We will please customers with any requests. Most frequent customer requests

“The site is not the center of your Universe. The Facebook page is not the center of your Universe. Mobile app is not the center of your universe. The client is the center of your universe!” - Bruce Ernst, product manager at Monetate.

“In the old world, you spent 30% of your time creating great service and 70% of your time screaming about it. In the new world, it's the other way around." -Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

“The customer is the most important visitor. He does not depend on us. We depend on him. He does not interrupt our work. He is the goal of our work. He's on the wrong side of 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 the opportunity to do this, ”- Mahatma Gandhi, the ideologist of the national liberation movement in India.

“The path to the customer's heart is more than a loyalty program. Growing evangelistic clients is all about giving them an impression worth telling others about.” — Valeria Maltoni, Vice President, PM Digital.

“The key to success is to create realistic expectations for customers, and then these expectations must not only be met, they must be exceeded,” Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group Corporation.

“Customer service is all about giving him a new experience. This is a promise to our customers that we must keep. It's how they feel when they do business with us.” - Shep Heiken, founder of Shepard Presentations.

“Setting customer expectations at a level that is consistent with a consistently maintained level of customer service requires that all of your staff, from product developers to marketing, work in harmony with your brand image,” Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group Corporation.

“Every day we ask the question: How can we make our customers happy? What innovations do we need to use for this?” - Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Architect software Microsoft Corporation.

“Customer experiences are the catalyst for transformation. They directly affect the culture, strategy, structure and all aspects of the business,” Christina Crandell, President of New Business Strategies.

“Here's a simple but powerful rule for you. Always give people more than they expect to receive.” - Nelson Boswell, founder of NELSON BOSWELL.

A telecommunications company that provides virtual communication services in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The main products of UIS are virtual PBX, 8-800 number, sitephone callback, mobile office, autoinformer, virtual meeting, SIP telephony, etc.

As a freelancer, each of us has a love or hate relationship with our clients. Of course, without them, we would be left without a single penny, but at times they can make our work unbearably difficult.

How do we deal with clients who don't pay us, take up all of their time, and make our job more difficult than it needs to be?

Most freelance clients are very friendly people, however, sooner or later there comes a time when you have to face the very client who can easily hurt your business if you let him. Knowing how to deal with these unmanageable clients will help you avoid potentially dangerous situations.

Here is a list of the six most dangerous clients for your business. Have you worked with any of them?

1. Indecisive CUSTOMER

Indecisive clients constantly change their minds about the project and tasks. Unforeseen clients change their minds partly through the project. They add new features and expect you to jump through fire hoops like a trained dog to get the job done. Such a client expects you to abandon what you have already done and start doing the project from the very beginning, adhering to the initial deadlines deadline. Back to sketching and creating new concepts.

Here's how to protect yourself:

• Set your own project timeline from the start, especially allowing time for additional tasks or possible changes. Remember that in reality, very often a project takes longer to complete than you initially thought.
• Work through every detail before starting a project. Create an agreement that specifies exactly what the customer can expect from the extra time they are paying for.
• In your contract, specify the number of corrections and the additional fee for any urgency, cancellation or additional requests from the client.

2. WAITING CUSTOMER

Have you ever worked with a client who wanted a Bugatti Veyron with a budget LADA Kalina?

We are freelancers, not subsidiary Roman Abramovich!

Perhaps everyone likes it within the budget, and most importantly, that the price is reasonable for both parties, both for the client and for the contractor. But, if the client expects you to "sing and dance" for relatively little money, you can say "No". You must say "No". Unless you plan to advertise your services in such a way to get more returns or make new connections, or are not going to make some kind of charitable contribution to the development of an organization, then your services should be paid, one way or another.

Advice: Discuss the budget and payment agreement with the client first. If you allow your collaboration to develop before you talk about the budget, then you will be more likely to work at a rate significantly lower than you would like to receive. Beware of clients who do not openly discuss rates.

3. HARRY CUSTOMER

This is a client who took one web design course back in university and thinks that as a designer you are not doing the job right. Or is it a client who will never be satisfied with your work because they want the results of a company with millions of dollars in revenue, and this is on a very tight budget.

How do you deal with these clients? Be patient and don't take it personally. Sometimes people are not confident in themselves and they need to inflate their ego in order to feel better, to raise their conceit. Do your best work and try to shield yourself from their negativity once you've completed the project.

