Customers Are Changing – Is Your Business Ready?
Changes in behaviour of customers have insinuations affecting businesses of all size. The small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are facing challenges in terms of understanding the changes and respond as per the expectation of customers.
Customers are seeking active engagement with brands. The passive recipients of products and services are no longer capable of satisfying customers especially for B2B and B2C brands. Customers want a consistent experience throughout their journey with a particular brand. Various factors contribute to the increased expectation of customers such as advancement in technology, AI, innovation in the field of e-commerce. Switching costs are lowering with an increased competition in the field contributing to make retention important. The online presence of brand heightens the expectation of a customer as he wants a quick reflection of his feedback.
In this blog, we will discuss some effective strategies which can be used to acknowledge the shift in customers behaviour and support the Small and Midsize Businesses to their success.
- Building a seamless customer journey: The journey of a customer begins before a sale. You have the desire to deliver a holistic, coherent and seamless experience from the moment the signal intent. Typically, the creation of these experiences may be tough as various parts of the customers journey is looked after by different teams. This procedure may lead to friction or lack of opportunities as customers are required to go through a long procedure. If you will align all your teams in a same direction then you will be able to deliver a great experience. As a leader you can bring together various teams such as sells and marketing, customer support, product and engineering teams and many more towards an inclined alignment which will focus right from the beginning of the customer’s journey. You can also create a circular feedback loop which will be a crucial point to ensure the insights generated by customers which can inform various business strategy, marketing, support. Being as the leader of your company, you will be able to perform the cross functional collaboration. But you should also keep in view about establishing culture of empowerment at every stage so that all the employees feel a kind of ownership towards the journey of customer.
- Establish communication with your customers: As an entrepreneur, you should focus on communicating with your customers and establish a 2-way dialogue with them. It will help you to target their needs and interest and build an authenticity of the value and voice of your company. You can begin this journey by listening to the needs of your customers and then building a strategy to foster that. The two-way communication approach will help you to know about your customers where they are and the modality in which they choose. As a leader, you should focus on the addition of value to customers life through communications. You can share some educational content which will help your customers to optimise the product and services provided by you. You can also build a community between your customers and your brand which will deepen the emotional connections towards your brand.
- Use technology as a competitive advantage: Technology can act as a game changer for small and mid-size businesses if you are looking to understand your customers. Artificial intelligence has changed the business world. It is becoming more powerful day by day. You can use this technology into your business to cater the need of your customer. There are various tools available in market which will improve the efficiency and productivity of your company. Using this technology, you will be able to spend more time with customers. Through the interaction, you will be able to compile various insights to trends which will be crucial for your businesses. These platforms help you to understand the behaviour as well as need of your customers through which you will be able to establish a better communication with your customers. The virtual assistants can provide a 24/7 customer support.
- Don’t compromise with values as it fosters trust
Trust is utmost important in a competitive market. In order to build trust, you are first required to fulfil the services and promises made to your customers. By building emotional connectivity with your customers, you will be able to convert that trust into long- term loyalty. You can make them understand your commitment to innovation for them. Your customers should feel the empathy that you hold for satisfying their needs. Customers must feel the security and reassurance towards your brand. Instead of writing values of your company on a big board, you should focus on infusing those values into real life.
