Behind every business’s success, there is a strategy that keeps evolving. If you’ve been doing business for any amount of time, you would know that creative thinking, good quality products that are more likely to generate leads, etc. must be done to grab the attention of your potential audience. However, I’ve come across many headlines stating that businesses often fail when there’s no marketing plan or strategy. Even if you have the best product, you won’t be able to generate revenue if there’s no one to notice it!
Have you ever come across a term “Customer Centricity”? Well, even if not, you really don’t have to be scared as it simply means the way of seeing things from the customer’s viewpoint rather than from your own. As a businessperson, we often fall in the trap of knowing too much from our internal viewpoint and end up not making a conscious and disciplined effort. It may quite interest you to know in the upcoming years; customer experience will be overtaking price and product as the key brand differentiation. Which is quite great actually as it results in improving long-term relationships, defining your brand, solidifying your reputation as an industry leader and what not! To top it all, offering exceptional customer experience will create more opportunities like never before. Until now, customer experience is something which has been quite overlooked on the contrary; I feel it is one of the simplest, cost-effective, and successful methods to grow your business.
Now If I may ask what the obvious thing that compels a customer to look for in the business at first glance is? Products and services, right? But have you wondered what compels a customer to look for your business again and again? The customer experience you provide. Apart from all this, the real question is not what your end customers but how they buy it? Down below, I would like to mention certain ways which make these decisions.
Subconscious decision making- There is no denying in the fact that the first impression matters a lot! But have you ever thought about it that a lot of customer experience begins in their guts? No kidding! Customers these days have started to make instinctive choices especially when buying products (a function of the subconscious or irrational brain), but when asked to articulate how they came to their decision (via their conscious or rational brain), things often get lost in translation. Which brings us to our next point…
Combining great online reviews, word of mouth recommendations, and a well-branded digital marketing package. Addressing subconscious impressions through great branding and glowing reviews is extremely important. These aspects can turn out to be one of the most significant influences controlling the buying decisions which can be achieved only through enhanced customer experience.
In the end, high-quality customer interactions create a downstream value source often overlooked by businesses and will soon be the biggest reason why your customers buy from you. Let’s delve into the details of great customer experience.
The general definition of customer experience is what a customer thinks about your brand. However, businesses often happen to disagree with their customers when asked to define how well the overall experience was. And the reason is because people often getting confused with experience with service. Further, let’s figure out the missing data points within the funnel and the circle.
If we take a close look at the traditional B2B sales and marketing funnel, social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest are seen blurring the lines between the discovery and purchase phases. According to Forbes, 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before the customer even engages with a sales rep due to which several prospects are building awareness and converting simultaneously. New styles of media have shifted the focus from transaction to customer experience. Now prospects consume content with multiple opportunities to purchase or complete a transaction. These potential transactions are embedded within a prospect’s experience. This has resulted in bringing a severe change in the decision made by prospects. But at the same time, the market needs to change, and the question is, how? Marketers cannot just persuade customers to move through phases to purchase. Instead, we have to enable and empower prospects to make decisions by delivering a unified experience.
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Down below, I would like to emphasize on specific strategies to take into account, especially when you are willing to occupy more space in the minds of your customers.
- Research– Research about the customer who has been significant with you for a while. What’s happening with them? What companies are their rivals in the marketplace? Who makes purchasing decisions? Conduct research in such a way that you are able to tell what matters the most to them. And offer your customers something they can never abandon you and switch to anyone else.
- Visualize success in prior– Help them to visualize success in the future. Keep discussing with them how you will make that vision a reality. Make sure that your vision for a brighter future that you present includes how you and your products or services will continue to add genuine value for the customer.
- Elevate the conversation– As I said before, it is essential to focus on what your customer cares about instead of overemphasizing your importance every now and then. Think out for ways through which you can route the conversation to what your customer aim to accomplish. Understand the fact that why it matters to him/her, and how you can help the person achieve this goal. Prioritize the customer’s targets – the needs he/she wants to fill – not your targets.
- Differentiate value– Another crucial aspect that must be taken into account is your value represents more than product features and benefits. Just make sure that you are able to accomplish customer’s goals and be sustainable over time. At the same time, try to break down the elements of your product or service’s unique value. You’re unique if no other product or service delivers the same impact as your product or service.
- Expand the relationship– Considering all the aspects into account, you now have your fair chance to summarize how your customer secured value by buying from you. This will, at the same time, aid you in helping your customer attain additional success over time. All you have to do is simply rely on the insights you developed through research and interactions to make your case.
Over to you!!