Advice: If you are unsure about the quality of your services, then your customers will be unsure about them as well. You do not have to be at the top of the TOP in your field in order to provide the client with an excellent and high-quality product. Be confident in your level of knowledge and you will attract more valuable customers who will appreciate you and pay accordingly.

4. PERSISTENT CUSTOMER

Early in my freelance career, I had a client who wanted me to work on his content, even though the project was outside of my comfort zone. After studying the topic of work, I decided that the project was not suitable for me, because I did not have knowledge in this field of activity, and the client needed an expert in this matter. Moreover, he insisted that I work with him, so I had to agree. I ended up spending hours negotiating, putting all the details of the project together and then researching the industry so I could get familiar with what I would be working on. As soon as the project started, I realized that the client had changed his mind and he no longer wanted me to write for him.

Here are some useful lessons to learn from working with such a client:

• If you feel that the job is beyond your skills, do not under any circumstances take it. No amount of money is worth it: a dissatisfied client will end up causing you a lot of problems in the end, as well as pretty frayed nerves.
• You are a freelancer - self-employed, not working in any company, so you always have the right to refuse work if it does not meet your needs.

ADVIСE

• Always charge upfront, especially when it comes to extensive research. And let its percentage entirely depend on the project itself: what more project and the required time for research, the higher the prepayment percentage.
• Gather as many details about the project as possible beforehand. Have your clients fill out questionnaires and sign an agreement so both parties know what needs to be done before you start.
• If you see an attractive project (in terms of budget), do not let the banknotes influence your decision. Since you cannot provide a client quality work, it is better to leave it for someone else than to make yourself problems and bad reviews.
• Establish connections with specialists from different fields, to whom you can refer the client in case the project is beyond your knowledge. Trust me, people will also send you their client when the project is a better fit for someone with your skill set.

5. SOCIOUS CUSTOMER

This client will email you in the morning, and during the negotiation of the project, he will tell you everything from the name of his dog to where he plans to spend a vacation with his family.

Of course, some projects require more communication with clients than others, but it's important to set a time frame for your communication before starting a project.

• Add your time to the fee. You don't have to spend work time to discuss what is irrelevant to the project. You can devote this time to working on projects.
• If you feel that the client is already beginning to take valuable time from you in the process of work, do not hesitate to compensate for this by increasing the cost of the project.
• Limit the communication to a time frame or write in the contract an additional cost per hour of work outside the budget. In the end, discussing the project and communicating with the client is also work.

Perhaps you have a different opinion about free communication with clients, believing that this helps them feel more comfortable and better disposed towards you. Still, if you feel that clients are taking up more time, feel free to say that you are busy and return to the discussion as soon as you are free. Teach your clients to respect your schedule just as much as you respect them.

6. MAGIC CLIENT

Otherwise, you cannot call such a client a “magician”, because he disappears as soon as it comes to payment. No connection! No correspondence! No requests for further work or changes! There are no explanations!

You spend hours developing a client site or writing content, and the communication goes great. But once you request payment...

• The client is missing and unavailable
• The client talks about family problems and tries to delay payment for work
• The client begins to justify or excuse himself, hoping that in the end you will get tired of demanding payment

I had one client who paid for part of the service and owed some more. I sent a letter to e-mail, and received a promise that within a week everything would be paid. It's been a week and I still haven't received anything. After numerous letters, the client began to talk about the difficulties he faced at the moment. I sympathized and said that I would expect payment. After a longer time, I threatened to take further action, badly damaging my reputation. In the end, after a couple of days, I still received my money.

Even with a contract, it is difficult to deal with payment issues. Most of the customers are out of your country of residence, and trying to "beat" them out of their money brings more headaches than it's worth, especially if you're dealing with a small amount of money. If the situation gets out of hand, threaten to complain about their business, whether in in social networks or in any other media space, but do this only in extreme cases.

Everything needs to be assessed on an individual basis. For example, you have a client with whom you have been working fruitfully for a long time, but at some point he had difficulties and he cannot pay you for the work at the moment. Don't escalate the situation or escalate it: the client will soon settle their problems and pay, and you may lose a stable and good business relationship.

