Improving Customer Experience

April 15, 2016 by Ed Becker

Customer experience is more than just having a great customer service system. The customer experience starts from the first time a prospective customer becomes aware of your brand or product. The experience is a cycle from being a prospective client to becoming a recurrent consumer.

The feelings and emotions a customer experiences during this process makes the difference between brand loyalty and bad word of mouth. Goodwill and satisfied customers can make or break a small business.

Social Community E-Commerce

If you have an internet based sale company, there are many analytics that can help you personalize the customer’s shopping experience and intelligently use the data to deepen relationships with your customers.

• Creating an online-guided shopping experience that helps direct the customer to what they are looking to buy, less searching time creates brand loyalty.
• Create an online shopping experience that is similar to a retail experience where they can browse, ask for help and receive personal recommendations from staff.
• Using data to target suggested items to customers based on past purchases, searches and browsing preferences creates a positive customer experience.
• Using similar data to target emails to customers with similar interests while allowing them to share their experiences and stories creates a community feeling.

Social Media as Customer Service

Most small businesses have social media accounts, many use them for active marketing, but are you using them as a customer service tool? Consumers used to only have the information that companies wanted the public to know. But with social media, communities are so ingrained in our lives, consumers now share feedback about companies. It is said that if a customer likes a company they will tell 10 people about it, but if their experience was negative it will reach 1,000 people. You cannot control what customers say about your business, but you can control your quality of service. Utilizing social media to its full potential is a very powerful tool.

• Make deeper connections- social media offers the opportunity to connect and respond to customers and get them engaged with your company. If customers feel engaged they are more apt to speak positively and have deeper brand loyalty.
• Customers as advocates- a customer who has a negative experience with a product or company is more likely to complain about it on social media. Rather than trying to respond and manage complaints like that, which can make it worse sometimes, focus on excellent customer experiences. If you have 99 customers who love your company, and 1 that complains, some of the 99 will respond for you. Strive to ensure that every customer has an amazing experience and a deep brand loyalty.
• Use social media as your success mirror- You may believe that your customer service and experiences are going well. But if your social media reputation is negative, you have problems. If your customers love you, they will spread a good word about you, if they don’t their negative voices will amplify.

Working to ensure that your customer experience is as positive and engaging as possible for each and every customer is your ultimate goal. Of course no one can satisfy every person 100% of the time. But striving for that 100% is the key success.