Turning Your Customers Into Constant Sources Of Success
It’s easy to believe that you and your team have the lion’s share of the responsibility in making your business a success. However, it simply isn’t true. Without the customers on board, your business isn’t going to be going anywhere. Beyond simply designing a product or service that appeals to your target market, there are plenty of ways to make your customers into enduring sources of success. There’s a lot to learn and to gain from them, and here are a few ways to do just that.
Know who you’re working with to improve customer loyalty
A little research into your target market goes a long way. You may have a certain type of customer or client in mind, but with the research, you’ll know who you are really looking for.
You can learn a lot more about demographics, age ranges, their struggles, what industry they work in and more. It’s important to keep that in mind, too. Forget it and you can lose sight of who you need to appeal to.
A good way to keep them in mind is to create buyer personas, as shown at Singlegrain. Simply put, this means creating a hypothetical person that represents the ideal customer.
When you’re thinking about marketing, how you deliver your products/services, and how you offer extra value and keep in touch, you can run it through a hypothetical simulation with your buyer persona.
Always keep their needs in mind
Naturally, your products and services have to be something that is naturally going to appeal to them. However, many startups put energy, time, and money into getting up and running without really thinking about what their customers want.
They often do this without considering what the customer needs and whether or not their products and services really meet them. Most people are so focused on the features of their products and how great they are, rather than the benefits to their customers.
Always focus on what’s in it for them, vs what you want out of the deal. Make the mindset shift from how can you sell them, to how can you help them. At Simplicable, you can see ten examples of common customer needs. Which of them does your product meet?
Does it eliminate an obstacle in their life, help them get closer to a certain lifestyle, help them meet a certain goal? Identify which need your products and services speak to and ensure that’s always at the core how you market and talk about it.
Talk to their hearts, not just their minds
You shouldn’t simply address those needs, but also how they make the customer feel. This depends somewhat on your business and what kind of customer you’re working with.
In the business 2 business world, insightful marketing is all about speaking to the challenges your clients face. Talk about issues they have in running their own business and how you can help get those troubles out of the way.
In terms of the average consumer, however, drawing attention to your business means getting emotional with your marketing. For instance, a business offering household cleaning items won’t only talk about how much quicker and easier it is to clean the home using their products, but how satisfying it feels to get the home clean and have much more time to spend with oneself.
Focus on the benefit of the benefit. Let’s say you sold a lawn care service. The benefit could be that you save time not having to do the yard work yourself, but the benefit of the benefit is you get that time back to spend with your family. The more layers of benefits you can peel back the more powerful it is to get your potential customer to take action.
Ask how you’re doing
It’s a simple enough thing, but many businesses neglect to simply ask the customer what they think. Find out how they feel about the products and services provided, and how they’re being delivered. A little more attention on how your customers feel about your business and they can be constant sources of insight and information.
The online world has made it much easier to seek feedback than ever before. With tools like Simplesat, you can quickly construct customer satisfaction surveys and ask customers about different steps of the consumer lifecycle.
This can include not only how happy they are with the product or service. You can also find out how easy it was to find and make use of it, experiences on the website, how easy it was to get support if they needed it, and so on.
Turn them into brand fans to increase customer loyalty
If customers are happy with your product and service, then that’s one step closer to success. However, the can get a lot more out of them than happiness.
By taking the extra steps to ensure not just customer satisfaction but customer success, you can turn them into loyal brand fans that will keep coming back time and time again, or who may even help via word-of-mouth.
Don’t be afraid to incentivize that next level of fandom, either. Customer loyalty and referral schemes can be just what you need to kickstart the repeat patronage and the signal boosting that your audience can offer your business.
One great way to reward your loyal customers and increase your sales income is by setting up an affiliate program. This basically offers commissions to your customers as they bring new customers to the company!
If you’d like to learn more about affiliate marketing check out my Affiliate Marketing Beginners Guide.
Never be too far out of reach
Whether you want to ensure that you’re not missing out on valuable feedback, or the opportunity to do right by your customer and encourage them to become brand fans, you have to make sure that you are accessible.
Offering live customer support and service in person, not simply through an FAQ, is essential for that purpose. Tools like MyLiveChat make it a lot easier to ensure you and your team are more readily available to your customer.
The quicker you can answer their questions or eliminate certain obstacles that might be between them and conversion, the easier it is to create a successful relationship with them.
You may also consider creating a video tutorial guide or video FAQ. This is a great way to engage more with your customers and save yourself time in the long run.
Scope out the competition
To really understand your customers, you should look at not only how you work with your own, but how your competitors appeal to theirs and how they keep them, as well. Practical Ecommerce takes a look at several tools you can use to make competition research a lot easier.
Learn about how they market and message around their products and services, where they succeed and where they don’t. You can adopt parts of their messaging and put your own spin on it or speak to the strengths of your business that they don’t seem to speak to.
Similarly, you can see them interacting with customers in the wild for ideas on how they handle service and support. Learn what they’re lacking and make yourself the better alternative to them.
Put as much energy into your customers as you put into your products and services. It’s the only way to keep your finger on the pulse of the market, identify your business’s most damaging shortcomings, and to discover what you can do the truly grasp and keep their attention.
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