It’s no longer news today that delivering a killer product is not enough to guarantee that your customers remain loyal and regular to your brand. In fact, product quality has been usurped as the leading factor in deciding, in the long run, the future of your customer patronage. To know your customer better, you & your business needs a virtual receptionist.
The modern focal point of all online business platforms is customer experience. The customer has been granted the power to dictate the path of online business due to the very fact that it’s an online business or e-commerce so to say and learning how to improve customer experience is vital for success.
The internet provides customers with a plethora of options to pick from. You could have loads of e-commerce platforms offering the same services so what exactly is the deciding factor that turns a searching customer into a loyal advocate, even after their product testing?
And that’s the preamble for today’s online business lowdown; “Customer Experience”. As you read through, you’ll be finding out the meaning of the customer experience, its importance as regards to the development of your online business, its stages, and we’ll be providing tips on how to deliver the best customer service to help boost your product brand through the impact of a positive customer experience.
Customer Experience: Seeing Your Company Through Your Customer’s Lens
To grasp the true essence of customer experience, you need to actualize yourself as a customer checking out or consuming a product from an online brand. What was it like to be provided with optimum satisfaction through those products? How did it feel to report positive feedback while looking forward to trying out more of that Brand’s product?
A mixed feeling of satisfaction, relief, and expectation can’t be denied, felt good yeah? Now, switch to the other side of the coin and think back to when you experienced a bad encounter with an online brand. This could have been from the company failing to deliver on their promise, substandard and inadequate product quality, terrible customer-to-producer relationships, and so on. Imagine if this was the feeling of your customer, we wouldn’t want that now would we?
Getting To Know What Customer Experience Entails
So, having fully understood the concept of customer experience, we can theoretically state that Customer Experiencerefers to all the engagements, checkpoints as well feedback experienced during the provision of services from a company to a consumer – from the view of the consumer.
During e-commerce, customers get to engage in several stages of the buying and selling process and it is in each of these stages that their opinions matter and change a lot. These stages aren’t easy to miss since they form the backbone of the purchase experience. They include:
1. Pre-purchase Experience
Here, there is the need to present your brand name in such a way that key customer questions such as: “What does your brand offer?”, “What’s in it for me?”, “What are my options?” are properly answered and doubts clouding the customer’s mind are whisked away by the mere skimming through of your brand and product description.
It is very vital for creating a good first impression if you want to attract more customers.
2. Purchase Experience
This is a big one because this could make or break it for your e-commerce so you have to get it right from the get-go. As an online business entrepreneur, you or your company should be able to deliver concisely and appealingly, vital product information such as:
- Product specs. This includes the pricing, durability, and guarantee, as well as availability.
- Transactions policies. The policies include returns, exchanges, shipping fees, etc.
- Company policies such as information on ethical operations.
- Product usage and maintenance advice to help the customer take better care of the product for a long-lasting experience.
All this and more help provide an easy experience through the process of purchase for your customers. Nobody likes going through stress when purchasing a product.
3. Post-purchase Experience
Now that an individual has paid you money for your product, you have to consider that individual as a customer for life and as such, must work towards creating a customer-friendly environment post-purchase. And there are several ways to go about this:
- Provide regular updates on promotions, changes, or improvements to the product. Let your customer know what’s going on with your products so they feel part of the company.
- Set up events such as conventions to develop the customer’s interest in what your company sells. Let them experience physically what they can’t do online.
- Create a friendly customer service network and employ adequate personnel to deliver the right services and provide the right answers and solutions to various customer problems while doing so in a friendly manner. Customers are as valuable and irreplaceable as Diamonds in the online business so treasure them properly.
Summing Up On The Importance Of Customer Experience
Investing time and effort into customer experience is usually the main focus of all online marketers who know what they’re doing. And if you still feel like it isn’t of top priority, here are some reasons to think differently:
1. Turning New Shoppers Into Loyal Customers
As earlier discussed, customers have a ton of options to choose from plus the resources necessary to educate themselves and make purchases on their own. Hence, the need to provide a remarkable experience and make them want to continue doing business with you — customers are your best resource for growing your brand awareness.
Develop a customer-centric strategy, and stand out from your competitors by making sure today’s customers become tomorrow’s brand advocates.
2. Revenue Boost
This is a fact, the more satisfied with your products your customers are, the greater the revenue generated. According to data collected, it’s been reported that a totally satisfied customer contributes to a 300% increase in revenue in 3 years while contributing to as much as 3 times more than a somewhat “satisfied” customer.
These numbers are hard to miss so a positive customer experience should be a driving force for your online business platforms.
3. Customer Community Serves As An Advocate
Let’s face it, a bulk of today’s customers don’t trust product adverts anymore. They don’t always take the manufacturer’s word as a guarantee so what do they do? They turn to other customers who have tested the products and this is where the loyalty you’ve induced in your customers pays off.
New customers now turn to the reviews of past customers for product advice. It’s not the only factor, but it’s surely a deciding one. Creating a sense of loyalty in your previous customers paves the way for them to serve as advocates for other customers to migrate to your brand.
So technically, you serving your customers the right way helps serve your business in a better way.
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