Ted Hickman

Customer Service Hacks To Keep You Relevant



With a people having a far greater variety of options and diversity nowadays, it’s easy to get lost in the digital noise. Here are some top ways to keep your customers happy and loyal to your brand, while driving new business your way.

  • Identify your customers habits and trends

Once you’ve been around a while and seen what products and services your customers are most keen on, it’s far easier to group your customer market into a set variety of key attributes like ‘spends big’, ‘health conscious’, ‘technologically minded’.

You can then send specifically targeted specials and new product releases their way which will help net you sales down the line and ensure that current customers keep coming back for more.

  • Nurture relationships with brand advocates

By now you should have a good handle on social media marketing and have your brand represented on some relevant platforms – be it Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. Sit down with your social media manager and make a short list of your brands best advocates, each week.

Interact with their account when they do shout outs or rave reviews for you – as this will show them how grateful you are for their business and for their endorsement. Down the line, you can look at seeing if any would be keen to earn referral incentives – if this is in your business model.

  • Keep on top of current regulations and be adaptable

With all that’s going on in the world, ensure you have adapted to keep your customers and staff happy with how they can get hold of your products.

If selling face to face is not as profitable due to high overheads, look at scaling down your office space and incentivise working from home for your employees – while making a digital online sales portal more accessible.

  • Subscription-based services

If your current business model allows it, look at setting up a permanent business subscription service – with several marginal discounts to those who sign up for a weekly or monthly service. This eliminates the need to do regular check-outs online for your customer, while ensuring they get exactly what it is they’re interested in, while you are guaranteed a set income stream.

Areas such as a monthly tailored beauty box for spa or salon customers, a weekly vegetable box for those in the food businesses, or a tailored toy or downloadable worksheets for those in early learning developments. Look at how can you adapt these ideas and ensure your customers would best enjoy signing up to receive your recurring purchase with a recurring payment plan set up. Don’t forget to ensure that there are a variety of payment options available to keep you competitive.   

  • Targeted social adverts

If your business is struggling to find customers, then look at social sites to help you out with creating targeted advertisements that invite customers to click to learn more. Sites such as Facebook can allow you to find people who match your current audience and customer base and allow you to do ads that will resonate with them and help expand your current market.

With Facebook, they also allow you to tap into Instagram customers and these two social sites can help open up your business to an entirely new market. If your budget doesn’t quite stretch enough to do this, a competition is a great way to generate excitement for your brand – and market your products – while generating an increase in engagement and followers for a much lesser cost than direct ads.


Infographic created by Clover Network – retail pos systems

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