Finding a customer is often easy. Keeping them is the harder part. You must always strive to provide excellent customer service if you want your clients to come back to you again in the future. Yet, it may be hard to figure out exactly how to do this. Each client has their own likes and dislikes so it can be hard to accommodate everyone. There are five easy things you can do to wow your customers and have them returning to you again and again.

1. Greet every customer by name and remember them when they visit again. Each client is an individual and you need to treat them as such. If your business does not offer a service in which you would take the customer’s name at the beginning of the interaction, be sure to use it if they pay by credit or debit card. This personalizes the relationship. You may also ask them to fill out a client card so you can contact them with sales and new merchandise alerts. This is an easy way to get their name, phone number, e-mail address and preferences. When they return again, try to call them by their name as it will impress them that you care enough to remember who they are.

2. Follow through with your customers after they visit. Send a thank you card or just give them a call to see how their service was. They will appreciate this and remember that you valued their opinion.

3. If an issue does arise, strive for a quick resolution. Find something you can do to resolve the problem quickly and to their satisfaction. It may be an exchange or return or it may be just listening to their concerns. Make sure you adjust for each situation. One resolution may not work for every customer and you need to bear this in mind.

4. Strive for employee retention. Nothing is better than returning to a company you are satisfied with only to find that the employee who was so helpful is still there. This will also save you on training costs. The longer an employee is with a company, the more they will learn and can pass on to your customers.

5. Always look to improve. If a customer asks for something you don’t carry, offer to get it for them. Pick their brain to see exactly what they are looking for that you don’t offer. If it works with your other merchandise, start carrying it. This will show that you value the opinions of your customers and are willing to adjust to accommodate their needs.

By following these five simple steps to wow your customers, you will see your customer turnover rate decrease. A satisfied customer is one who will not only return again and again, but also one who will pass on your name to others. Word-of-mouth advertising is free and can be a great way to grow your business.

Louise Baker writes for Zen College Life, the directory of higher education, distance learning and online schools. She most recently wrote about the best colleges online.

I drove up to the window and asked the pharmacist for the prescription. She looked in the computer and said, “We have no record of that prescription.”

I mentioned that the pediatrician told us she was going to call it in two hours earlier. The response: “We have no record of that prescription.”

I asked how prescriptions were received. Was it by fax or electronically? She said, “We just finished processing all our faxes.”

Flustered, I picked up my cell phone and called my wife to confirm that the prescription had been sent. While on the phone, the pharmacist returned to the window and said that the prescription would be ready in 30 minutes.

What?

When customers are looking for help, they don’t believe you unless you actually go and check.

So what do you have to do to go and check?

Acknowledge that the computer may not have it yet, but that you’ll go check manually.

Explain that sometimes there is a delay in these things.

Customers are looking for reassurances that everything is in order and that you actually know what you are talking about.

If you recite the same excuse repeatedly, it undermines customer trust.

So if things aren’t where you’d thought they’d be, double check. Double check and explain to the customer what is happening and why things may be the way they are.

Showing that you are putting in some effort will reassure the customer that yes, you know what you are doing and that you actually care about the customer.

It’s not easy to admit mistakes. In a litigious age like ours, it can even get you into trouble.

But businesses, like people, sometimes goof. They make bad decisions, or someone on staff simply isn’t thinking. Maybe the negligence of a supplier results in a customer receiving a bad product.

Once the customer is involved, the company must make several decisions. As the owner or manager of the company, you are its face and voice. What level of responsibility are you willing to take for your customer’s dissatisfaction? Is it a fairly simple problem you can resolve yourself, or will you need legal advice? If you feel the customer also shares the blame, should you admit that?

How an organization handles these situations says a lot about the people who run it. A defensive, uncooperative approach to a customer’s complaint virtually guarantees lost business. Even if you eventually manage to satisfy your patron, you have created an indelible impression in that person’s mind. He or she now sees your company as a troubled operation, one incapable of flexibility, collaboration, and basic humility.

You don’t have to adopt the slogan the public now wields like a handgun in the face of many business owners: “The customer is always right.” That kind of hard-and-fast generalization is bound to be wrong some of the time. In fact, customers occasionally are completely mistaken. They accuse companies of practices and incompetence not remotely related to reality. But how your firm deals with these types of people also reflects your professionalism.

