Tag: customer experience

Giving Clients A Meeting To Remember

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Working for your own business isn’t like having a normal job. If you want to succeed while running something like this, you have to be prepared to compete, as you will almost certainly have other companies ready and waiting to take the work which you’re not able to get. As a big part of this, first impressions can be very important when you’re trying to secure a client. To help you to use this to your advantage, making your first meeting into something they will always remember, this post will be exploring some of the work you will have to do along the way.

Learn About Them: While it may seem a little too ambitious, learning about someone’s personal life can be very helpful when you’re trying to make a meeting which is perfect for them. Knowing what they enjoy spending their time on, the food they like, and the sorts of people they tend to associate with can all be found on websites like Facebook. With people posting all of the intimate details of their life, it is worth taking full advantage of platforms like this, especially when you’re working on competing with other businesses.

Do Something They Like: Once you have an idea of what your prospective client is interested in, you can start to look for activities which will make them happy. For example, if they like to play golf, spending some time during your meeting on the course will give you the chance to take their mind off the other companies they’ve been seeing. You may have to invest in a few things, like clubs and ultra lightweight golf bags, but this will be worth it once you have a new client. Of course, though, you will need to make sure that you can talk properly during the meeting.

Plan And Prepare: When you’re getting ready for a meeting like this, it’s worth treating it in a similar way to a job interview. You will need to practice what you plan to talk about, planning for all of the questions they might have for you. Going through this process may seem a little over the top, but it will make it much easier to get things right when you’re nervous about the person you’re talking to.

Don’t Push Too Hard: Finally, as the last area to consider, it’s time to think about the sorts of conversations you’re going to have during your meeting. In most places, it’s customary to start something like this with a little bit of small talk. This will make it look like you’re genuinely interested in sparking a business relationship with them, rather than simply working towards making sales, and this will always make you look good.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to take on the challenge of making memorable meetings for your clients. A lot of people struggle in this area, finding it hard to now exactly what needs to be done when they’re trying to impress another business. In reality, though, this is quite simple, as long as you’re willing to do things which they enjoy.

The Minor Mistakes Affecting Your Business Image

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Business image matters. But if you want to keep giving off a positive impression to your customers – and attract new ones – it’s not just the major branding campaigns you need to focus on. The small stuff counts, too. Today, we’re going to go through a whole bunch of examples of the minor mistakes made by many small businesses, and suggest a few ideas on how to overcome them. Let’s take a closer look at some of your options.

Inconsistent brand image

Many small businesses go through constant iterations of their branding before deciding on the right course. However, it’s an area which can prove problematic unless you commit to the changes 100 percent. All too often, small business owners try to cut corners, and it’s noticeable to everyone. For example, let’s say your website gets an upgrade, complete with a new logo and mission statement. The trouble is, the front of your store still uses the old one. And your businesses cards are still making use of the logo before that. Inconsistency not only looks unprofessional, but it also confuses your customers. If you decide to make changes, make sure they are wholesale – right across the board.

The broken promise

Next, you can spend years building up positive relationships with customers, yet let things slip by a moment of forgetfulness or a broken promise. It’s vital to consistently deliver an authentic experience because this promotes your brand as trustworthy and professional. Everyone makes mistakes, of course, but ensure you deal with them in the right way – with exceptional levels of customer service, and a promise to put things right.

Spelling mistakes

Poor spelling and punctuation is a real turn off for customers. And as much as you might feel grammar pedants are ruining things for everyone, the reality is that they have a point. It’s unprofessional, provokes distrust, and can significantly reduce your sales.

Bad smells

If you are a customer-facing business, no doubt you understand the importance of looking your best. However, you also need to smell your best. If your store, office or workplace is a little on the pongy side, it’s not going to your sales charts any favors. Having trouble with a whiffy building? If you visit this website, you will find out there are a multitude of diffusers available to use in a business setting. Having to endure employees with a little personal hygiene problem? Don’t be afraid to address it – in private, of course. If you can smell someone, you can bet your customers can, too.

The business insider

Finally, one of the most natural traps to fall into as a business owner is that you fail to see what you are doing from the outside. It’s no surprise, as when you spend every waking hour working to make things better, it can be hard to see the wood from the trees. The solution? Every now and again take a break and try and look at your business with a fresh pair of eyes. If you can’t do this, use services like mystery shoppers or the equivalent for your industry. Seeing your company from your customer’s perspective can make a huge difference.

Modern Ways Of Pleasing Today’s Customer

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Pleasing a modern target audience can be tough for any business. The market is always changing, and your company needs to work hard to stay on top of its game. You need to keep rethinking your business strategies to make sure that you’re appealing to the modern consumer. If you’re struggling on that mission then here are some modern ways of pleasing today’s customer.

Rewarding people.

If you start rewarding your customers then you’ll probably notice more repeat purchases. Discounts, vouchers, and even giveaways are a great way to get people buying from your business in the first place, but such rewards can also keep customers returning to your business. If customers see they’ll get 50% off their second or third purchase, for example, then they’ll be more likely to buy from you again. You really have to appreciate the power of word of mouth marketing, too. Happy customers will tell their friends and family about you. In fact, you could even use rewards as an incentive to get people talking about your brand. If you offer discounts to customers who refer your company to their friends then you’ll probably notice a bigger influx of new clients. Rewards are definitely a good way to build a long-term bond with your client base.

