone is left un-turned to take care of them in their time of need.“

Build your business for the 99.99%.

Most of companies build long legal policies to safeguard themselves.  It is right to build such policies. But make sure that these policies do not start to define your relationship with your customer.

99.99% of people in the world are actually good people. You have to build a policy to safeguard yourself from the remaining .01%. Just don’t let these .01%  people define your relationship with the other 99.99%.

Today Nordstrom is one of the most successful companies in the world, not just because it has great products and very talented sales people. But also because it has a very liberal customer returns policy. It understands that there will be some people who will take advantage of the policy but then majority of the people will not. An easy customer returns policy not only creates a lot of confidence in the minds of customers, but also gives Nordstrom a solid selling ploy and a definite competitive advantage.

Build products you and your employees can believe in.

The first test for your product is asking yourself the question whether the product is good for you and your employees. If you and your employees cannot believe in the product then you are heading for failure.

The product must be good for the customer and meet his actual requirements. A product that is not good for the customer, is never good for business in the long run.

If a customer seeks out your help, help him.

When a customer approaches you for help, don’t show him your policies. Show him your concern and your helpful attitude.  Make an exception for the customer if required. In general, make as many exceptions as possible for your customers. A lot of companies do business with your customers. But it is the exceptions which create the wow factor.  And the wow factor usually pays for itself many times over. A genuine recommendation by a customer can and does usually get a great amount of business.

Have a ‘Customer Care’ center which really cares for your Customers.

The job of customer a care center should be much more than picking up calls and saying hello in a sweet voice. The employees behind these customer care centers should genuinely care for the customers.

For this the employees need to be empowered. They should be able to offer a resolution to the customer on the phone itself as far as possible. It is because of this ability of American Express customer care centers that AMEX is perhaps the most sought after credit card brand in the world. If you make a call to make American Express they will solve your problem right there on the call 99% of the times.

This does two things.  One, it makes the experience truly smooth. And two, it avoids letting the customer move into a zone where he has to write a complaint on an email, write about his poor experience and relive the moment. Sometimes customer experiences can go wrong.  But if you are able to resolve those problem instances in the first call itself, then you would have nipped the problem in the bud.

Listen to your Customers at every Step

Make it super easy for your customers to interact with you. Send out review emails, feedback requests, etc as often as possible. Ask them specific questions about what made them happy about the experience. Ask them what you can improve upon. No matter how the customer is getting in touch with you, use the opportunity to impress them. You can use a review solution like aveJana which automates the entire review generation process. Not only do reviews help you understand your customers better, but reviews help you sell more.

Conclusion:

The best marketing strategies are usually the simplest ones. The most powerful marketing strategy is to make customer service and customer experience the bedrock of your business. If you have done that, then you are well on your way.  As an entrepreneur, feel successful the day and an employee comes to you and fights because he believes the company not living up to its promises. That is the day you have been able to build a truly customer service oriented company.

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