Here are some tips:

• Maintain constant communication throughout the project
• If possible, communicate by voice: it is more difficult for customers to say “no” in live communication
• Always take a deposit

PREPARE FOR THE WORST

The best way to prevent working with such clients is to learn from your mistakes and prepare for difficult clients within your contracts.

Your contract must include:

• Project scope
• Deadlines and requirements
• Detailed description of your services
• Number of changes and payment for additional work
• Conditions that include advance payments, project cancellation fees, etc.

Don't be afraid to abandon the project if something goes wrong. Over time, you will develop an instinct for clients, and you will begin to understand who is in front of you, even before entering into a contract. Remember that you are also "hiring" the client. At the beginning you may need money and you will agree to any projects, but as you start to develop and grow, you will start choosing your clients the same way they chose you.

Your customer is your customer and your goal is to please them. Do everything in your power to give them best job. If you feel that the project is failing, let the client know that your working relationship is not beneficial for both parties. You may not earn money, but you will save your nervous system from negativity.

The corporate identity of the company consists of many details. Here it is very important to pay attention to the little things, which sometimes play a big role in shaping the company's image, a positive assessment from customers and consumers. Elements that stand out from the general style are extremely poignant and make customers wonder if this company is really professional and qualified in its field, since it allows itself such inadmissible oversights?

Calendar or gadget?

There are a large number of varieties of corporate souvenirs. It can be T-shirts and caps, dishes and jewelry, and much, much more. But calendars can be called the most functional souvenirs. More recently, corporations ordered a complete set of corporate souvenirs.

Its main part was made up of calendars of all kinds: wall, table, tear-off, quarterly, pocket. They could meet the needs of any client. Development of the concept of the calendar - come up with a unique design for each department and area of ​​activity. For the accounting department - quarterly, for busy office managers - desktop and flip, for clients - a nice souvenir in the form of a pocket calendar.

Now, managers are trying not to include this kind of printing in the company's expenses. In most cases, only one or two varieties of calendars are printed. And this is explained by the fact that calendars as such are no longer in vogue. That everyone now has an electronic gadget with them, in which it is much more convenient to find the right date or leave a reminder of an important event.

Calendars with a logo are still on the crest of the wave!

But this is far from true. Corporate calendars are still one of the most popular types of souvenirs. A high-quality and well-thought-out calendar will look great on the wall in the office of your business partners. Along with other souvenirs, it will serve as an excellent decoration for your booth at various professional exhibitions, not to mention the fact that such a souvenir will help win the sympathy of customers. No one can resist the charm of thoughtful little things, the purpose of which is to gain trust and create positive image companies.

It's no secret that today's Internet users are smart, tech-savvy, and pathologically disloyal to brands - the market offers too many choices of products and companies for any kind of consumer "loyalty".

This may seem like a disaster for any aspiring internet entrepreneur. But with proper business management, tough competitive environment represents a great opportunity to expand on classic customer service solutions and stand out from the crowd.

Surprisingly, most online stores still neglect this feature. As a result, many consumers remain dissatisfied. The numbers are shocking: only 1% of buyers can confirm that their expectations were met.

Do you want to win the battle for the market? Make a commitment to work with your audience 24/7, use personalization and an individual approach.

Why is customer service so important to eCommerce?

It's no secret that today's online stores offer a wide variety of goods, and new resources are opened every day, filling the market more and more.

Simply put, the modern Internet resembles a jungle, which means that visitors are lost among huge amount names, possibilities and variants. What is the problem? Consumer loyalty to certain brands is less than ever. Even famous companies they cannot keep the client on the name alone, although they used to do it successfully (at least it was thought so).

You should be aware of the following: successful companies constantly upgrade their customer service strategies, and visitors demand instant satisfaction of their requests 24/7. Today's competition is very fierce, and customer expectations have never been so high.

The problems that arise from poor maintenance go much deeper than it first appears. A recent study by Forrester found that poor customer service has a huge impact on online store revenues - 45% of American online users will abandon a purchase if their questions are not answered immediately and their concerns are not resolved as soon as possible.

This number alone should be enough to motivate you to optimize your support.

Now take a deep breath, shock information awaits you - with an insufficient level of service, 91% of visitors will leave the resource and will never want to purchase anything from this company again.

