Happy customers are the most important factor if you want your business to be successful. You can stock the best products and offer high quality services, but if your clients don’t feel valued or appreciated, the likelihood of them returning, let alone recommending you to others, is rather slim.
A recent study has highlighted that customers more than ever prefer dealing with companies that know their individual needs and manage to provide an experience that is tailored to meet those needs. Furthermore, customer experience has become more important than price and product when making decisions on where to shop.
However, relying on traditional customer service methods alone is no longer enough. If you want your business to stand out, using what technology has to offer is essential. Once you have determined what kind of customer experience you want to deliver across all channels, the following online tools can help boost your customer service and enhance clients’ experiences when dealing with your company.
Your website
Having a business website is one of the most important tools to grow your audience and turn visitors into actual consumers. According to Statista, approximately 1.8 billion people around the globe shopped online in 2018, bringing the total money spent in e-retail that year to US$2.8 trillion. This figure is said to almost double by 2021.
Your website will not only give potential clients the chance to find out more about your company, products and services before they decide to buy. It’s your digital business card, your virtual shop front and often gives people a first impression of whether you are the right fit for them or not. In order to make your website work for you it needs to be easily found online, be user-friendly, up to date and optimized for usage on mobile phones.
Social Media Listings
Managing your online reputation is essential to influence how people perceive your business. Online recommendations play a major role in people’s decision-making process. Wouldn’t it be great if you could hear about someone having a problem with your company, product or service and being able to address it before it turns into a major disaster? Social media listing tools will help you do exactly that. Monitor what people say about your company, brand, products or services to find out trends or potential issues and respond to them accordingly in a timely manner.
Automated Marketing
Consistency, time and personalization are key when it comes to marketing strategies. Automation platforms can help you communicate with your customers based on their interests and on previous interactions with your company. Examples include welcome emails, shopping confirmations or follow-ups as well as specialized campaigns that fit in with a customer’s individual needs and their shopping history.
Feedback Options
Customers feel more valued if they are able to provide feedback, make suggestions for improvement or leave a complaint that is taken seriously. To ensure your customers’ opinion is heard, you need to give them a voice. And because everyone prefers different channels to give feedback, it’s important you provide those channels.
Have a dedicated phone number and email address just for customer service queries. Offer a feedback or a live chat box on your website that users can access at any time and ask people via email or text to participate in a short survey after each completed transaction or after customers have interacted with your company.
Once you have received feedback, whether it is positive or negative, don’t forget to acknowledge your customers for their comments and either show your gratitude for their praise or address their concerns and then work towards improvement.
Customer Relationship Management
Shortened to CRM, customer relationship management refers to digital platforms or systems that help you organize, automate and synchronize business processes such as interactions with potential and existing customers. Easily accessible for your staff, it collects and analyses information about each customer and their activities or interactions with your business to help you personalize their experience, provide targeted communication and services and ultimately strengthen your relationship and brand loyalty.
If you’d like to get more information on how to use online tools and channels to ensure your customers get the best possible experience when shopping with you, contact the friendly team at Energise Web today.