Customers living in the digital age are very demanding and want businesses to offer them personalized experiences. If you want your business to be a success, you need to adopt a customer centric approach. Being friendly, proactive, flexible and emotionally understanding towards your customers can go a long way in building a lifelong relationship with them. Here are five things that every business should know about the changing customer behavior!
According to a CEI Survey, 73 percent of customers want friendly customer service representatives. Therefore, you should hire emotionally intelligent people in your team to serve your customers. If for example, a customer walks up to a product rack and asks the price of a product and the CSR is busy chatting with his/her coworker, ignores the customer’s presence, does not make eye contact and tells the price in an indifferent manner, it is bound to create a bad image of your company. Train your employees to be professional, empathetic, friendly and understanding towards customers. They should know how to handle different kinds of customers and deal with them in a way that customers feel valued.
The Customer Experience Impact Report reveals that, 89 percent of customers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience. If you fail to fulfill the expectations of your customers, they will not think for a minute before leaving your brand. So you need to make your customer experience gratifying enough to win the customers’ trust. If for instance, you are starting an online grocery business, you should make your website interactive and user friendly in order to provide a better experience. Similarly your delivery and refund policies should be flexible so that customers don’t feel a hassle exchanging and returning products. You can surprise your customers by bundling up items with useful gifts. For example, in the summers you can give away your signature water bottles and glasses with the beverages. Give your customers a memorable experience and they are likely to recommend you to their friends and acquaintances.
The most notable evolving customer behavior that businesses need to consider is their demand for a business to actively communicate with them on social media. Customers these days rely on Facebook posts and tweets more than electronic and print ads. Make smart use of social media to reach out to your potential buyers. Regularly updating social media profiles is not enough, you need to see if you are actively engaging users. In order to make social media channels work effectively, study the trends of your users and then develop your content accordingly. For instance if you are a brand that sells handbags and shoes, you should know that your audience would like to read about the latest fashion trends. You can post questions regarding fashion and style to stir their interest and get their comments. Presenting yourself as a brand that is social and loves to interact with its customers on social media would definitely earn you an edge.
Customers these days want prompt solutions to their complaints/issues. They will lose their trust in you if you put them in the waiting line. Therefore, businesses should strive hard to reduce customer service wait time to the minimum. For example if you are running a restaurant, you need to make sure that the serving time for any dish is no longer than 30 minutes. Moreover, a comfortable waiting area for customers waiting for a table and takeaway orders would make them feel you care for them. Customers prefer a brand that offers them quick and quality service, so utilize your resources smartly to serve your customers well.
If you want to create value for your brand, start off with empowering your customers. Make them feel that you want to run your business based on their feedback and opinions. Ask them to rate your products/services and use their suggestions wisely to improve them. Serve your customers the way they want by valuing their preferences. If for example your store sells home accessories and furniture, you can make your customer feel empowered by designing products for them according to their choice and budget. Instead of making your brand/product about you, make it about the customers. Give them the liberty to express their opinion and offer them solutions according to their needs and expectations.
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