Customers Care About Kindness

At Synergy Merchant Services, we do a lot of talking with Canadian business owners. Quite often, the discussions revolve around ways to attract more customers into their stores. Of course, a great marketing plan backed by our merchant cash advance program always works to help these owners to increase sales.

After all, making sure that you get as many customers as possible is a key to being successful. What is a business without customers, right? Considering that, it’s always important to note that it is not just your products that make people visit your place of business. It’s also not just the type of advertising you do.

Customer service, as we all know, is at the top of the list when it comes to things that people consider when choosing where to shop. Treating your customers as valued and appreciated individuals is imperative, especially considering how much competition is out there in each respective marketplace.

Remember that, for most people, the customer experience – not just the product being purchased – is what brings customers back into your store for repeat visits and continued business relationships. The slightest bit of a bad experience could mean the end of those relationships for good.

Earlier today, The Toronto Star‘s Lesley Ciarula Taylor published an article discussing the importance of maintaining optimum customer service levels to encourage repeat business. In fact, Taylor noted that many customers are willing to stop shopping at a store where they experience any type of rudeness.

According to Georgetown University’s Christine Porath, the occurrences of customers experiencing uncivil employee behaviour is growing. Taylor notes that Porath’s studies of this matter have determined that between 1998 and 2005, the percentage of employees who were targeted by rudeness jumped from 20 to 48.

Said Porath: “There is a moral argument against employees being uncivil…From a customer standpoint, it isn’t just about how you’re being treated. The fact is that you don’t like to witness this kind of behaviour.” Clearly, it doesn’t pay to be rude to either customers or co-workers!

We will explore this topic a bit more in tomorrow’s blog.