These Common Business Mistakes May Lead to Permanently Losing Customers!

The world of entrepreneurship can be chaotic, especially when you’re handling your business alone. You have customers to attend to, you need to create content to share on social media, you need to keep up with your inventory (and sometimes this is literally you counting items one by one!) and restock when you’re running low, and you need to track your numbers and balance your books. And it just goes on and on. All of these may be happening all at once, and it can get very frustrating and stressful.

But let’s focus on the customers. Customers are the heart and soul of any business, and most brands often pull out all the stops to make sure their customers are happy. I always say that you can turn your customers into cheerleaders for your business, if they have a great experience with you. This means that no matter what is going on with your business and daily operations, your customers must ALWAYS come first.

Prioritising your customers and their needs is one of the keys to running a successful business. An unsatisfied customer will never forget how you made them feel. And given the opportunity, they won’t hesitate to tell the whole world about their experience.

And this is why today’s article is focused on unsatisfied customers’ stories, and what businesses did to make them feel that way. The point of this article is that you read these stories and learn from them, so that you never have to repeat the same mistakes and not just end up losing a customer, but also create an opportunity for someone out there in the world to talk bad about your business. Let’s read some stories!

Pro tip: Keep track of your inventory with Bumpa! Take away the stress of checking your stock one by one, and use your Bumpa app instead to know when you’re running low on items.

Greg - Delivered the wrong order to me

“The vendor claimed that I was the person who ordered what she sent, and she was wrong. She wouldn’t even listen to me and was very rude when I complained. It took a while and a lot of back and forth, with her even yelling at me one time before she finally realised she was wrong. I eventually got the correct order but by then, I’d made up my mind to not buy from her business again.”

What’s the lesson here?

When your customers complain, please listen first and do not get defensive. You need to make sure that you’re absolutely in the right and even then, talk to them with respect (never yell back even if they’re being difficult) and try to diffuse the situation. You can only do this if you understand what they’re complaining about, so please listen first.

Related: 22 Things to Never Say to An Angry Customer!

John - Delayed my order by 2 days

“They hired an unserious delivery man who held on to my package for 2 whole days! It was even more annoying because they kept telling me that there was nothing they could do and that they had called him. It’s not my business who you hire as a delivery man, but if you tell me my package will get to me on a set day, it should get to me then. What if I’d made plans around that day or needed the item desperately on that day, which was the actual situation here? It was the last time I patronised their business.”

What’s the lesson here?

You should take the reputation of your business very seriously, and this trickles down to who you choose to work with. If you noticed in the story, the customer didn’t care about the dispatch rider being the problem, but instead blamed the business that had promised to deliver at a certain day. And that’s how it works. If there’s going to be any criticism of service, it will fall on your business, so please take care in hiring people who work for you, so that they don’t ruin the reputation of your business. Most especially, don’t hire unserious delivery men!

Tobi - Increased price of services without prior notice

“I’d been using this laundry service for a long time, and it had gotten to the point where I would just drop off my clothes without asking for prices, because I knew their prices somewhere in the back of my head. Unfortunately the last time I used them, they came back with a very different bill. I was shocked! It was more than a 30% increase. And the saddest part was that I had to pay, because the clothes had already been dry-cleaned. If they had at least let me know beforehand, I would have been prepared or gone somewhere else. What if I wanted to use the money to flex?”

What’s the lesson here?

It’s so important to update customers on your activities. Nigeria is tough for everyone, including businesses and people who patronise the business. Instead of ever shocking your customers with price changes, make a big announcement about it. Also, do not make the price change immediate, but instead give them a time on when new prices will kick off. You can always share updates like this on your social media, and use your Bumpa app to reach your customers directly through email and SMS.

Precious - What I ordered vs What I Got

“I decided to take a risk and buy a wig from a brand on Instagram. Now, I’d heard so many stories from friends about how they would order hairs from businesses and what would be delivered would be so unbelievably different, but I thought my story was going to be a different one. The wig came already tangled, the packaging was absolutely different from what I’d seen. I decided to take my L but anytime I see any friend going to that business now, I give them a sound warning and order them to desist! You can’t scam me and my friends too.”

What’s the lesson here?

Advertising what you’re not selling is terrible, and once or twice, I’ve seen businesses being labelled as fraudulent because of this act. You should not set your brand up by putting out content that doesn’t match what you sell ‘just to get people to buy’. Take pride in your craft and make sure that you’re not deceiving your customers.

Conclusion

It is important to always leave your customers feeling satisfied and like they never want to go anywhere else. You can achieve this by paying attention to your customer, being empathetic and polite, and making them feel that you’re going above and beyond to fix their issues. And this of course alongside making sure you’re delivering quality items at the right time! Customers who feel satisfied and happy with your service will always talk about you and refer you to everyone you know, and that’s where you want to get to, to build a reputable brand and keep your customers coming back!

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