You can’t build a great brand without offering a first-class customer experience. Creating a great customer experience helps build brand loyalty organically by earning the respect of shoppers. Here are six understandable and intuitive ways to make a positive impression in the minds of your customers.
-
Personalize Everything
Customers expect businesses to understand their unique expectations and work to meet those individual tastes. The first step to better customer experience (CX) is reaching out to them as individuals. Track each customer’s relationship with your company at each stage and tailor offerings based on past patterns. Knowing statistics like age and location can help accomplish this. Never forget to follow up with customers after a purchase, either via email or a friendly call. Making your care visible from the first interaction to the last is critical.
-
Build Buyer Personas
Briefly, a “buyer persona” is an abstraction of the “ideal customer” for a brand. Impulse buyers, bargain hunters, and perfectionists are just three of the many potential categories of buyers. This concept may seem to run counter to personalizing experiences, but in reality, effective generalizations can help refine your outreach strategies. For example, if your research finds that most of your target buyers are elderly bargain hunters on a fixed income, consider modifying your e-commerce site for readability and ease of use. Design the way you sell around who you’re selling to.
-
Generate Strong Analytics
In good CX, knowing yourself is as critical as knowing your customers. Keeping an eye on your analytics shows what strategies resonate with consumers and which should be let go. Many websites have built-in analytical tools detailing clicks per day and other basic statistics. Free programs like Google Analytics allow you to determine your return on investment (ROI) and other numbers as sales campaigns develop. Tracking your customer’s journey with your brand is a powerful way of learning more about the market.
-
Improve Customer Service
One of the most effective ways to provide a good experience is to have excellent customer service. A recent study by Zendesk found that 75% of consumers reported being more likely to spend money with a brand that gave a positive customer service experience. What is a “positive” experience in this context? Similar research suggests that the human touch is essential. Customers seem to prefer phone conversations and email to all other channels, especially when the service is prompt and effective.
Note that friendly customer service is only the beginning. The attitudes and morale of your employees at all levels of operation will have a ripple effect on how the public views your company.
-
Provide an Omnichannel Experience
Offering an array of customer service options is excellent. Spreading the idea of options to other communication channels takes engagement to another level. Omnichannel marketing means matching a given channel with a message that will resonate on that channel specifically. That’s simpler than it sounds. A single offering can be cross-promoted through informative content on your blog, promotions delivered via SMS message, and user-generated videos on YouTube. When you tailor the delivery of the content to the medium, you’re talking to users of that channel in a language they understand.
-
Be More Than Money
Everyone knows that entrepreneurs go into business to make money. There has to be more to your brand than profit, though, or customers will walk out the door. Multiple studies have shown that younger shoppers, in particular, are looking for brands that match their values. This doesn’t mean mirroring every plank of a popular movement; it only requires you to visibly care about the impact your company has on the world. Discover your vision, and customers will come along for the ride.
Earning the respect of customers means treating them with respect. Telling your customers that they matter isn’t enough. Show them you care by giving them a winning experience every time they do business with you.