The Importance of Communication

An ATG Global Consumer Trend study found that 90% of online shopping visitors find online chat useful, and surveys conducted by Emarketer.com say that 63% of visitors will return to a website that offers a live consultation in real mode time.

Chat improves business profits by helping you solve customer problems by responding to their queries quickly and efficiently. Users who communicated with the support via chat have a higher level of satisfaction than those who used any other channel of interaction with the support.

Statistics show that live chat users spend approximately 55% more than those who don't.

Focus on user experience, loyalty and ROI

All marketers are familiar with the strategy that companies want to create a “wow effect” and delight their customers with every interaction. Proponents of this strategy insist that people blinded by "cool" branding will create a pool of loyal and engaged customers.

Unfortunately, everything is not so simple. A recent study by journalists Harvard Business Review, showed that often customer service only scares people away instead of increasing their loyalty. And this means one thing - the support service should not only create a “wow-effect”, but rather prevent the outflow of customers.

Visitors to online stores do not expect any special service - customer satisfaction depends only on whether you managed to create a good impression on the first purchase, and then the level of satisfaction will be approximately the same.

In the aforementioned Harvard Business Review study, it was suggested that focusing on the need to impress the user with every interaction can be a counterproductive strategy, especially if your business is not yet able to meet minimum obligations, such as delivering goods on time.

In such a case, it is much better to focus on the correspondence between your statements and the end result, and then, by optimizing resources, create a "wow" effect.

"We live up to our customers' expectations." 80% of executives and top managers think so, but only 8% of clients agree with this statement.

Want to take care of your customers and get the best results at the lowest cost? Here's what you need to focus on:

Find out the target audience. You must have a clear understanding of what the target group needs to meet their expectations. Remember that people first of all want mutual understanding on issues of interest to them.

Simplify the interaction with the resource. The development of your online store should be aimed at simplifying the process of buying and interacting with the resource as a whole.

Solve problems instantly. By understanding the needs of the audience and analyzing the actions of visitors, errors or difficulties can be detected, thereby preventing repeated client requests.

How to create a service strategy?

Eliminate difficulties and obstacles on the site. If you want to improve conversions and increase brand trust, focus your strategy on improving usability. It has been found that 96% of customers who spend a lot of effort to purchase a product (for example, fill out a bunch of fields or wait for payment confirmation for a long time) will end up being less loyal, even if they like the product they bought from you.

Improve your interpersonal skills. According to marketers, 24% of repeated requests from customers arise due to a banal human misunderstanding between them and store representatives. Improve communication and communication skills, this will stop the churn of customers and reduce costs.

Constantly collect customer feedback. It is necessary to constantly monitor the dialogues between customers and the support service in order to collect operational information about difficulties among buyers. This can significantly reduce the number of support tickets.

Gather information about competitors. Make sure your strategy includes analyzing competitors' ideas and solutions. So you can strengthen the offer by expanding the range, cross-selling, optimizing pricing policy or discount systems.

Measuring the success of your customer service strategy

When evaluating the effectiveness of support, you should pay attention to the following:

Outflow of buyers. This indicator is key in assessing the loyalty and trust of your customers.

Identification of popular destinations. Pay attention to which categories of products generate the most support requests - this indicator indicates a high popularity of the product.

Response time. The setting has a big impact on the user experience. According to research, 71% of customers wait no more than five minutes for an online chat session to start, and then 48% of those waiting close the site.

Problem solving on first request. 84% of customers want their problem solved immediately, the first time they contact support. It becomes vital for any eCommerce site to quickly and efficiently resolve user queries.

Fast troubleshooting. Collect feedback and constantly optimize the work of the online store. The company must prevent the recurrence of similar problems.

Difficulty in using the site. The parameter will make it clear how loyal your customer base is to you. Above, we found that the more effort a visitor spends on a purchase, the worse their experience and the less likely they are to return again.

Evaluate the work of support staff. Ask your customers to evaluate the work of the support service on a scale, and make a survey not only with an overall score, but also with parameters like "Speed ​​of response", "Accuracy and completeness of answers", and so on.

Ability to recommend to friends. Ask your customers how likely they are to recommend your brand to friends and family. This metric provides valuable insight into customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it's important to remember that people just want their expectations met without annoying delays or hassles from an online store.

Continually optimize your customer service strategy to improve ease of use, customer experience, and customer loyalty.

