5 Reasons Your Customer is Unhappy

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

Customers, in every sense of the word, are the lifeline running through all organizations. Without them, your business would simply not exist. Thus, customer satisfaction and superior consumer experiences are paramount to your business’ success. In fact, 56% of consumers feel that the quality of the customer service they receive has a significant impact on how they view the company as a whole and 61% of consumers are willing to pay 5% more if they know they’ll get a good customer experience. Given the criticality of customer satisfaction it’s important to ensure you’re going above and beyond to meet their needs. However, within the last few years alone, what customers value and prioritize have changed significantly. In this article, we’ll break down a double-blind survey conducted by Salesforce from December 8, 2021, through February 1, 2022 which represents respondent’s sentiments from 29 countries across six continents. Our goal is to help you be sure you’re not making one of these fiver critical mistakes when it comes to serving your customers.

5 Reasons Your Customer is Unhappy

1. You’re Not Trust-Worthy

The post-pandemic world we live in coupled with the precarious nature of our economy has proven to have an immense impact on the lives of customers. More so than ever before, customers are looking for businesses to be a stabilizing force – in fact, 88% of customers believe that in uncertain times, a business that’s trustworthy is one of the most important characteristics a company can have. Yet as of 2022, only 67% of customers believe that companies have the capabilities to meet their needs and expectations. So, how can you ensure that you’re creating a trustworthy environment for your customer? Here are 3 simple ways to get started:

• Communicate your values
  A striking 88% of customers expect for companies to clearly state what their values are, yet only 50% of customers say they see companies actually doing so. What values are important to customers?

Remember, no company is perfect, if your values aren’t up to par yet, be honest about your journey towards getting there. Which brings us to our next point of honesty.

• Be honest and Transparent
  Customers are 77% more likely to trust a business if the claims they’re making about their products and services are honest. However, being honest is sometimes easier said than done, especially when it comes to owning up to mistakes (past, present and future!) At the end of the day, customers want honesty, because honesty builds trust and customers that trust are customers who are loyal.
• Resolve issues proactively
  As a customer, there’s nothing quite as bad as having an issue or complaint, calling up customer service and hearing obnoxiously loud hold music while being told you’re the 10th caller in line. Customers want a business to be proactive when it comes to conflict. This means a company with no long hold times, the ability to offer real-time solutions and treats their customers like a person rather than caller number five in the hold line.

How can you achieve proactive customer service? Check out these Salesforce solutions that can help your team solve customer conflicts before they become an issue:

The Salesforce Solutions You Need:

Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Experience Cloud

2. You’re Not Offering Personalized Experiences

As technology continues to rapidly evolve, customer expectations evolve alongside it. In a world where Amazon recommends additional products we’ll like and Netflix predicts our next binge-worthy show with stunning accuracy, the everyday customer expects a lot more from the companies they do business with. These days, 56% of customers expect offers to always be personalized and 86% of consumers said the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, if not more.

The Salesforce Solutions You Need:

Salesforce Customer 360
Salesforce CRM Analytics (Tableau)
Salesforce Einstein
Salesforce Customer Data Platform

3. You’re Not Providing Enough Options

2020 has proven to have a lasting effect on the way we shop, the way we learn and the way we interact with others. Social distancing quite literally forced customers online which increased digital transactions by 36% between 2019 and 2021. And even as IRL options become available again, customers still prefer to be online more so than ever before. However, as a business you must not disregard alternative means of shopping as it could exclude entire demographics of customers. As we progress into a more advanced digital-age, companies must be flexible and offer a range of options for obtaining their products and services such as: social media, in-person, email, phone, etc.

The Salesforce Solutions You Need:

Salesforce Customer 360
Salesforce Customer Data Platform
Salesforce Mulesoft
Salesforce Marketing Cloud

4. You’re Ignoring Loyal Customers

Just because a customer has purchased products or services from you within the last year, doesn’t mean they’ll continue to do so! As people continue to spend more time online, they’re exposed to a world of new choices that may also come with better deals and offers. In fact, within the last year alone, 71% of consumers switched brands at least once in the past year.

Why?

So, how can you boost customer loyalty? A loyalty program! Seriously! Research shows that 56% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand with a loyalty program. However, a loyalty program alone is not enough. Customers want to feel understood – remember, they want to be seen as a person rather than a number. Additionally, people are complex. Over time priorities change, lifestyles change, and financial situations can change, so it’s important for businesses to have the capacity to change how they serve their customers. In order to better serve customers, the first step is having the data to better understand them:

The Salesforce Solutions You Need:

Salesforce Customer 360
Salesforce CRM Analytics (Tableau)
Salesforce Einstein
Salesforce Marketing Cloud

5. You’re Not Moving Toward Digital Transformation

We get it, change is hard. But the reality is, our world is changing at unprecedented rates and the consumer demand is that businesses keep up. To date, 85% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, yet 60% of customers say it generally feels like they’re communicating with separate departments, not one company. How can this be remedied? Here are 3 ways you can begin your digital transformation journey to create a more connected customer experience:

Artificial Intelligence
AI gets a bad rep. But the fact of the matter is that most people encounter artificial intelligence and don’t even know it. Artificial intelligence has become so robust thanks to predictive personalization that it can make a customer feel as though an interaction was tailored specifically for them. Further, it can help to predict additional items a customer may be interested in or automatically send alerts when it’s time to reorder.

The Salesforce Solution You Need:

Salesforce Einstein

Automation

83% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a company, yet that rarely occurs. In fact, it’s often multi-user, multi-step customer service workflows and if you’re tired of that, it’s likely that your customers are tired too. Automation boasts a whole host of benefits for your company including: improved lead-to-sales ratios by keeping sales reps accountable and prospects engaged, a smooth and simplified customer journey by automating repetitive and manual tasks and faster resolution times thanks to workflows and collaboration tools.

The Salesforce Solution You Need:

Salesforce Einstein
Salesforce Customer 360

Predictive Analytics

Empower your customer service team with predictive analytics. By using data, machine learning, and statistical algorithms, agents can identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. Put simply, it helps to take the guesswork out of what could happen to instead know future events concretely. This is especially important for customer service because it helps to uncover patterns in the customer experience, offering critical insight into individual customer satisfaction and value outcomes like: revenue, loyalty, and cost to serve.

The Salesforce Solution You Need:

Salesforce CRM Analytics (Tableau)

Get started on your digital transformation journey today and close any gaps in the customer experience.

See also: Cadence Banks Digital Transformation Journey