Written By: Lauretta Onwuegbuzie
As an entrepreneur, you exist for one reason only and that is to satisfy your customers. Only in doing this, do you make tons of profit, live the life of your dreams, build an empire, and leave a legacy.
So how do you satisfy your customers? By creating solutions that will relieve their problems, add value to them and make their lives easier. You gain from this, by monetizing these solutions. Your solution could be in the form of a product, or a service tailored to your customers.
Now the simple truth is this; without your customers you simply cannot call yourself an entrepreneur. Yes, because it means that you serve nobody. Many entrepreneurs in Nigeria make this common mistake, where after your business starts to scale, you forget the reason for your existence and you become to fixated with “increasing profit”.
Entrepreneurs make the mistake of losing the emotional connection with customers. Neglecting your customers, and only seeing them as money producing machines will adversely affect your business. At the end of they day, your customers or clients are humans. They want to be treated right, they want to feel cared for, they want you to make them feel like the single most important person in the world.
Now to the crux of this discussion. Have you ever asked yourself, “how well do I take feedback from my customers?” Feedback could either be given to you, or you can make the inquiry. How often do you ask your customers if they are satisfied with your services? Do you ever ask them to tell you how you can be better?
One day, I went to buy some fabric from my “source” in Lagos Island. While we were discussing, he asked me some questions, “What do you think about this business? “, Do you think I can reach more young people like yourself? How? At my price do you think they will buy?” and a host of other questions. He had just started his business and he wanted to penetrate youth communities such as campuses in Lagos. I told him everything I knew about hall weeks in Unilag; getting a stall, selling and delivering for free, giving discounts on bulk purchases, bring a friend to get a discount promos etc. We shared ideas, and I told him to avoid certain things I didn’t really like about his services, such as refusing to swap fabrics after purchase. I thought he needed to be more flexible.
He took these strategies and feedback, and I saw him implement them. His sales tripled in just one week of sales on campus!
Your clients or customers are the end users of your products and services, if there’s anyone that can properly critique it, it’s them. As an entrepreneur, you should care about what your customers need and how this need is changing. This will help you to improve, and if possible, to modify your services to fit their current needs. How do you get this information? Simple! from feedback.
The competition in today’s market is so tight that if you don’t prioritize your customers feedback, your competitor will listen to them, steal their loyalty, and their money *smiles*. Requesting for customers feedback makes them feel loved and appreciated. It makes them feel important, and this experience will build their trust in your brand. You can’t grow as an entrepreneur if you do not provide the services your clients want, and the way they want it.
Now that you understand why you need to seek your customers feedback after they use your services, here are some easy ways to get their feedback.
- Hire a customer service personnel who will collate customer feedback after every purchase.
- Use a simple online form to collate feedback from your customers. For instance, send them an email after using your product or service to ask whether they enjoyed it.
- Find ways to personalize your request for feedback. Use the opportunity to leave a lasting impression on your customer, showing that you care about their satisfaction.
Trust me, with these simple steps, you’ll have your customers hooked for a very long time. You’ll also get to be far above your competitors because your business will grow significantly.
