Providing a great experience for your customers is one of the best ways of differentiating your business from competitors, keeping your customers loyal and ensuring you can be proud of the products and services you are providing. From a business point of view, customer experience is also one of the most important reasons for a customer to recommend your company to their friends and colleagues. A recent study found that 62% of customers will tell other consumers about a negative occurrence they had with a company.
So, how do businesses make sure customers have a positive experience? Here are five ways to help create a great customer experience for your famed business:
Why customer experience is important to a business
Customer experience is vital because it is one of the ways a business can differentiate itself from its competitors. It is also one of the proven ways to build customer loyalty and help customers continue with the product. Great customer experience can increase sales and improve a company’s reputation.
Consumers are more likely to consistently fraternise with an enterprise that treats them well. Similarly, if they have good software experience, they will continue using the product. A smooth customer experience can also lead to positive word-of-mouth marketing, one of the most effective forms of viral marketing.
There are also financial reasons why customer experience is vital. Good customer experience can help to increase sales, as well as improve a company’s reputation. A company with a good reputation is more likely to get new customers while keeping the ones it already has.
Ultimately, customer experience is paramount because it is one of the best ways to differentiate a business from its competitors. It builds customer loyalty and generates continuous interaction, which can positively impact a company’s bottom line.
What is a great customer experience?
Excellent customer experience is about creating a positive, memorable experience for the customer. It can be providing software that meets specific needs or going above and beyond to resolve an issue. Being available and responsive to customers is also paramount and goes a long way in creating a great customer experience.
You want to create satisfied and loyal customers who will continue to do business with your company. Your premises can generate onboarding customers and build an invaluable reputation by providing a positive experience and meeting or exceeding customer expectations.
5 steps to setup a great customer experience
1. Prioritise User Experience
It’s vital that you do your absolute best to offer an exquisite customer experience. Offering a quality consumer experience should happen throughout the entire cycle, starting from an effective onboarding program.
Ensure you set the tone from the first interaction with a potential customer until you make the sale. After which, ensure that your onboarding program is easy to understand and that there’s sufficient training. Hence, the customer will feel they can successfully use the product to meet their needs.
You will want to provide a positive perception of the program. Positive perception will allow the customer to stay on it and make it less likely for them to drop off within the first three weeks. If the program creates frustrations, the customer is less likely to renew the subscription.
Remember that you’re less likely to answer all your customer’s questions during the onboarding process. Thus, offer other ways for the customer to find answers and help themselves when working with a program. For example, you can have a detailed FAQs section where you have answered most of the questions customers ask during the onboarding process. In addition, include YouTube tutorials and web training materials that customers can reach out to find answers.
2. Establish Rapport During Interactions With Customers
The key to any great customer experience is establishing rapport with the customer. So this means making a connection with the customer and building trust. Here are a few ways to do this.
Greet the Customer Warmly and by Their Name
Greeting a customer warmly and by their name creates a long-lasting connection and will set the tone for the rest of the conversation. In addition, it shows interest in them as a person. Take Starbucks, for example. They write customers’ names on their cups to establish a personal connection with them. It is usually more about creating a positive customer experience than a transaction.
Ask Questions and Listen Carefully to the Answers
Doing this shows the value of the customer’s input and interest in hearing their point of view. It helps to build trust between customer service and the customer.
Be Genuine and Honest in Your Interactions
Being genuine and honest in your interactions is essential for building rapport. Customers can sense insincerity, and it damages trust in the onboarding process.
Know Your Onboarding Customers and Their Preferences
It is vital to know your onboarding customers and what they like or do not like. It will ensure your organisation provides them with the best possible service. Your premises can do this by regularly asking subscribers questions about their preferences.
Ask new customers about their requirements
When addressing new customers, be sure to ask about their preferences too. This way, you can provide the personalised service they have searched for. Additionally, it will help your organisation know the customer better and build a relationship with them from the start.
Use Data and Analytics to Personalise Your Interactions With Customers
Data and analytics can help personalise your interactions with customers. Your organisation can better cater to customers’ needs by understanding customer data and trends. Additionally, automating some processes can make the customer experience even more seamless and personal.
