Have you ever wondered why do some businesses taste success while others have to pull down the shutters? Approximately 20% of new businesses shut down during the first two years, while a whopping 45% fail during the first five years. As these statistics make it quite clear, keeping a company afloat is the most challenging part of starting and running a business. Running a company goes beyond your one-time unique business idea. Even if an out-of-the-box idea can commercialise your start-up, fuelling it in the long run can be quite the task. That said, tasting success in the short and long run isn’t something unattainable, especially if you know how to enhance customer experience. If you have a few things in place to build a solid foundation for your start-up, you will eventually drive success.
As an owner, you have invested a lot – both financially and mentally – into the business. If you do not want to join the niche of entrepreneurs who couldn’t make it, I have a guide for you. With the ten quintessential business elements, reaping the sweet fruit of success will no longer pose a hurdle. Read along to explore the elements that will help you give your customers the best experience, thus bringing fortune for your start-up:
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Build an Omni Channel Strategy
Did you know that 9 out of 10 consumers consider a seamless omnichannel experience a sign of reliability? Therefore, you must ensure that your customers have a seamless journey across both online and offline channels. An omnichannel CX strategy has the power to deliver a cohesive experience to your users irrespective of the medium used.
Moreover, such a strategy lets you understand a customer’s journey up close. Therefore, if you want your hands on crucial insights regarding customer behaviour and preferences, you must build an omnichannel strategy including sales, marketing and customer support.
Click here to know how to build the perfect omnichannel communication strategy to improve your customers’ journey.
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Deliver Smooth Customer Service
Several brands make the mistake of focusing on the company while offering customer service. That is a big NO-NO! Brands with customer-centric goals and objectives are 60% more profitable than those that keep the company as the centre.
Therefore, when you are serving the customer, your complete focus should be on the customers. This simple move from your end can bring in a fortune for you. How? Well, good customer service means customer satisfaction, which means positive reviews and word of mouth recommendations.
So, engage with your customers and address their queries instantly via Live chat options. You can also use co-browsing to connect with customers in real time to address more complex issues. You can also offer video chat solutions to solve complex technical problems.
3. Design ROI-Focused Marketing Strategies
Considering the rat race out there, your business will not be able to survive the dive in the sea without a proper marketing strategy. However, we have the horns of a dilemma right there. Marketing itself is a tricky affair. If you do not know how to handle a marketing campaign in the initial stages of your business, things can go downhill real fast.
When starting a business, you must have a failproof marketing plan ready for your business – a strategy that focuses on the ROI. To begin with, you will need search engine optimisation, pay per click campaigns, and social media campaigns.
4. Seek Good Talent and Hire Them
Your company is only as good as the employees you have. Remember that your ideas won’t achieve fruition without your employees, and eventually, the business can come crashing down. While the right kind of employees can bring profitability, the wrong ones can spell doom.
So, once your business is stable, your focus should be on talent acquisition and recruitment. When I say talent, I don’t necessarily mean only highly qualified people. You need to hire people whose goals are aligned with your business goals. The right people will be able to grasp your vision and help you achieve it. Click here and learn what you should look for while hiring employees.
5. Establish the Right Technology Solutions
Since your business is bound to have a digital presence, you must have the suitable technological systems to operate in this tech age. You must identify the type of solutions your company needs. And that isn’t enough. You must also ensure that each of your employees knows how to use them.
To maintain your online presence, having a responsive website and social media accounts is a must. Add to that will be the necessary tech tools like automated data mining, accepting online payments, etc. Apart from knowing the tech solutions like the back of their hand, you should also have IT personnel who can identify issues and deal with technical crashes.
6. Offer Solution to a Problem
Best price and quality aren’t the only things that your customers want from you TODAY. They are visiting your website for solutions. The day your business offerings do not solve someone’s problem is the day your start-up starts going downhill. You will not be able to survive in the market if you deliver the exact solutions that everyone else is providing.
So, you need to read into the lines of what your customers want. Stay updated with their altering and evolving issues. Accordingly, come up with a solution that can solve those issues. In this matter, tracking KPIs can prove to be useful.
7. Maintain Brand Value
The key to evergreen success lies in the authority your brand has in the market. Unless your customers feel that they can trust you, your chances of shooting to the stars will not come true. To build trust, you need to establish a personal connection with your customers. Only then will you be able to retain more customers alongside attracting new ones.
The customer experience you offer will complete the full circle only when your business practises transparently, authentically, and ethically to keep brand promises. Make sure to communicate the right messages to your users and always keep a two-way channel open.
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Implement Easy Customer Feedback Collection
Your work doesn’t end with pleasing your customers. You must also understand what your customers feel about your brand. This is why you must set a system to collect and analyse the feedback your users leave about your brand. You can then use the insights and implement strategies to improve customer experience.
Use the communication channels like chatbots, live chat portals, and mails to ask the customer how they would rate the customer service offered. Also, when customers see brands collecting feedback, they realise that their opinions are valuable for your business. This leads to brand loyalty and more sales conversions.
9. Make Customers a Part of the Company’s Success
Even as a start-up, your can turn your business into a successful endeavour with the help of satisfied customers. Besides offering them proper customer service and brand reliability, you can also make them a part of your success story to build strong customer relationships.
Customers feel more valued when you share your success and give them credit for it. While discounts and rebates are always welcome, you can also try out more personal gestures that go beyond the monetary aspect. Here is what you can do:
- Reward your customers for recommending your brand to friends by offering them referral codes that they can use to earn cashbacks or use as a discount coupon.
- Give them early access to newly launched products as a token of gratitude for being a reason behind your success story and make them feel special.
- Offer special rebates to your high-spending customers and send them freebies when they reach a set spending target.
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Go the Extra Mile
Not every problem that a customer faces will be listed in a guidebook or have a definite redressal. In that case, your employees must act beyond the rulebook to solve the customer’s problems. Therefore, make sure that the employees involved in the sales and after-sales processes have the resources to determine what is best for the customer to deliver excellent service.
Have brainstorming sessions with your customer care executives and sales department about the problems they have faced in a week and how they have overcome the bottlenecks. Giving your employees the freedom to think innovatively will boost employee motivation. As a result, this will improve the customer experience.
Parting words,
When it comes to taking a business to the zenith, there is no secret formula that can guarantee success. Instead, it is great ideas, a lot of hard work and customer satisfaction that can save the day. With these ten things in place, you will be able to ensure that you are on the right path toward success.
If you were about to quit and let go of your dream of being a successful business owner, do not give up just yet. Keep up the hope and patience. Good things are about to come your way!
Author Bio: Ethan Taylor has an MBA in finance and acts as a guest lecturer in several business schools around Australia. He is also associated with EssayAssignmentHelp.com.au as an online tutor, where she offers Academic Assignment Help and Assignment Help Adelaide.
