Businesses that provide excellent customer experience enjoy an advantage over other businesses, especially when the economic landscape is less than ideal. When you give your customers a treatment that exceeds their expectations, you increase the likelihood of earning and retaining their loyalty. With their loyalty comes a myriad of benefits, like word of mouth marketing, which is the best way to onboard new customers. After all, offering competitive rates is no longer enough nowadays. Customers want to feel connected to your brand, and it’s your job to make sure that they do.
If you’ve already tried a couple of methods, but they’re not giving you the results you want, then it’s time to switch to some of the most underrated tips in business today.
Go Old-Fashioned
The pandemic has turned almost every transaction virtual overnight. While it provides increased convenience and a better sense of safety for both businesses and customers alike, it does make shopping feel a little less personal. This is why going old-fashioned with your thank you notes is a great way to mend this.
A personalized thank you note, particularly, will help your customers remember you better. It also helps them feel that you value them as people, not just as consumers. You can further the positive impact of your thank you note by making sure they are made with sustainable materials like recycled paper, dried flowers, and twine. Make it simple but resonant of your brand so that they’ll keep it around. It may seem trivial at first, but finding an aesthetically pleasing and personalized note along with your delivered goods always makes people feel good, and that’s exactly the kind of experience you want to provide.
Upgrade Your Payment Method
Since going old-fashioned is not a wise move when it comes to payment, what you can do is to ensure that yours is up-to-date. One way you can do this is to start accepting digital prepaid cards. When you do, your customers will experience a higher level of convenience every time they shop with you. Among them is the reduced risk of overspending, enhanced security, and smoother transactions. You also open up the virtual shopping experience to a larger audience, as a huge percentage of shoppers today are still unbanked. Equipping them with a virtual card that is dedicated to shopping for your goods compels them to stick to your brand and make purchases more often.
Humanize Your Auto-Replies
There’s nothing wrong with using auto-replies. In fact, they can be awesome in fast-tracking a lot of your processes, including onboarding new customers. That said, generic auto-replies are a big turn-off. They detract from your customers’ experience because it becomes too apparent that they’re dealing with software. The best way to prevent this is to make your auto-replies sound more human. Think of how you’d reply to a conversation with a friend. Instead of using an overly formal tone, try being more casual. If your software can, make sure that your responses use the customer’s name. This will suffice to satisfy your customers until a real person can address their concerns.
Just make sure to follow up soon afterward, though. No matter how engaging your auto-replies are, nothing beats getting an actual solution to the problem ASAP.
Make Self-Help Options Available
DIY is a thing not only for home renovation but also in every aspect of life nowadays. Thanks to the internet, it has become easy to search for online tutorials, making it almost redundant to queue for hours at a time to speak to a customer service representative. While there are things that are worth queuing for, give your customers the privilege of handling problems on their own when feasible.
Check your FAQ page. Is it updated? Find out your customers’ most common inquiries and complaints and see if you can provide a step-by-step solution on your website. It’s even better if you can film a simple tutorial video. Not only will this reduce the load on your customer service representatives, but it will also make your clients feel more catered to since you already foresaw their needs.
Avoid Complicating Things
When it comes to providing an excellent customer experience, many businesses fail because they tend to complicate things. The key to your success lies in thorough planning. Assess your current process now and identify the practical changes you can make. Your goal should be to create a straightforward process your customers can enjoy. When you do that, it wouldn’t be a surprise that even tough times can’t sway your loyal consumers into switching brands.
