Rasmussen MA CEC PCC How can you keep the customers you work so hard to gain?
You have worked hard to earn every customer who walks through your door or lands on your website. The real question is, how do you keep them coming back?
Start by seeing the experience through their eyes. Yes, they want your product or service. They also want to feel respected, listened to, and confident that choosing you was the right decision.
When you design that experience with care and consistency, customers stay, buy again, and refer others.
1. Never take your customers for granted
Treat customers and clients like they really matter to you. Show them you care and listen to what they have to say.
Give them a delightful experience and they will be quick to share that with others, driving referrals right to you.
Ask yourself and your team:
- How do we show our customers that we notice them?
- Where do we listen, and how do we respond?
Small moments of care create big loyalty.
2. Have the product or service that you say you have
No one likes to feel duped. If you claim to have the best service, the highest quality product, the best prices, or incredible selection, then you must deliver exactly that. Full stop.
This means:
- Clear, honest descriptions of what you sell
- No hidden conditions
- Owning mistakes quickly if you fall short
Trust is fragile. When your offer matches your delivery, customers relax and come back.
3. Make it easy to buy from you
Not enough sales assistance, complicated products or services, a website that is hard to navigate, and too long of a process to purchase all add up to an experience that makes your potential customer just give up and move on to your competitor to make their purchase.
Make your customer happy and create an easy, consistent buying process.
Look for barriers like:
- Confusing pricing
- Too many steps at checkout
- Staff who are unavailable or unsure
Then remove one barrier at a time.
4. Make your business about your customer
Business hours that are not convenient for your market, phone calls that go unreturned, and a difficult return policy are examples of red flags for poor customer service.
Any business operation that results in frustrated or unhappy customers is a policy begging to be improved. Create your customer experience systems around your customers. Because without your customer, you are no longer in business.
Ask:
- Are our hours, policies, and processes designed for us or for them?
- Where do customers get frustrated, and what can we change?
5. Be consistent
People like to know what they are getting when they do business with you. If your product or service is not consistent, they will stop being your customer.
Create customer service systems so that consistent, superior service happens every single time. Document how you greet customers, how you handle questions, and how you resolve problems. Then train your team to follow those steps.
Consistency builds confidence. Confidence builds loyalty.
How systems support great customer service
Here is where writing business systems helps structure your business so that you are not leaving critical customer service up to chance.
Find out what is important to your customers and create the process that delivers that. If you and your team have the right systems in place, your customers will be delighted every time, which means you get to keep them as your customers.
Start by:
- Listing the key moments in your customer’s experience
- Writing simple steps for how you want each moment handled
- Reviewing and improving those steps as you learn
Systems turn good intentions into reliable, repeatable customer care.
Customer service and systems: FAQs
How do I know what my customers really want from their experience?
Ask them. Use short surveys, quick questions at the till, or follow up emails after a purchase. Listen for patterns in what they appreciate and what frustrates them. Your systems should be built around those real comments, not guesses.
What is one small customer service improvement I can make this week?
Choose one friction point and fix it. For example, return all customer calls within one business day, simplify your online checkout by removing one step, or add clear signage that answers your most common questions. Small changes, done consistently, add up.
How do I create customer service systems without overwhelming myself?
Start by letting AI do the heavy lifting. Choose one customer moment, such as “How we greet customers” or “How we handle returns,” and ask your AI assistant to draft a simple checklist, script, or template. Then you review, personalize it for your business, and test it with your team.
Once that one process feels solid, move to the next. You do not need to systematize everything at once. In our new Successful Business Systems Field Guide, I walk you through how to use AI to map your customer journey, write clear processes, and keep them up to date so you are never starting from a blank page.
What if my team does not follow the systems I create?
Involve them in creating the systems, explain why each step matters to the customer, and train regularly. Then model the behaviour yourself. When systems make their work easier and customers happier, your team is more likely to follow them.
Systems and customer service
Here’s where writing business systems helps structure your business so that you’re not leaving critical customer service up to chance. Find out what’s important to your customers and create the process that delivers that. If you and your team have the right systems in place, your customers will be delighted every time. Which means you get to keep them as your customers.
Until next time, enjoy your Entrepreneurial Journey!
Easily create business systems
Get the Successful Small Business Systems Field Guide to design, improve and document your systems step by step! Your guide to systematization. Simple, practical now.
