Create a culture of service trust

Know your customer

Knowing your customer is one of the most important aspects of a successful business because you can't sell anything if you don't know who they are. Understanding your customer is the foundation of your marketing strategy because you can't build a loyal customer base without knowing them.

So, how can you get to know your customers? By understanding who they are, what they want and what they are willing to pay for.

Your customers fall into three categories:

The Problem Solvers

They are your primary customers, who come to you because you have the best solution to their problems. They buy what you sell because they want to solve a problem they have or achieve something specific.

The Experimenters

These customers are not necessarily looking for a solution to a problem but are interested in trying out your product. They buy your product out of curiosity to see what it will do for them.

The Followers

They want to be associated with something or someone popular. They won't necessarily buy your product because they trust you, but because they trust you to buy your products.

Knowing and understanding your customers will help you develop a buyer persona that will help you market to them. This includes understanding their taste and preferences, why they buy, their habits, their demographics and psychographics, and their pain points.

Know your customer's Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD)

The jobs-to-be-done framework helps marketers and product designers understand customer needs. It challenges marketers and product designers to reframe their job as solving customer problems and moves away from focusing on what the product does or how it solves a problem.

Jobs-to-be-done is a theory of human motivation developed by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. It proposes that customers don't care about products—they care about how those products help them achieve outcomes that they want to achieve.

To understand how jobs-to-be-done can help you grow your business, look at your job as an advertiser or product designer. Let's say you are a product designer looking to design a product for baby bottles. You may think that your job is to design the best bottle possible. But that would be wrong. Your job is to solve a specific problem—fill babies' bellies so they can grow big and strong.

To truly solve that problem, you need to understand the jobs your customers are looking for your product to satisfy. In this case, your customer's job-to-be-done is "How do I fill my baby's belly?" or "How do I give my baby the best nutrition to grow big and strong?"

Similarly, your job as the product designer is to solve the "job" of filling baby bellies.

This framework helps you listen to your customers and understand what problems they are trying to solve so that you can build the right product to help them.

Know how to get help to support your customer when needed

Without customers, your business will not last long. It is essential to provide them with support whenever needed so they can continue to use your products and services. The support you provide should be helpful and prompt, not a nuisance.

There are several ways to provide customer support, such as email, social media, and live chat. But the best method depends on the nature of your business. Before choosing which method to use, you must consider which types of customers you have.

For example, if you have a lot of customers who prefer email communication, you should use email support. On the other hand, if your customers are on social media, you should use social media support.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding how to provide customer support:

What is the communication channel that your customers prefer?Where do your customers hang out?How many customers do you have?What is the nature of your business?

Know when and how to escalate your customer complaints

Customer complaints are critical in helping you identify areas of weakness. They also give you the chance to improve your services. By handling customer complaints well, you improve your company's reputation and gain loyal customers.

However, it's not always easy to handle complaints. Since they are unexpected and negative, people tend to dampen their reactions and resist escalating them to the next level.

Here are a few best practices that will help you handle complaints well:

Get contact details – When a customer complains about your service, ask them for their contact details so that you can get more information.

Acknowledge the complaint – Acknowledge the complaint in a professional manner. Tell them you are looking into the matter and thank them for bringing it to your attention.

Get the issue resolved – Find the cause and fix it as quickly as possible. Follow up with the customer to ensure the problem has been resolved.

Apologize – If the customer's complaint is valid, offer an apology. Let the customer know that you sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to them. This can be done in the form of an email, phone call or an in-person meeting.

Get customer feedback – Ask the customer for feedback about their experience. Ask them how they think your company can improve its service.

And have a continuous improvement feedback loop. After identifying your weak areas, make deliberate efforts to continually improve them and take action.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best (and plan for that)

When planning ahead, most businesses get trapped being too busy working in their business to plan for contingencies. Yet, most of us have experienced the unpleasant consequences of not planning ahead. For example, you could lose your job because you failed to update your résumé, or you could miss your flight because you didn't print your boarding pass.

Planning ahead for many is uncomfortable. However, planning ahead can go a long way in preventing you from getting caught off guard and save you a lot of time and stress. Here are seven tips to help you plan for the worst and hope for the best.

1) Have a contingency plan – No matter what life throws at you, have a backup plan. For example, do you have a backup plan if you suddenly lose a big contract? Do you also have a financial plan? If you experience an unexpected expense, do you have the cash to cover it?

2) Prepare for the worst – You never know when life might throw you a curveball, so it's better to be prepared than to be unprepared. For example, prepare for the worst if you are about to start your own business. Have a contingency plan in case things don't work out.

3) Keep your emergency funds intact – An emergency fund is a money set aside to cover unexpected expenses or emergencies. These funds can be used in case of unexpected emergencies and changes in the context of your business.

4) Have insurance – Insurance can protect you from financial uncertainty, so ensure that you have good insurance on your car and home. Having insurance means that you are protected financially if a disaster strikes.

5) Prepare for a job loss – When you lose your job, having a financial plan will help you stay afloat until you get another job. Your financial plan should include savings and investments so that you don't dip into your emergency funds.

6) Prepare for a natural disaster – Natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and floods can cause massive destruction and human casualties. So it is advisable to have a plan in case of a natural disaster near your home. Have an emergency kit with essentials that will help you survive for at least 72 hours.

Surprisingly, emergencies and disasters can also be one of the most significant opportunities to build trust with your customers. So intend to use these situations as an opportunity to build a loyal customer relationship. Being prepared to communicate and deliver positive actions during a crisis demonstrates that you always put your customer's needs first.

Today's customers are more empowered than ever before. This gives them the liberty to voice their opinion about your brand and products. This is good news for brands that are prepared to respond to their customer's needs quickly and decisively. On the other hand, it can be disastrous for brands that ignore customer complaints and opinions.

Many brands have trouble handling customer complaints on social sites or on their support teams. Don't commit the mistake of ignoring or mishandling your customer's complaints. They will only come back to haunt you.