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The Devil is in the Detail. But there are times when in the humdrums of managing the much obvious elements like marketing, finance, HR and logistics, even big businesses forget to pay attention to minute details like Customer Experience which holds the power to make or break their businesses.
Customer experience can be defined as the interaction between the customer and the brand in the total period of their relationship. It could be in the form of purchase, service, advocacy, awareness et cetera. But this interaction often becomes a forgetful zone by many businesses. According to a research conducted by Harvard Business Review, companies who use effective customer experience strategies earn better revenues than who do not. Other research by American Express suggests that 60% of the customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. These statistics clearly depict how imperative it is for companies to treat their customers as kings. But even if companies already do it, they assume that only resolving the complaints received by their customers is creating good customer experience, whereas it is only one part of it. The reality bites by the research which shows that on an average, brands only hear from 4% of their customers, the rest dissatisfied ones simply never voice their concerns.
But the important point to note here is, often brands are not aware whether their business needs improvement on customer experience or not. Here are a few parameters to help them understand if they need any refinement in this crucial area:
- Market shares starts to plummet rapidly
- It’s more costly to acquire new customers
- There are mostly negative online feedbacks and reviews from the existing customers
- Losing existing customers to the competitors
If your company is experiencing these, it’s time to pull your socks and do some serious hard work on improving your relationship with your customers. Here are a few effective measures you can apply right aware and win your customers for a long run.
- Initiate the Conversations: When you know that only a small proportion of your customers come and raise their complaints, it becomes your responsibility to reach out to the ones who are passively dissatisfied before they make a shift to your competitors. It can be done through asking for feedbacks regularly, both online and offline and conducting researches at appropriate times on the customer satisfaction level. This will also ensure your customers that you care about them and can help you reconnect them even if the bond had loosen before.
- Offer Incentives: A great way to build a perpetual relationship with your customers is to give them reasons to come to you and stick to you. This can be easily achieved through offering incentives like “giving some rewards, extra points, and discounts, gifts on their special days etc. to the old customers or the new ones on bringing their contacts to you”.
- Customer Loyalty Programs: Building strong personal relationships with your customers is always recommended by the experts because there is no bond greater than the one built on emotions. Customer loyalty programs do that in the best way by sending wishes to them on their birthdays, providing coupons, holiday trips or even advanced released products. This establishes a relationships that can’t be broken at the drop of a hat by the customers and earn you their loyalty.
- Actively Listen & Resolve the Complaints: This is apparently an indispensable part of creating every successful customer experience. If you do not show care, concern and patience while dealing with your customer’s complaints, they will be too disappointed to stay with you anymore. Therefore, let patience be your friend and try your best to solve every issue that comes your way.
- Offer Great Quality, Great Packaging and Great Delivery: With plethora of competition in the market, your rivals are always in the queue to grab the first opportunity that gives them your customers. Always make quality, packaging and delivery your priority and make sure that you offer them something unique that captivates their attention and mesmerize them, so that they never get a reason to move away.
SMB Connect is India’s largest integrated solution platform which links small and medium sized enterprises and entrepreneurs across the nation. Our mission is to build supportive communities by using effective solutions to connect with customers, providing advisory solutions, leveraging training programs and sharing the experiences of other businesses, so that SMBs can overcome all odds and succeed. Because we believe, Small Can Be Big!
We work on three fundamental principles- Connect, Knowledge and Growth to empower SMEs and to act as catalyst in their development process.
Small and medium enterprises in India & Small business Services are in full swing. SMBConnect provides India’s largest integrated solution platform which links SME company, Business advisory services and entrepreneurs.
Grow your small and micro enterprises & small business services in India with the help of business services and startup events. Learn to focus on creative small business ideas and Solution by analyzing roadmap of successful entrepreneurs in India and also enhance entrepreneurship development skills with large amount of educate small and medium enterprises & small business in india.
As far as you are offering memorable, rewarding and meaningful experiences to your customers, they will be your true companion through your thick & thin and support you in your journey to success.
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