Sometimes it’s enough to tell customers that you’re sorry for the circumstances. That you regret they’ve been put in an inconvenient or unpleasant situation. In other words, you can apologize for the conditions without taking ownership of them.

Here’s an example. The battery in my wife’s car recently died, and we took it to our local dealer to have it replaced. About a month later, the “new” battery conked out. I called for another service appointment and was told I’d have to wait four days. We needed the car before that, so we took it to another mechanic and had it repaired and returned the same day.

After telling me the battery from the dealer was junk, the mechanic installed another one. He gave me the dealer’s battery and suggested I return it. I stewed in frustration for a couple of weeks and finally e-mailed the dealer to explain the circumstances.

In his response, the service supervisor said he was “confused” about the follow-up appointment we had made but forgot to cancel. He claimed that I had not really described the problem accurately when I scheduled the follow-up, and said that oversight was probably the reason I was told it would take so long. He did admit, however, he was “surprised” I was told it would take several days.

The resolution? I returned the dud battery to the dealer’s parts department, and they reimbursed me for the cost of the battery, which was about half of what we paid initially.

I felt fortunate we recovered what we did.

Twice the dealer told us that if we had just brought the car back in for a second battery, they could have easily exchanged it, implying that they would have done it for no charge.

I felt like we had done something wrong. Like we should have known better. Like somehow we had our chance and blew it.

And not once during this whole experience did anyone at the dealer apologize for the situation, or for the company selling us a defective battery. A simple “Gee, we’re sorry this happened” would have meant something, even if the company never confessed the battery was worthless.

The dealer most likely was not responsible for the bad battery. They received it from the company’s mother ship, so to speak. But they did bear some responsibility for the situation. It was one I probably would not have gone through at another dealer. They could have silently acknowledged that and made some effort (a future discount, etc.) to keep me as a customer. Instead, they lost me forever. Now I wouldn’t let them work on the car if it died on their lot.

So don’t be afraid to say you’re sorry, even if you think the blame doesn’t lay solely with you or your company. You’re not admitting weakness; you’re projecting strength. You’re showing you run a business that knows how to handle challenges. That yours is an operation that skillfully addresses problems. And most important, you’re proving that you and your company know how to work with, and keep, customers.

How you handle these exceptions will determine how great a company you are.

On a recent Southwest Airlines flight, my family and I were traveling with our four kids. The flight attendant noticed this and gave us our very own trash bag to help us out. Since I, as a parent, know we can produce a mess, this was a great help.

Because the flight attendant anticipated our needs, my flight was a little less stressful and Southwest had a cleaner plane. Everybody won.

When you anticipate your customers’ needs, you:

• prevent problems before they start
• reduce customer service demand later
• show customers that you are actually thinking about them

How do you anticipate customer needs?

Observe

The first step of anticipating customer needs is to watch what is happening. What are your customers doing? What are they saying? What is happening around them? If you keep your eyes and ears open, you will be ready to see what a customer needs.

Look for Patterns

The more you observe customers, the more patterns you will see emerge. Take note of what happens when customers are in a particular situation. You’ll see similar results. Identify the patterns. Look for the cause and effect of results.

Action

As you observe and identify that this particular situation matches a pattern you’ve seen before, take action. Help the customer leap frog ahead to the desired result. Help them avoid potential pitfalls. Inject yourself between the customer and the problem before it happens.

Prevent

Over time, you’ll see common patterns. It then becomes essential to correct the root cause of these issues. When you fix the root problem, the customer won’t have the need to begin with. Problem solved.

Other times problems and needs will always arise because they are out of your control. In these cases, make sure you have a process or system in place to identify and address customer needs before they arise.

Your experience will allow you to see a few steps ahead of a customer. Pave the way for a smooth experience and the customers will be happy to walk with you (and do business with you) again.

The last time I got my flu shot I had a very friendly nurse. She was cheerful, made a joke to set me at ease, and made the otherwise dreadful “I’m getting a shot” experience a rather pleasant one.

Flu shots are one of those things that people have to get that they don’t necessarily like.

