Real World top tips to show your customers some love this February!
February is known as the ‘month of love.’ With Valentine’s Day on 14th February, how can you show your customers some love this February? During this month, we are concentrating on our ‘Customer First Focus.’
Without our customers, we don’t have a business, so they are crucial to every organisation’s success.
The highly successful US businesswoman Mary Kay Ash, who founded Mary Kay Cosmetics, once gave this wise piece of advice: “Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, make me feel important. Never forget this message when working with people. Not only will you succeed in business, you will succeed in life.”
Did you know that research shows that 89% of businesses see customer experience as a key factor in driving customer loyalty and retention?
You might be wondering what the difference is between customer experience and customer service. Customer service has been defined as a single touchpoint with a brand, while customer experience includes feelings and emotion and encompasses the entire customer journey; from the first point of contact to becoming a happy and loyal customer and brand advocate.
For example, if you book a holiday on the phone and the person you are speaking with is friendly and helpful, that’s good customer service. Then if your tickets arrive early and the hotel upgrades your room, then that’s a great customer experience!
My favourite Maya Angelou quote is: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
What can you do to increase customer experience in your organisation? Does your business have a customer experience strategy?
Here are our top tips: -
The first step in your customer experience strategy is to have a clear customer-focused vision, that you can communicate with your team. The easiest way to define this vision is to create a set of core values that are fundamental to the business.
Understand who your customers are, by creating customer avatars or buyer personas. Then you can check that all your marketing messages will resonate with these types of people, forming connections and building relationships.
The best customer experiences are achieved when you create an emotional connection with a customer. According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, emotionally engaged customers are three times more likely to recommend your product or service and repurchase from you.
One of the best ways to knowing whether you are delivering a ‘Wow-worthy’ customer experience is to capture feedback. This could be via surveys, polls or live chat tools.
Once you have this feedback, it can inform staff training and you can explore ways to improve your processes at every customer touchpoint.
How do you know if all this investment in team, processes, infrastructure, and technology are working and paying off? Business results! Measuring customer experience is one of the biggest challenges faced by organizations, which is why many companies use the “Net Promoter Score” or NPS, which collects valuable information by asking a single straightforward question: "Would you recommend this company to a friend or relative?"
Here are two ways that you can show your customers some love, every month, not just during February: -
Firstly, make your customers the stars; focus on them in your social media posts and leave them a recommendation on LinkedIn. By taking the time to feature some of your customers’ businesses, you not only have some new content, but you also build on the relationships with your existing customers.
Secondly, send a thank you. Sending your customers a thank you note (via snail mail and not email) is a great way to show them how much you appreciate them working with you. Who doesn't love a handwritten note received through the post? It shows you've taken the time be thoughtful.
Customer experience is an area of your business which needs constant nurturing and care. With a greater focus on customer experience strategy, your business will achieve a positive impact on customer loyalty, higher retention, and increased revenue growth.
