Why are some companies doomed to fail in our unstable world while other - thrive and flourish? The answer might be unexpectedly simple - the excellent understanding and concern about a customer.
Many people, by mistake, perceive business as something solid and reliable, but only true entrepreneur knows that the world they live in is full of shakeups, troubles, unstable political and economic situation and other factors that prevent a company from thriving. Since the dawn of business people have been looking for the solution that bring them to the heights.
You can gather an excellent team, motivate them to show an unbelievable result, rent an astonishing building in the center of Manhattan, you can even produce a breathtaking product or provide an exceptional service, but still you’ll never manage to flourish...you know why? Because in all that mess you’ve forgotten the key element in your business model - CUSTOMER. The true success came with the understanding that the most significant player in the business game is Customer.
It must be admitted that for the last decade we’ve witnessed indeed turbulent conditions for an economy. Obviously, it does exert a heavy impact on the trust level of client, especially after many newspapers, social and internet media are conspicuous with the articles like “Business have been crippled by a new wave of crisis…”
So how to gain the credit of company’s name and retain the customer loyalty? - The only remedy that may help your company to blossom into successful one - happy, loyal customer. The focus of every business in any industries should be the an opportunity to improve the overall customer experience. So let’s try to grasp with few tips on how to become attractive to your customer.
- Building long-lasting relationships.
Whatever industry you represent, this statement should turn into your personal mantra. The major misstep most companies tend to make is to concentrate predominantly on attracting new customers, which is the right way for thriving, as long as you remember to cater for those who are already lucky to be your client.
Well, once a certain person became your client it means that your service / product has an allure. Evidently, the next step should be towards solidifying client contentment and loyalty. Keeping up with the customers needs and requests is vital for survival intensely competitive markets.
2. Collect essential data to figure out what value you provide to customers and maintain it
According to a recent survey, published on Forum Of Private Business, poor performance monitoring, insufficient knowledge of a market and scant management are among top reasons why a business fails. A well-known proclamation “ information is the power” is no more sufficient in our fast-paced age. Only meticulous analysis of the information, masterly done, can help you to keep clients on board long-term. At first site, it could seem to be a tedious procedure, but, in fact, gone are the days when you were buried under the heap of paper with data and figures. Since business has always been at the forefront of technology, now we can benefit from different tools that make our life easier and CRM system - among them. I couldn’t agree more with the testimony manifested in the article of implementation consultant Customertimes, that Customer Relationship Management is an indispensable tool to process information quickly and in a right way. What advantages can you gain using CRM? The most valuable - you can record customer’s likes and dislikes know their location, gender and age. You will be able to get a detailed picture of your customers preferences, follow their buying habits, spending patterns. Indeed, it’s a priceless information if a company has an intention to provide personalized service.
3. Enhanced customer service
The segmentation of customer base enables you to form a special group of clients, based on their tastes and budgets. For instance, this marketing trick helps you to identify your promising prospects and targeted them with special offers and well-crafted emails in order to advance sales conversion rates significantly.
4. Why not ask what people think about your product?
Understanding your customer should be a priority to any entrepreneur. In fact, it’s the real key to the leveraged marketing, but what’s more - it elevates your company in the eyes of a customer. For example, an easy survey proves that you do care about your client’s, the quality of service you provide, that you are in need for their feedback and they have a great value for you. Anyway, let’s face the truth - nobody’s perfect, and I am sure even Google has many flaws… So why not to listen to real evaluation and criticism and make use of it to. Customers usually give severe, but unbiased opinions, and it could be a powerful weapon for you to beat your competitors on the market. Just think about it - your own customers help you to outclass your rivals by indicating your blunders! I bet neither of your analyst nor managers could find those drawbacks that customers can.
But there is a thing any company should take care of - not to live up to clients expectations, it would be a cardinal sin and the end of their loyalty. In other words, your company have to be ready to act upon customer’s advice. Furthermore, it can serve as an impeccable token that you appreciate your customer’s point of view. Believe it or not, but this could work as a sure-way to inspire them to be devoted to your services or products.
5. A loyal customer should be rewarded…
So, you’ve already can boast of the army of your product admirers. Apparently, it’s a high time to implement some loyalty programme, which be the evidence that you appreciate those who’ve chosen you and try to reward their dedication.
The truth is that the struggle for clients has become more intense than ever, particularly because of customers themselves - they are more demanding since they have plenty of alternatives. That’s the reason why reward programme can turn your enterprise into profit machine if you embark on being a customer-centric company.
In our digital age, human relationships still have incredible power, maybe even more, than never before. So if you focus on cherishing communication and trust - you will be an unattainable leader in your industry, in spite of any economic situation.