Your business may likewise sell products that are necessary, yet painful, for customers. Or perhaps you have business processes that customers have to go through but that they hate (think product returns).

You, as a business, can make these experiences more pleasant and in so doing turn the tide of consumer sentiment.

Here are some steps you can take to ease customer pain when they are expecting the worst:

• Explain what exactly the end result will be
• Tell the customer what you will be doing
• Explain what the customer will need to do
• Outline anything the customer will experience (wait, discomfort, etc.)
• Call the customer by name to personalize the experience
• If tension is high, break the ice with some humor or a distraction that takes the customer’s mind off of the negatives
• If the pain is caused by your mistake – fix it

By helping your customer through painful transactions with you, they will recognize that you care and that will help build your relationship with them.

When issues are caused by one department’s error, it may not be detected until the product reaches another group or even the customer.

Unfortunately, the farther down the line the mistake travels, the less likely it will make it back to the original offending party to correct future mistakes.

This can put your company in a constant battle of producing errors and mistakes that are never corrected and the effects thereof constantly being felt by those “downstream.”

The last time we needed a faucet for our bathroom sink, I found a new, sealed box on the store’s shelf and purchased it.

When I got home and opened the box, I saw that the faucet wasn’t the same as was shown on the box. In fact, it wasn’t even close.

Oops.

I took the product back to the store where the customer service folks and then the department manager helped me and refunded my money.

In this case, a quality assurance problem with the product wasn’t felt by the packaging and shipping people but rather those at the end of the line: the customer and the customer service people.

Granted, not all problems will be caught before your products are handed off to the next group.

However, you need to have a feedback mechanism in place to continually refine and correct issues that are detected later in the purchasing cycle so that they can be prevented with future occurrences.

Your company may be broken into silos internally but don’t let this let you run your business inefficiently.

Identify the problems in one group or department that have a root cause in another and make changes across the board.

I had a failed attempt at returning a product to IKEA recently that highlighted how customer expectations are set in multiple places and venues.

We purchased a laptop workstation at IKEA, put it together, and realized that it wasn’t going to work for us. When I tried to return the product, I was told that I couldn’t return it since it was built.

So I offered to take it apart. Would they accept it then? No.

I offered to put it back in its original packaging. Would they accept it? No.

Every thing I tried to do to comply with the wording on the receipt was denied.

At every step, the employee gave me a reason that wouldn’t work. Reasons which seemed to run counter to what the wording on the receipt told me or didn’t mention in the first place.

It was impossible to return my item. I left a very unhappy customer.

My wife and I have literally spent thousands of dollars furnishing our home with IKEA products. Unfortunately, this incident tarnished my impression of IKEA and directly impacted my likelihood to buy from them again.

This reminds me of what Andrew Lock says on his video podcast: “Marketing is everything and everything is marketing.”

Assumptions

IKEA was relying on me to read and interpret the fine print on the receipt to match their definitions of words like “unused” and “built”.

Unfortunately, they had three failures that lead to confusion. You would be wise to make sure you aren’t setting false expectations with your customers.

Mistake #1. Appear to Accept Returns

There is a large area near the checkout registers where IKEA sells as-is products. This gives the impression that they are reselling products that people have assembled and returned.

Lesson: Does your store, website, or other public-facing materials give the impression that you allow certain things that in fact, you do not?

If so, make some changes. Be consistent across the board.

Mistake #2. Appear to Welcome Returns

IKEA has big posters showing a heart with open arms extending out of its sides that says “It’s OK to change your mind.” Unfortunately, it isn’t really OK to change your mind once you get your product assembled and can actually see it isn’t what you hoped it would be.

Lesson: Broad statements with emotion-invoking imagery doesn’t compel people to read the fine print and get the real story.

Mistake #3. Conflicting Copywriting

IKEA receipts are printed on stationary paper that includes the company’s return policy. This doesn’t match the bold black letters that are on the front of the receipt printed at the register. Which one should I believe? Inconsistent information confuses customers.

Lesson: Does your company have different messages in different places? Your receipts, website, signage, emails, and all other forms of communication should be consistent in their wording and message.

Impressions Matter

IKEA gives the impression that returns are welcomed and that you can have a worry-free purchase. “Don’t worry,” they say. “It’s OK to change your mind.” Unfortunately, they fail in comunicating the reality of what they are willing to do.

