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Dan’s comment: We wanted to kick the Helloify  Customer Happiness blog off with a bang, so we asked 50 smart entrepreneurs for a specific tactic on growing your business through customer happiness.

Because there is so much valuable info in these replies, we’ve decided to break it up into a few posts. Here are the first 10, including tips from Rand Fishkin and John Lee Dumas.

We’ll be sending 10 out each week, feel free to jump on our list on the left to get the updates. Now over to the experts.  Dan Norris, Co-founder Helloify 

All 50 customer happiness tips

1. Fix problems quickly, and reply quickly


Rand Fishkin – Moz.comRand Fishkin

We try to take feedback directly to our team and get the easy stuff fixed as fast as possible, then reply quickly, too.

rand_advice

Ross & Dan are both long-time, loyal Moz customers and evangelists for us. Fixing this was ~1hr of engineering effort, so we brought it to our devs, they fixed it, and within a few hours, we were able to report back that a solution had been made!

Fix problems quickly, reply quickly. Rand Fishkin on Customer Happiness via @helloify CLICK TO TWEET THIS

2. Visit clients in person

Eric Siu – singlegrain.comEric-Siu

Visiting our clients in person goes a long way. Nothing replaces face to face even though we do a lot of our work on the web.

Meeting face to face shows how committed we are to the relationship and brings up some conversations that would never happen online.

It also helps retain customers as well 

Want happier customers? Visit them in person. Eric Siu via @helloify on Customer Happiness CLICK TO TWEET THIS

3. Provide handwritten thankyou notes

Zach Spitulski – enplug.comZach-Spitulski

We love being personal as a company and as a brand, so we’ll put handwritten thank you notes in our packaging.

Our customers are why we build things, so sharing that with them adds something special to the experience.

I think this personal approach is why many of our customers have become brand advocates for us and referred us to friends and contacts.

Add personality with handwritten notes. Zach Spitulski via @helloify on Customer Happiness CLICK TO TWEET THIS

4. Engineer an amazing experience

Mandi Ellefson – mandiellefson.comMandi-Ellefson

How do you want the experience to be for your customers?

  1. Consider how you want your customers to *feel*
  2. Write actions you can take that would give them that experience.
  3. Insert actions into appropriate place in your fulfilment process.
  4. Ensure documented steps are followed the same way by all staff so that all customers get an identical amazing experience.

All companies that deliver consistently great customer service take the time to be intentional with a similar process.

Want happy customers? Engineer an amazing experience. Mandi Ellefson via @helloify on Customer Happiness CLICK TO TWEET THIS

5. Get your team on live chat

Anand Sanwal – cbinsights.comAnand-Sanwal

We use online chat help customers with their questions. Sometimes, they’ll say something like “It’d be great if I could do XYZ with the product.”

Since our engineering and product folks are the ones doing the support, we’ll take those suggestions and when feasible, try to build into the product.

When we email the customer saying “Remember when you wanted XYZ to be possible on CB Insights? We built it. Thanks for the great suggestion”.

They are always surprised and delighted.

Get your team on live chat. Anand Sanwal of CB Insights via @helloify Customer Happiness Blog CLICK TO TWEET THIS

6. Call customers with ideas after the sale

Taylor Pearson – taylorpearson.meTaylor-Pearson

I like to periodically call or email clients when I have a random idea about their business.

Even if nothing comes of it, it’s a “just because it’s Wednesday” thing and shows them you’re really investing in the relationship.

Call customers randomly with ideas after the sale. Taylor Pearson via @helloify on Customer Happiness CLICK TO TWEET THIS

7. Subscribe to your customers’ blogs

Kevin Dewalt – sohelpful.meKevin-Dewalt

When you’re just starting, subscribe to all of your customers’ newsletters and blogs.

Leave comments, retweet posts, upvote … whatever.

It takes practically no time but sends and unambiguous message that you care about their success.

Subscribe to your customers’ blogs. Happiness tip from Kevin Dewalt  via @helloify CLICK TO TWEET THIS

8. Go above and beyond if you’ve made a mistake

Ben Hebert – naturalstacks.comBen-Hebert

We’ve gone through a few times where we ran out of inventory in our warehouse but kept selling the product on our website. The customer would then get an email notifying them the item was going to ship in less than a day when really it wasn’t.

We took the time to call everyone impacted and give them a coupon code worth the total value of their order. In the short-term we spent a lot of time and lost a lot of money doing this, but it helped us build a deeper level of trust between us and our customer base.

If you stuff up, go above and beyond to rectify it. Ben Hebert from Natural Stacks on customer happiness via @helloify CLICK TO TWEET THIS

9. Listen

John Lee Dumas – entrepreneuronfire.comJohn-Lee-Dumas

I listen.

Not 1 email or 1 Tweet goes by that I’m not paying close attention to what my audience and customers are telling me.

They reveal to me their biggest pain points and struggles, and I create the content that is going to help solve them.

The number 1 customer happiness from John Dumas? Listen. Via @helloify CLICK TO TWEET THIS

10. Co-create products and features with customers

Elia Mörling – tribaling.comElia-Mörling

We invite our customers to co-create new products, and features with us. This makes them happy, because it creates the ‘IKEA’ effect.

This happens when customers value products, higher than they otherwise would have, because they helped to build it.

Want happier customers? Co-create products with them says Elia Mörling from tribaling.com via @helloify CLICK TO TWEET THIS

All 50 customer happiness tips

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John Conkle

John Conkle

John is a startup entrepreneur who believes in the power of community. He has two podcasts and people say he enjoys reading a little too much. Before founding a startup he worked at a tech accelerator in Santa Monica.
John Conkle

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