Business owners need to stop thinking about the sale of their products as a purely financial transaction. That’s just not the case anymore. These days, the relationships that customers and consumers have often extend deeper than that. Indeed, it’s true to say that business owners often find that customers expect more. They want to be dazzled, entertained, involved and kept up to date. We’ve seen multiple cases of this over the past few years. Bad customer reviews have succeeded in bringing companies crashing down. Boring businesses have been forgotten and replaced with something far more fresh and exciting. Companies have been criticized when owners have not kept customers up to date with the latest occurrences.
You might be surprised to hear that all this is just the tip of the iceberg. The bottom line is that customers and clients expect more from you and your interaction with them. If you want to succeed, you need to deliver on this expectation.
The good news is that it’s not as difficult as you think to tick off each of these boxes. A lot of it is how you market and promote your business. But in some cases, you may find that you need to make slight alterations to your current working model. So, let’s examine how we can change your business to benefit the customers. We’ll start by examining the use of social media.
The Power Of Facebook
You may have heard that Donald Trump recently suggested social media was one of the key reasons he was able to win the election. You can hear what he has to say about this on www.TheGuardian.com/. The media agree and have gone further to suggest Facebook was the main cause of Trump winning. Indeed, it’s true that around fifty percent of Americans announced that they receive their news from social networks. Now, you can look at this two ways. It is depressing that an overwhelming number of people get their knowledge from memes and captioned pictures. But you can also look at this fact as an opportunity. It’s clear that social media has a massive amount of power for influence. If you can harness this power, you’ll be able to connect with customers and boost your brand image.
One of the ways that you can do this is by releasing content. If you release content, you can get people to share it online. Coincidentally, Trump used this tactic on numerous occasions throughout his campaign. Once that information is shared, your reach online starts to expand. But there’s another benefit here, and this is that customers feel like you’re interacting. You can even go one step further and get them to produce to content for you. UGC or user-generated content has become a popular part of the modern marketing campaign. You get interest from customers and fresh, unique forms of content that they’ll respond to. After all, they created it!
This is far from the only way you can use social media. We’ve already talked about how customers want to be kept in the loop. Well, social media is the ultimate form of instant message. A quick message, a short video and you’ve given them all the info that they need. This is one of the simplest ways that modern businesses are now engaging customer interest. The best part? It’s absolutely free, and the marketing power it offers could be worth millions.
Customer Service And Support
It’s true to say that you can offer customer support through social media. It’s a dangerous path to open because complaints will be public. This in itself isn’t dangerous, unless you ignore the complaints. Before long they could build up on your feed leading to a negative image of your company. Although even if you don’t use social media, there’s no way to prevent this. There are sites online dedicated to ensuring customers find a rating for any business that they use. Whether it’s a power supplier, a shop or a service provider you can find ratings online.
This is why business owners need to make sure that the feedback they receive from customers is positive. If you think that just means providing an amicable service, you need to think again. First, your idea of a good service and your customer’s perception might be considerably different. You might think you’re doing a good job and they may suggest you learn from the competition. Ideally, you want to know what they’re thinking before the post that negative review. There’s an easy way to do this. You can set up a direct way for them to voice their complaints. It’s called the ‘how are we doing’ method of customer service. Each time a customer engaged with an employee, they should be given a chance to offer direct, recorded feedback. Businesses can then use this to improve their performance.
You might think this means putting your team and your business under a microscope. That’s exactly what you’re doing but it’s better that you find the problem before your customers do.
Of course, businesses don’t always have time to waste on satisfying the needs of their customers. That’s why many use automated software now for customer support. You’ve perhaps found this when dealing with businesses that you’ve bought from. Instead of speaking to an employee, you pass through a number of levels with a call handling program. Some people may see this as impersonal, but it actually makes the process a lot faster. Without this type of tech, you’d probably spend hours talking to an adviser. Therefore, your business reputation will benefit if you choose to use software such as this in your company. You can find this software on sites like www.NewVoiceMedia.com/.
It’s All About Appearance
There are two aspects of your business appearance that you need to consider. You need to think about how your business looks online and how it appears to customers who are visiting your company in store. For instance, you might own a retail shop. If that’s the case, it’s important that your product is attractive and displayed in a way that draws attention. There are plenty of clever accessories you can use to this. They can be purchased from sites such as www.FireflyStoreSolutions.com/. On sites like this, you can find clever marketing materials that make a product stand out on a shop floor. That’s exactly what you want.
Of course, it’s not just retail shops that need to dazzle customers when they walk through the door. Any business operating in the real world should be ready to wow and dazzle consumers. For instances, offices should be styled in a way that shows a business is modern and fresh. If a company look old fashioned, customers won’t be interested in buying. Or, using the service that you are offering. Don’t forget that the way your business looks plays a huge part in shaping customer perception.
Of course, these days a lot of businesses don’t interact with customers in person at all. Instead, all transactions occur and are completed online. What does this mean exactly? Basically, you need to make sure that your online design is ready to impress. This is going to impact how much traffic your website receives and your conversion rate. Your conversion rate is determined by how many site visitors you convert into customers. You certainly want it to be high. This is why a lot of major businesses invest a lot of money in unique and creative web designs. They want to guarantee that their site stands out on the modern market. Ideally, you need the service of a professional marketer as well. They will work hard to create an online profile for your company which will play into your brand image. Your brand image is crucial. It’s how you ensure existing customers come back for more and new customers get interested in your product.
A Little Extra
Finally, you need to think about offering something extra to customers or going the extra mile. It’s crucial that you do this because if your company doesn’t have a USP, you won’t be able to beat the direct competition. Every business has a direct competitor. For Apple, it’s Microsoft. Apple is the mammoth of the tech industry, but Microsoft is always poised to take their place. That’s what they tried to do with the Windows Phone and every other product they release. This is what you need to keep in mind when you’re operating on the market. You have to be able to give your customers something that no other business can offer. This could be incentives, an original product or anything else that they find valuable. This site www.Naijapreneur.com/ has some great tips on how to beat your competition.
As you can see then, it is no longer enough to offer customers a great product. They expect more, and it is your job to deliver what they want. If you don’t do this, you will find you start to lose the strength you once had on the market. Remember, no matter how powerful your business is there are always companies ready to take your position. If you stop catering to the wants of customers, they just might. You can find more tips on keeping customers loyal at www.MarketingWizdom.com/.