I asked the employee at the returns counter: “Surely I can’t be the only customer with this problem?” She responded: “We have to turn away a lot of people for the same reason.”

This screams of a failure in the process. With so many failed returns being attempted, surely IKEA could do a better job of setting expectations up front.

Lesson: If you are seeing lots of frustrated customers post-sale, something must not be right on the front-end. Take a look at your communications, processes, and products. What is causing the failure downstream? Identify it and fix it.

We recently took our van into the dealership for a manufacturer’s recall. We scheduled an appointment and showed up promptly on time.

As I was checking into the dealership, I asked if they could take a look at the vehicle’s alignment.

This extra request was greeted with disdain and I was told “we can do that but it will take a lot longer to get your car ready.” The message I got was clear: you don’t want that alignment service.

So I got the recall service taken care of and then drove to another shop to get the alignment fixed even though the dealership could have fixed the problem and had my money.

In your business, you’ll find times when your customers realize they need more from you than originally planned.

This is a great opportunity for you since they will thus be spending more money with you.

Instead of a terse response like the dealership, you should say “Yes! We can do that for you.”

The extra work may take longer. The request may even mean higher costs to the customer.

However, your customer asked for it!

Respond positively. Yes! You can meet the customer need.

Once you identify that yes, you can deliver what the customer needs, you’ll need to then set expectations on how that changes what you need from the customer.

For example: “Yes, we can fix the alignment on your car. Alignments typically take an extra hour to service, is that OK?”

If you can meet the customer’s need, do it! Acknowledge it positively and with enthusiasm. After all, your customer wants to spend that money to fix the problem. Make sure that money is with you.

Your customers will wait before, during, and even after their transaction with you.

How you attend to the customer during these three stages will greatly impact their perception of you and their likelihood to purchase from you again.

On a recent family vacation, we went to Disneyland. This self-proclaimed “happiest place on Earth” delivers that promise exactly because they attend to the details at every stage of the waiting game.

Before

Every ride that you go on at Disneyland has an expected wait time posted as you enter the queue to stand in line.

Setting clear expectations with customers up-front reduces any ugly surprises from happening.

Disney crafts the waiting experience to wind you through entertaining landscapes, visuals, and builds up the story of the ride you are about to experience. So even though you are waiting, there is still an element of entertainment.

How can you engage, distract, or entertain the customer while they wait with your business?

During

Occasionally, rides at Disneyland stop midway through. When this happens, a recorded voice immediately announces that the ride is temporarily stopped and will resume shortly.

If there are delays in your transactions with customers, they will want to know what is going on. Immediately acknowledge the delay, and communicate when things will resume to normal.

After

Almost every Disney ride we went on finished by sending us through a gift shop that shared the theme of the ride we just finished.

After a customer has completed a transaction with you, it is a great time to upsell the customer on another product and to reinforce the experience they just had.

Total Waiting Experience

Your customers will have to wait before, during, and after transacting with you. If you enhance those interactions with customers by making the wait time less of a burden, you may very well make your business the “happiest place on Earth” for the moments they spend with you.

One surprising source of visitors to this site is people who actually think that I am the official representative of the company they want to reach.

For example, I get lots of people searching for “huggies customer service” and they land on a post I wrote about my good experience with Huggies four years ago. Why do they find my site? Because, last I checked, I showed up first when you Google that search phrase.

Shouldn’t Huggies be number one? Absolutely.

I also get questions about DiGiorno pizzas. Why? Because I’ve written about DiGiorno in the past, too.

These examples highlight an area of concern that your business needs to worry about:

Your customers are looking for support and your customer service contacts. Can customers find you by searching for you on Google?

If they can’t, then you are invisible. Not only invisible, but vulnerable to what others are saying in your place.

You will be replaced by someone else, not at your company, that is blogging about you or talking about you in an online forum.

Your customers will not always be able to tell that a third party site they visit isn’t yours.

So today’s action item is to google your company name, and especially “your-company-name customer service.” Are you showing up in the results?

Your business needs to be where people are looking. Additionally, you need to be where customers are talking. Be sure to monitor customer word of mouth and stay on top of any issues that arise.