Creating an enticing online presence.

Another great way to satisfy the modern-day customer is to create an enticing online presence. Most people search the internet for the things they want to buy. If your digital marketing game isn’t up to scratch then you’re missing out on potential sales. You might want to read about conversion rate optimization because the goal of digital marketing is to gain paying customers. Boosting traffic on your website is a good start, but your company isn’t going to improve if none of those visitors actually buy anything from you. You need to find ways to improve your website’s design and content to impress people who visit your homepage. With an enticing site, your business could see a much better conversion of traffic to sales.

Listening to them.

Finally, the best way to please today’s customer is to simply listen to them. This has always been the case, but it’s something that many modern businesses neglect to do. Giving the consumers what you want to give them isn’t going to get you the sales you want. Like it or not, the customer is always right. If you want your business to do well then you need to meet the needs of the market. Do your research to find out what your target audience wants. You could run polls on Twitter or invite people to leave feedback online.

Find out what clients like and dislike about your business, and ask them for their opinions on rival companies in your industry. That’s the best way to gauge the current consumer mentality in your marketplace. Once you start listening to customers, you’ll have a better understanding of what they want. And, in turn, you’ll be able to deliver a service that pleases today’s customer. You might even be able to find gaps in the market that your competitors have missed. It could be a chance for your brand to really stand out in its industry.

How Effective Are Your Business Operations?

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Everyone knows the value of optimizing their output. In a business, it’s practically necessary. Let’s take the example of a restaurant. A restaurant must keep with the times, and provide a contemporary and excellent menu for their guests. To do this, they must routinely assess buyers, routinely check how long dishes take to be created, routinely access if they have the correct amount of staff in the kitchen, and funnily enough, routinely care for routines. If the restaurant fails to do this, then it starts taking on dead weight. No business can afford dead weight.

There are many forms of this. It might be keeping too many or too little bodies in employment. It might be the quality of your office lighting is impacting the alertness levels of your staff. Optimizing your output express itself in thousands of different ways, and they all have an affect. In order know how to prioritize this, and to know what to look for, you should consider the following:

Process Management

Digital systems allow us to handle many aspects of a business at once, and keep track of many variables. How well are you exercising this? Are your business efforts disorganized, between many different applications, and fragmented amongst people with different levels of authority? Might centralizing these processes be the best solution? If you’re able to do this, you might notice that time is saved, you are more easily able to manage projects, communicating with your staff about the finesse of a certain responsibility and generally your working ease are all improved. For this, it’s important to use the best software. You can find that with BPM Online https://www.bpmonline.com/l/bpm/definition/business-process-management, one of the best resources to educating yourself on this topic.

The Customer Experience

Remember that the core of most of your efforts is the driving energy to take care of the customer experience. In order to cater to this, you need to prioritize it well. Businesses can often fall into habits of catering for their own convenience, and this might sacrifice the end result. For example, sometimes improving the speed at which your manufacturing process is taken care of can impact the end quality of the goods, even if that means saving money and time, that might not translate to the customer feedback and return business you enjoy. Consider how what ‘effectiveness’ means to you, and how this affects the functional relationship you keep with your business.

Suppliers

There is always a better price available for a certain supply, but that doesn’t mean you should go for that option. In order to stay the best business practitioner you can be, sometimes you need to ask for a better deal, negotiate terms, and sometimes even shop around. This is one of the last things that many business leaders take care of, because sometimes the perceived benefits of loyalty seem preferable to gaining a better product or paying less money for the same service. This can be the case. However, without the willingness to review your connections in this regard, you’ll often find yourself limited to only one option, and that can be an issue.

With these simple reviewing efforts, you are sure to optimize your business output week after week, month after month, year after year.

The New Marketing Paradigm: Wants, Needs & Expectations

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Marketing to customer’s needs is dead. Wants are the new needs.

Wherever lies a successful industry the perceived “need” is really a want.

Take for instance Uber. The average person does own and can afford a car (need), but some prefer not to pay for insurance, repairs, gas, etc. because ride sharing provides convenience (want).

I’ve applied this concept to my new venture, online tutoring. There is a huge market for this due to competitive parents/students. Colleges do take into account SAT/ACT scores and any advantage a parent can give their child is welcomed. Tutors aren’t necessary to get high school students into college, but they do have the inside track on test taking skills. Parents/students want to attend their dream school so hiring a tutor is a leg up on the competition.

Expectations, on the other hand, are determined by experience. Yelp is known as a food review site, but what it actually reveals is the customer experience (CX). Read any Yelp Elite member’s reviews and you’ll learn how the business made them feel. This is key to selling any product/service.

Nike, Apple and Disney all market experiences, a.k.a. how you feel interacting with their brand.

The hospitality industry lives and dies by customer reviews.

Marketing today depends on identifying what your target audience wants, then meeting or surpassing their expectations with a phenomenal experience. That means no matter how technologically savvy your company is, what matters is how “soft” your touch points are.

That doesn’t mean you need a customer service hotline for your mobile app you create, but it does mean when something goes wrong you’ll be judged on the response time and solution offered.

Artificial intelligence, robots and technology make our lives easier, but the need for human connection is at an all-time high.

For your current or future business idea make sure you are meeting a want and exceeding expectations from your customers. Do that and you’ll be converting your marketing investment into sales.