If you are working on a business plan And prepare Start a business, You’ve considered why people might prefer your products or services over those offered by competitors.
However, if your go-to-market plan focuses primarily on functions, it will be difficult for you to grow your business.
Experienced business owners and entrepreneurs know that it is no longer feasible to focus solely on selling products or services to customers.
To be successful, your business must start to treat customers as long-term investments rather than one-time sales.
Mark Bonchek, founder and CEO of Shift Thinking, and Vivek Bapat, SAP Senior Vice President and Head of Marketing and Communications Strategy, call These two types of companies “buy brands” and “use brands”.
The motivation for “buying (or business as usual) brands” is to sell. “Use the brand” is driven to prioritize the customer experience Rear Discounted.
Bunchik and Bhapat Explanation,
Traditional brands focus on positioning the brand in the minds of customers, while digital brands focus on Position their brand in the customer’s life. In addition, they treat customers more as users rather than buyers, shifting their investment from pre-purchase promotions and sales to post-purchase updates and publicity.
Your small business or startup can build a good customer experience, create loyal customers, and accelerate growth in the following four ways.
1. Beyond the sales funnel
Are you ready to position your brand in your customers’ lives?
Beyond the sales funnel.
Building long-term relationships with customers and potential customers depends on creating a valuable experience for them—not deceiving them to give you money.
Increase your income faster
Use these basic business templates, checklists, spreadsheets and guides to quickly track your business growth.
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Putting customer experience first has obvious benefits for customers.
But is it good for your business?
Research shows that investing in existing customers is more cost-effective than constantly acquiring new customers.according to RJMetrics:
Although only 32% of first purchases will make a second purchase, 53% of customers who make a second purchase will make a third purchase. With each successive purchase, the likelihood of them coming back increases.
These figures are convincing. Existing customers and repeat customers bring profit and stability to the company.
By transforming your business mindset into positioning your services or products in the lives of consumers, you will get a reliable source of huge income.
And, as we pointed out, it’s cheaper to focus on existing customers or repeat customers than to focus most of your time on finding new customers prior to:
it is 5-25 times cheaper Maintain relationships with existing customers instead of acquiring new customers.
This does not mean that you should stop looking for new customers.
However, this does mean that you should evaluate how much time your business spends to acquire new customers and build stronger relationships with existing customers.
Efforts to maintain relationships with existing customers can help you offset the higher costs of acquiring new customers.
Bapat and Bonchek’s research shows There are other benefits of creating a great experience for existing customers:
Our research reinforces the benefits of switching from purchase to use. Survey respondents are more loyal to using brands. They carried out stronger publicity in the form of spontaneous recommendation to others. Compared with competitors, they have a higher preference for using brands, not only in terms of purchase, but also in terms of willingness to pay a premium.
No matter how you look at it, prioritizing existing customers is a victory. Moreover, the best way to maintain a positive relationship with existing customers is to improve their experience.
2. Optimize your product or service to provide a great overall experience
Your first task should be to provide quality products or services.
Inferior product or service experience will eventually Undermine your efforts to build long-term customer relationships.
No one wants to spend money on bad products or services. Moreover, they will not do it twice.
Therefore, make sure that your product or service provides a great user experience.
The following are basic questions to help you start evaluating a product or service:
- Does your product or service meet their requirements?
- Is your product or service doing well in this regard?
- Is your product or service easy to use?
- Are your services effective and well-executed?
- Is your product or service timely?
- Is your product or service convenient?
The answer to all these questions should be a resounding “Yes!”
If not, then it’s time to fix what didn’t work.
But remember, when a customer purchases a product or service, the customer experience does not end.
Your service or product is in the middle of the network of other peripheral devices that make up the complete user experience.
Transportation or dispatch process, Product packaging, Attitudes of on-site service technicians or telephone support representatives, refund policies, return shipping costs…all these and more constitute a complete user experience.
If you really want to integrate your brand into your customers’ lives, you need to perform friction checks on all these processes.
Every aspect of the user experience should be as easy and enjoyable as possible.
Ensure that your business has an unforgettable visual identity, including Professionally designed custom logo, Is not a universal template used by thousands of other companies.
