How to Give the Best Customer Experience
Whether you want a successful online business these days, it is not enough to simply make a sale or sell off your product. You have to find a way to make your customers fall in love with your business, to give customers a reason to form an emotional connection with your company.
Vendors and business owners alike are talking about making their businesses and its marketing ‘customer-centred’ but if we really pay attention to it, not all brands are practicing this.
You will agree that it is a great opportunity for a thriving brand to outshine the competition and achieve even higher level of success.
It is a known fact that companies who provide awesome customer experience and great customer satisfaction do much better than their competitors.
Every wise business owner will agree that for every customer relationship lost to either a competitor or whoever, there is price to pay. And never assume that you will always make up with new customers because it takes double of work input to gain a new customer than retaining an old customer.
So, below are a few tips on how you can give your customers a great customer experience
- There is value in word of mouth marketing
This is a priceless asset that many businesses overlook. Word of mouth is no doubt one of the best if not the most effective type of marketing. Have you observed that the things you pay a lot of attention to tend to increase in value, right? That ideology applies in business too. When you pay attention to your brand and use word of mouth positively, there is no height you cannot attain in business. Word of mouth refers to any business step or action taken to earn a business a referral or recommendation as the case may be. It is about utilizing the power of people to build brand awareness and loyal customers. It is powerful and more effective than any other kind of marketing. Customers’ value and trust recommendations. They like to know that someone; a friend or family member has used a product or a service before they can cough out their hard-earned money to pay for it.
It has been proven that any customer you get from word of mouth has a higher chance of been retained and loyal for a lifetime than those acquired from other marketing sources. If you add word of mouth to every other proven marketing technique, you are sure to beat your competitors.
A happy and satisfied customer will sing a brand’s praise to everyone they come in contact with.
- Start Before They Become Your Customers
The process or journey to helping customers love your brand can be compared to the art of seduction. And this art entails careful planning to help make your relationship with your customers strong as possible before your brand is even introduced.
You can start by knowing your ideal customers. If you are looking to give the most to your prospects, then what it is should not be unknown to you.
Therefore, it becomes important to start to map out a clear profile of the ideal customers. This will assist you in getting to know their demographics as well as their psychographics (age, location, fears, preferences, joys etc). This will help in building and maintaining a loyal fan/ customer base.
This will also help to sift out those who will be problematic, leading to a reduction of the number of complaints you will likely have to deal with.
- Managed Customer Expectation
Most times, the negative experiences that customers complain about are as a result of their expectations not been met. The customer expected to feel a certain way after the use of your product but you did not deliver. This sometimes may be out of circumstances beyond your control. But the good news is that this can actually be foreseen and manage from the beginning. You can do that by finding out what a customer wants as soon as possible. Interact with them by asking open-ended questions during your first conversations with them, this will help you understand their perception. The feedback you get will go a long way to improve customer relationship. You may find it difficult to speak directly to your customers, so consider conducting a survey and ask them to respond accordingly. Furthermore, the clue to managing expectations with a new customer or client is to be thorough and honest before purchase regarding all, even moderately important terms. You have to realize that what may be important to you may not be what is important to them. Therefore, approach this from a customer’s perspective.
Also, you may be tempted to use the technique of under-promise and over-deliver. This is tempting for new businesses but, if you tow that line, you may end up not being able to finish on time as promised and the customer will be disappointed. In that case, do the reverse. If you are certain to deliver within two days, promise to deliver in four days, that way, if you deliver within two days, they will be highly impressed. This will go a long way in placing your brand in a good light.
- Be Real with Customer Interactions
People are quite sensitive to affection as well as pretense than you may want to give them credit for. They know when they are being played or taken for a ride and the truth is that when they come to that realization, they take their money and buy from someone else. The ‘know, like, and trust principle’ is the foundation for any successful business. People naturally gravitate to businesses they have a kind of connection to.
- Treat your Customer like Royalty
The success of every business is hinged on how well you consistently put your customers’ needs at the forefront of everything you do.
Customers’ tend to tell their friends, family and every other person who cares to listen about the experience they have with a brand. The best way to defend oneself from an angry customer is not to shy away but to respond on time to complaints. You will agree that the time it takes a brand to respond speaks volumes.
You can also treat customers like royalty by adding value without raising cost, wherever possible.
In all you do as business owner, actively seek customers’ feedback. Because it will go a long way in boosting customer experience.
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