3. Make someone responsible for customer experience
In any business there will be people responsible for the different parts – if your company is big enough, you might have a head of finance, sales, and operations who all play a role in fulfilling a positive customer experience. However, each department has its viewpoints, goals, and information. If you make someone responsible for customer experience, it’ll be their focus so, for example, if a customer has an unresolved issue there’s someone to ‘own’ the problem and fix it.
4. Resolving customer complaints
No SaaS business is perfect, and there will always be times when customers are unsatisfied with the service or product they are using. Thus, it is vital to handle these situations well to maintain a great customer experience.
Take Responsibility for the Problem
It is important to take responsibility for the problem. It will show that the business is willing to take ownership of the situation and commit to resolving the issue.
If the complaints are on the review section of your website, keep the negative reviews. Taking responsibility for the negative outcome boosts your organisation’s confidence and can increase your rating.
Listen to the Customers’ Complaints and Seek to Understand Their Perspective
Understanding the client’s perspective is crucial to provide the best solution. So listen to their complaint and ask questions to grasp the situation better. Remember that customers have high expectations of your company, which is why they patronise it.
Ask What You Can Do to Help
80% of customers will switch brands because of poor customer experience. Refrain from letting this number be valid for your company. Listen to adverse outcomes and respond by understanding and offering to do better. To this end, ask the customer what would be an acceptable solution. You can propose one or two solutions to alleviate their setback. It makes you a partner in helping find a solution to the problem.
Solve the Problem
You’ll want to resolve the situation as fast as possible. So, offer a solution once you’ve taken responsibility for the problem. Customers want the issue resolved by the first person they talk to instead of being moved to another person along the chain of command. Avoid increasing the customer’s frustration by solving their problem the fastest way possible.
5. Follow Up With Customers
Following up with customers is another paramount part of creating a great customer experience, and it shows that you care about their experience and want to ensure they are satisfied.
Send a Thank You Email After a Subscription, or Service Interaction
Thank your customer for their transactions, which show appreciation for their patronage. While it’s a simple gesture, it can build customer loyalty. You can exceed the customer’s expectations by sending incentives during festivities to appreciate them.
Follow Up After Complaints
Follow up with customers after complaints are resolved. It shows that the premises care about their experience and want to ensure they are satisfied. It also helps address any new issues the client may face while using the organisation’s products.
Regularly Check-in With Customers
Checking in with customers after they have been using your product or service for a while shows that you value their feedback. It is a great way to get insights into how you can improve your product.
Collect Feedback
After customers subscribe to your product, it’s essential to know about any challenges during the onboarding process. To this end, collect product feedback using several survey tools. For example:
Net Promoter Score Surveys: An NPS survey calculates the customer’s satisfaction and loyalty by rating your product. It also asks the customer about the likelihood of recommending the product to their peers or connections.
Typeform Surveys: Product satisfaction surveys are ideal for customers to list their problems and satisfaction levels with the company’s product.
Customer Calls: Collect customer feedback by asking customers about their experience during a call.
Transactional emails: Similar to customer calls, you can collect customer feedback by asking them about their experiences and difficulties during the onboarding process.
Social Listening: Social media provides a perfect way of collecting product feedback. It’s simply reading customer feedback on your social media feeds or using tools such as Brand Mention to monitor what people say about the product.
Top-notch customer experience is the key to any successful business. By following these tips, you can create a great customer experience that will keep your onboarding customers returning for more.
Summary
A great customer experience is vital because it is one of the ways your business can differentiate itself from their competitors. It is also the best way to build customer loyalty.
Positive customer experience can help to increase sales, as well as improve a company’s reputation. Different businesses will have various ways to create a great customer experience. Ultimately, it depends on the fact that it is one of the only ways to differentiate your company from its competitors.
Your business needs to be friendly and helpful. Additionally, it must be available and responsive to customer inquiries and concerns. Not to mention providing a high-quality product and consistently meeting or exceeding customer expectations. By providing an excellent customer experience, your business can build trust and confidence with its customers, which is essential for making sales and generating continuous business.
