Lately, the business landscape has undoubtedly seen its fair amounts of pivots and shifts. Since just about anybody can start a business these days, it’s becoming more and more difficult for businesses to distinguish themselves by products and services alone. That’s why the customer’s experience is growing in importance. With the media proclaiming the “death” of brand loyalty, how do you work to engage your consumers? You can accomplish it by making your business more customer centric.
Boost retention rates
Many leading businesses would argue that the customer experience has replaced traditional brand loyalty and they are not necessarily wrong. Therefore, to keep hold of current customers and attract new ones, working to better the customer experience is priority number one. These days, businesses live and die by the sword that is customer opinion. With the wealth of online review sites and the ability for any customer to give you direct feedback, even the smallest missteps might digitally translate to major mistakes and lost revenue.
Unless you have a truly one-of-a-kind product or service (ask yourself how many people are doing the same or a similar thing as you), you have to work overtime to distinguish yourself and keep customers coming back. By crafting a unique, welcoming, customer centric experience, you’re showing your audience personalized attention that they’re not likely to find at big box stores and chains. Even if you’re operating a strictly digital business, putting in the extra care and attention into the customer experience can make all the difference in a buyer sticking with you or deciding to find an alternative.
Create positive engagement
It used to be that business to consumer communication was a one-way channel. Businesses could issue messages, customers could receive them, and that was that. Now, with the advent of social media, that communication channel now goes both ways. Customers can directly engage with you and vice-versa. This means a few things. Firstly, you’re going to experience a much larger volume of customer feedback than you might be used to. Second, not all of that feedback will be positive. Third, your business’s health depends on how you process and respond to customer feedback—both negative and positive.
It’s simply a fact of life that you will never be able to please every single customer but this two-way communication channel gives you the opportunity to more effectively—and publicly—address customer concerns and display how your business positively engages with even the most disgruntled buyers. It shows you’re both aware of how you’re perceived in the digital age and willing to take the necessary steps to ensure you remain in your customers’ good graces.
Enhance customer service
By focusing more closely on the customer experience, you’re also working to better your existing customer service efforts. It’ll also help you spot areas of improvement more quickly. It’s one thing to take an already happy customer and keep them happy. It’s another altogether to gracefully handle problems as they arise. This is often difficult for growing businesses that haven’t the time or money to invest in staffing a proper customer service department.
Luckily, services like Bright Pattern offer call center software that can streamline the customer service experience, reduce wait times, and cut down on the number of missed incoming calls and dropped outgoing calls. Time is money for customers in the sense that the more time they have to spend waiting, the less likely they are to give you their money. By focusing on the customer centric aspects of your business, you’re naturally going to see customer service improvements.
By focusing on the customer, you’re doing your best to ensure greater growth and productivity for your business. It’s fascinating what can happen when you stop focusing strictly on the internal aspects of your business and start looking outwards more often.