Banking marketers traditionally use the coming of summer to attract new and retain old customers by offering them special seasonal products. This year is no exception.

lean summer

Banks like to offer summer deposits for a little over favorable conditions. More than 30 banks (mostly small) have already introduced such deposits. True, at the same time or a little earlier, many lowered the rates of basic deposits, so it is unlikely that it will be possible to open a deposit at a higher interest rate than in the spring. Everyone is waiting for the continuation of the decline in the value of money - the key rate, bank representatives explain.

Seasonal deposits also appeared in large retail players, in particular, Binbank and MDM Bank, Saint Petersburg Bank, Russian Capital, and others (see table).

Seasonal deposit rates of large banks rarely even reach 10% per annum. And only banks outside the second hundred in terms of deposits are willing to pay more than 11%, for example, the Russian Trust Bank (annual deposit "Summer" in the amount of 0.5 million rubles, the rate is 11.8%), "PIR Bank" (" Generous Summer", from 300,000 rubles per year, the rate is 11.7%).

Seasonal deposits are getting shorter: there are practically no 2-3-year deposits now. The most popular terms are 6 and 12 months. “The most popular among clients are deposits with a maximum rate for a year, as well as deposits with debit transactions without loss of interest for the same period,” says Irina Volis, head of passive and commission products development at Globex Bank. “Many clients have narrowed their planning horizon due to reduced solvency and currency fluctuations, depositors want to be able to use their savings at any time.”

This year, almost all summer deposits are in rubles - banks do not know what to do with foreign exchange liquidity, analysts explain.

Seasonal deposits with a differentiated - usually decreasing - rate are still in vogue (income is accrued over periods, each of which has its own rate). But at the same time, early termination of the contract is allowed with the preservation of accrued income for each full period. According to the head of the accumulative services department of Binbank Anna Tarasenko, such deposits are offered because “clients are not always sure that they will be able to keep money on a deposit until the end of the term; on short deposits, the rates are low, and the early closing of a long (more profitable) deposit usually leads to a loss of interest.

Plus cards

Sviaz-Bank has not yet begun to introduce a seasonal deposit, but has increased the income accrued to card accounts in the Salary package of services up to 7% per annum (with an account balance of 5,000 rubles or more and without limitation maximum amount). “Before the summer, 5% per annum was accrued monthly on accounts within the framework of the package only on the balance of 10,000–100,000 rubles. Anyone can join the Salary package,” said the Deputy Director of the Development Department retail business Sviaz-Bank Ekaterina Belousova, specifying that the bank has the right to adjust card rates.

A number of banks introduce an increased cash back (return to the card account of part of the amount spent) for the purchase of seasonal goods. Otkritie is preparing to offer customers a debit card with a 5% cashback for any purchases in the summer. True, the bank plans to return to the client no more than 5,000 rubles. per month, said the representative of the bank.

Discounted mortgage

Excess liquidity prompted some banks to stimulate not depositors, but borrowers.

One of the key summer offers of Unicredit Bank is the Mortgage Calling! for a period of 1-30 years for the secondary market with rates of 12% (with an initial payment of 40% of the cost of the apartment) and 12.5% ​​(fee 20-40%). Under this program, you can buy an apartment on the secondary market at the same rate as under the state subsidies for new buildings, says Oleg Chernyshov, director of the retail segments department at Unicredit Bank. True, such rates are valid only with extended mortgage insurance: civil liability, life and health of the borrower, title and collateral.

Pest control

Some, like OTP Bank and UBRD, have made commission products seasonal this year. Both banks offer their clients, in particular, to insure themselves against ticks by purchasing policies from IC Blagosostoyanie. OTP sells annual "Tick Protection" policies that provide free vaccinations and treatment at any clinic in the event of a bite. Cost - 700 or 1500 rubles. depending on the sum insured (200,000 or 400,000 rubles). Also, OTP Bank offers clients who leave for the summer and leave their homes unattended, Zetta Insurance's "Protected Home" policies. Annual policy with coverage up to 150,000 rubles. costs 650 rubles. and protects the house or apartment with decoration and the property located in them from damage, and also covers the civil liability of the owner, says Pavel Nuzhdov, head of the center for the development of savings, settlement and commission products of OTP Bank.