Business means customers and customers means business. It is impossible to imagine a business without customers. Customers are directly proportional to business. More the number of customers, more prosperous is the business. Just as "Athithi Devo Bhava" is the tag line of tourism industry, similarly "Garahak Devo Bhava" should be the motto of the business world. Customers are not different from business but they are an essential part of business. From ancient times, the customers are referred and treated as God in various countries. Every individual has a strong and invisible bonding with God and there is no chance of any misunderstanding between them. Similarly if the customers are treated as God, then it becomes the duty of the vendor to satisfy the customer to the fullest. Whenever a businessman thinks of bringing more creativity in his company or firm, tries to become more prosperous or implementation of any strategy, he should first think that what more he could do for his customers through this improvisation so that he could provide better service to his customers. If he thinks in such way then it will definitely help him to improve his customer relations.

However customer satisfaction could not be measured by using any specific criteria. It is completely a personnel experience and it keeps on changing from time to time on the basis of nature, quality and demand of the product. The opinion of customer varies from product to product. Whenever a company launches a new product in the market then it tries to attract customer attention through following activities:

1. Public opinion and satisfaction.
2. Strong advertising
3. Previous experience.

When this newly launched product becomes a successful brand then the company is required to meet the following needs of the customer in order to maintain its level in the market.

1. Necessity of the product.
2. Services given by the brand company.
3. Cost of the product.
4. Quality of the product.

Since customer satisfaction is the base of successful business, hence in order to maintain the stability of the business and reduce the risk of financial loss, it is important to satisfy the customers. Even a single mistake, which hurts the customer, can destroy the image of business.

Satisfying the customer is not a hard or impossible job. If the businessman gathers little courage and applies practical knowledge, then he can easily adopt the magnetic skill of making the customers his lifetime salesman. Mahatma Gandhi has said," Any customer coming in our working area is an important visitor. He is not dependent on us but we are dependent on him. He does not interfere with our work, but he is our work. We are not doing any favor to him by providing him service rather he is doing favor to us by allowing us to serve him.

Let us try to know five effective tips to achieve customer satisfaction:

1) Friendship with customers:

According to J.C peni, the basis of every successful business is friendship. The customers should always be welcomed with a smiling face and should be treated with warm and happy feelings. Speaking with the customer with proper eye contact, makes him feel that he is being given importance. If the businessman should be confident and disciplined, then the customers get impressed by this attitude. This reduces the distance between the customer and businessman and becomes one of the reason of customer satisfaction.

2) HEART:

All the above points are short but important and this enables the businessman to create a positive image in the customer's mind. The prime function of businessman is to satisfy every query of the customer. He should make himself habitual of thanking each and every customer. This thanking is equivalent to inviting the customers again.

3) Listening to the customers attentively and carefully:

Whenever a customer approaches a vendor, he expects that the vendor should listen to his needs and likes carefully. The complaints of the customers prove to be an important lesson to the businessman and enables him to learn from the complaints. While talking with the customer, the vendor should never work on the computer or talk on the mobile. He should stop his work and pay attention to the customer first. This behavior of the vendor will encourage the feeling of self respect among the customers thus resulting in their satisfaction.

4) Expect queries from the customers and encourage them to ask queries:

The businessman should not only be prepared mentally to satisfy the customers by answering their queries but also try to obtain feedback from the customers regarding product, service, employee's behavior with them etc. This will reflect various negative aspects of different business angles and will provoke the feeling of respect among the customers. The feedback given by the customers will boost improvisation. If the businessman is not able to answer the query of the customer he should at least convince the customer that their query will be answered soon.

5) Keeping the leg in customer's shoe:

If the vendor is not able to understand the query of the customer then instead of getting fed up, he should try to keep himself in place of customer and think quietly about what customer is talking about. He should analyze the customer's thought and try to identify what the customer is thinking about him at that time. Obviously, this will enable him to understand the feelings of the customer minutely and develop a cordial relation with them.

 Above five tips are very simple and clear to achieve customer satisfaction. If the working process of the business or showroom is in favor of the customers then there is no doubt that the customers will reach by crossing all the limits. If there is perfect combination of product, quality and service of the company, then definitely the business will develop a positive image in the market.

Nowadays,various brands are launched in the market according to the lifestyle of the people. If the seller wants to retain in the market for a longer time then he should keep an eye on customer's life style. Also he should be able to identify the customers who are capable and willing to spent money. It is essential that the company should make his customers believe that they have the capability to buy its product. Any businessman can become successful if he attaches himself with his customers and to create bonding with the customers, the only powerful medium is advertising.The reason behind the success of Apple, Google is that they have focused more on the experience of their customers and their only goal is to create successful customers.Thus by making use of these small tips, a businessman make maximum people of the society, his representatives. By providing unique service advantages to the customers, he will be able to invite them again along with more new customers.

• Written by Gouri Dharmadhikari.
• In category Business & Finance.
• 11 years ago.

Hot Hits: 1272

Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this article on other bookmarking websites.