Create a visually appealing and easy-to-use Business website Has a clean user interface and simple navigation.
Easier to place orders or arrange services.
Highlight the contact information for your customer support team.
Free shipping and returns.
Accept multiple payment methods. And allow customers to store their payment information on your website so they don’t need to re-enter it every time they make a purchase.
Carefully consider each customer touch point and make it as pleasant as possible. Eliminating external friction eliminates the motivation to find better products or services.
3. Keep the user experience fresh and interesting
Maintaining long-term customers or customers requires commitment and continuous work.
Boredom is the enemy.
Now, your brand really should remain reliable and consistent. However, there is enough room within your brand guidelines to keep your customer interactions fresh and exciting.
Small business champion and professional coach Deborah Shane Explanation:
It’s all about the experiences we create, and the experiences of the people and companies that interact with us. Make sure you are refreshing your website, visuals, marketing materials and presentations. We all like new things, but making different adjustments to what we have done can also inspire people. Make things easy to follow, interesting, and culturally relevant.
Update your blog content regularly to provide a steady stream of valuable and useful content.
Host sales, share stories and participate in charity events on social media to build and strengthen customer relationships.
Introduce fresh Marketing content Maintain customer engagement and interest.
And do it all with your brand voice.
Providing new content and visual effects in your marketing platform will prevent customers from getting bored-while strengthening logo They began to understand and love.
Is it time to upgrade?
If you are committed to positioning your brand in the lives of your customers, look for opportunities to keep your product or service experience fresh.
You may also want to consider providing upgrade services for long-term customers.
Mike Bal, social media and content marketer Suggest:
If some of your customers actively and openly interact with your brand on a regular basis, they are the best people to provide a complete experience. If you have a product line, please send them something they haven’t tried. If you have quality services, please upgrade them for free. Compared to the impact these customers have on their friends, family, colleagues, and social followers, your actual costs are minimal.
Your product or service is the core of your business. And, while packaging and peripherals are essential, they are not the reason why your customers are there.
Inspire customers to stay by improving the core experience they have fallen in love with. Or, provide an upgrade that gives them a whole new reason to love and rely on your brand.
However, make sure that the upgrades you provide are relevant to your customers and provide real value.
For example, put powdered sugar and fruit on top of the already delicious pancake stacks they were looking forward to.
4. Invite behind-the-scenes customers
Honest and authentic interaction inspires confidence and trust.
This applies to all aspects of life-including business.
Let your customers understand what is happening in your business. And allow them to influence your business to a better path.
This “internal access” will inspire trust and personal investment in your brand.
Listen to customer suggestions and give credit when it is due
A great way to keep your customers engaged with your brand is to get them actively involved.
Listening to customer suggestions may improve the services or products you provide to all customers.
Even better, give your customers credit when you follow their recommendations. This will benefit your brand in the following ways:
- It will make the lucky customers you recommend feel great. Those warm ambiguities may increase their loyalty.
- Praising customers for their contributions will show other customers that you really value their ideas and feedback. This will build trust and goodwill for your brand.
- Taking public action based on customer feedback will encourage other customers to interact with your brand and provide you with more valuable suggestions.
Letting your customers influence your brand will give them a sense of ownership. In turn, this will build loyalty and customer investment in your brand.
So let your customers in.
Keep customers updated
Are new and exciting things happening in your company? Tell your customers!
We are not saying that you should tell them about your current sales. It would be best if you do the same.
We are talking about sharing an innovation or policy that can improve the user experience.
Many consumers (especially millennials) do not trust the flashy company appearance. They want to know what happened behind the scenes.
Sharing news about the internal workings of your company can help kick off the curtain.
It’s great to share news about the positive changes your brand is making. When problems arise, it is also important to prepare in advance.
Facing your shortcomings honestly (and sharing how you plan to solve them) will show that your business is honest and trustworthy in the lives of consumers.
Establish an honest and sincere connection with your customers, and you will have a place in their lives.
look forward to
Your business should always focus on the future.
And the future of your business Yes All about your customers.
Your business can build a stable financial future by building strong relationships with existing customers.
How can you better position your brand in your customers’ lives, rather than just focus on making sales?
