Does Your Business Have Staying Power? 3 tips to Guarantee Business Longevity!

Build a Business that Lasts!

This month, 123Print is celebrating 15 years in business! Want to learn how to be successful with your business? We want to discuss three key things that all long-term businesses share to achieve successes that maximize their profits. To guarantee business longevity and long term success in your organization, provide security to your team, and take control of your financial freedom, use these crucial business tips for ultimate staying power.

#1 Remain Customer Centric

Business advice 101 – it really is all about the customers. Happy customers are your livelihood and the number one determining factor in staying in business, so keep your business customer-centric. According to Microsoft, 90% of America agrees and uses customer service to make decisions about the companies they do business with; in fact, 58% will jump ship if you have poor customer service. The expectations for quality customer service are even higher in the b2b space, so keep that in mind. However, it doesn’t matter whether you provide goods to major corporations or offer your services to personal shoppers in the b2c market; a customer is a customer, and you want to ensure their needs are met.

So how do you do this?

Customer service isn’t just about whether or not you are polite on the phone or smile when someone enters your store, it certainly helps, but customer service is really about listening to your customers’ needs.

Here’s a tip that every business needs to follow to make a happy customer, read, and respond to reviews, not just in your words but also in your actions. An unhappy customer says that your website is confusing – how can you improve the user experience? An unsatisfied customer received a defective product – stand by your work – how can you make it right? A customer has a vision or goal about where your products or services will take them – how can you align with this vision to keep the customer satisfied and ensure positive growth?

Here are some customer service tips to keep in mind:

• Listen to your customers
• Remain patient
• Be kind and personable
• Make sure you understand them
• Offer help and make recommendations
• Be willing to improve
• Go the extra mile
• Maintain loyalty

Nurture your business relationships to build and maintain customer satisfaction. Repeat business is easier and cheaper to acquire than new business. According to HubSpot Research, 93% of customers are apt to make repeat purchases if you offer quality customer service. Dedicate a portion of your efforts to gaining new customers (experts say about 25%), but keep your main focus on retaining customers (75%). If you increase the quality of your customer service for new and repeat business, you will boost your business’s revenue. According to Bain & Company, you will elevate profits by a minimum of 25% if you increase your customer retention rates by only 5%.

Some customer service strategies that you must adhere to stay customer oriented include:

• Reach out to your customers often
• See what else you can do for them
• Make recommendations for additional products and services that they may find useful
• Offer discounts, promotions, and loyalty programs
• Continue to improve your business by updating products, services, shopping experience, and marketing deliverables

If your satisfied customers continue to show loyalty, you must reward them, and sometimes all it takes is a small gesture or a few kind words to show you care. Nine times out of ten, a company with exemplary customer service will outperform its competitors financially.

#2 Adapt

Adapt, or in other words, make a feasible plan for your business success, but remain flexible and agile to change it when necessary. Everything you do for your company needs a business strategy, but things change, roadblocks arise, and unforeseen circumstances can throw a wrench in your plans real quick. When this happens, have a plan b, a plan c, and a plan d even. How quickly and gracefully you respond to a situation can make or break your customer base.

Give yourself and your customers a multitude of options; if something doesn’t work, you’ll have a backup plan. A contingency plan is crucial in business. In an ever-changing world and economy, the companies that survive have alternative business strategies. If your backup plans also fail, make sure you have a team that can think quickly on their toes. Research your strategies, analyze your strategies, and test your strategies; talk them over with your team, as well as your customers; everyone’s input matters.

#3 Empower Your Team to be Their Best

According to research, positive employees are over 30% more productive than negative employees. So what can you do to build your employees up and motivate at work? For starters, don’t micromanage! Recognize your employees’ unique skill sets, and let them do their thing! Allow your employees to make a difference at your organization. Ask for your employees’ input. Lead, don’t dictate.

Writer and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes a heightened state of engagement called flow, whereby someone is so focused on a task they enjoy that everything else is on mute. Think about how quickly time passes when you are doing something fun. When you allow your employee to shine at what they love to do, they will yield far better results. 

Give your employees tasks that correspond with their skills when motivating at work. You want your employees to improve and evolve. If the duties you give your employees far exceed their skills, it will negatively affect them, and they will instantly feel overwhelmed. Alternatively, if you give your employees mundane tasks far below their skill-set, they will rapidly become disconnected and unmotivated. Challenges that match your team’s strengths with appropriate obstacles that they must overcome will build confidence, resiliency, and professional purpose, leading to success for you and your team.

Offer encouragement and praise often to improve professional attitude. Thriving employees will build a better business behind the scenes and in front of your customers, so everyone wins.

For more ways to build a successful business, visit 123Print.com.