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5 Ways to Show Customers They Are Valued

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Valued Customers|5 Ways to Show Customers They Are ValuedA satisfied customer is all well and good, but if your customers do not feel as if you value them, you could be facing an uphill struggle for consistent growth. A customer who has bought from you in the past is up to 70% more likely to buy from you again, whereas new prospects may only convert at 20%. It’s not a question of whether or not you should be making your customers feel valued as, without happy customers, you do not have a business; the question is whether you are doing enough to make them feel valued. You must go beyond delivering customer service and take steps to build and nurture trusting and lasting relationships while recognizing them as individuals, not as sales.

Here are five ways you can show customers that they are valued and improve your relationship.

1. Respond to and engage with customers

We all know the frustration of trying to get in touch with a brand and waiting days or even months to get a response. You may feel that you are too busy and push them to the bottom of the list, but when you consider that customers are the lifeblood of your business, this is crazy. Whether you’re a startup with no staff or a huge corporation with thousands of employees, you can make time to reply to your customers in business hours. When you receive messages on social media, positive and negative reviews, or comments on your blog, use it as an opportunity to open up a conversation and show them the human side to the brand.

2. Establish a relationship of trust

Your customers need to have confidence in your brand, which does not happen instantly. If you are considering two products and one salesperson has bombarded you with features, benefits, and prices while the other has taken time to ask you questions about what you are looking for, which are you most likely to trust? When a customer trusts a brand, they are more likely to return to that brand in the future.

3. Try to get to know them

Brands and customers are closer than ever before, and much of this has been made possible by social media platforms. We can get to know people in a very personal way through social media interactions and digital marketing analytics, which will tell us where they are in the world, their gender and age, their interests, their profession, and even their relationship status. With this information, you can tailor not only your marketing but also your product development to reach them on a much more personal level. Find out how to use social media for market research.

4. Give your brand some humanity

Humanizing your brand is incredibly important when it comes to building positive and meaningful relationships with customers. You need to maintain yours professionalism, but allowing your brand’s personality to come through can help to deepen the brand-customer relationship. Customers will see you as more than just a money-making machine and be more inclined to engage. You can do this very effectively through social media such as sharing profiles of your team or behind the scenes photos. You could also give your product packaging a handmade, personal finish with crafted labels using letter stencils or a handwritten note of thanks.

5. Thank them

This leads on nicely to the final but crucial tip – thank you, customers, as much as possible. Whether you include thanks on a contract or invoice, on a written note with the product, in an email, or on social media, you need to make sure that you acknowledge how important your customers are to your success.

7 Effective Strategies for Managing Customer Data

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Managing Customer Data|7 Effective Strategies for Managing Customer DataData is one of the most valuable assets in any organization. Product development, marketing, and pricing, among others, are all influenced by the data the business has. With this, to effectively manage customer data and extract the most value out of it, take note of the strategies listed in this article.

Use a Customer Data Platform

A customer data platform or CDP is one of the most important tools for organizations. It should not be confused with customer relationship management software. The main goal of a CDP is to improve marketing decisions by unifying online and offline data. Whether it is a website or physical store visits, it presents valuable insights that can help make better decisions.

If you are looking for a good CDP to try, check out this link https://www.lytics.com/.

Perform Data Hygiene

Dirty data is useless. It can do more harm than good for the user. Data becomes dirty when it is outdated or inaccurate, among other things that will negatively impact its quality. To implement data hygiene, one of the most important is to have standardization rules. Automatic data cleansing will also be effective. Doing it manually is not only labor-intensive but can also be prone to errors.

Invest in Your People

To effectively manage customer data, you need to invest in your human resources. Your employees have an important role to play in making sure of the quality of data. Provide comprehensive training, especially regarding the use of data management tools.

Collect Only What You Need

Data can be overwhelming. Also, the more information you have about your competitors, the more vulnerable you are to attack. With this, avoid collecting data that you don’t need. Gather only the essential information that you will need when making business decisions.

Be Ethical

Gathering information ethically is also one of the most important strategies in customer data management. When you collect information, be straightforward about how you intend to use the data collected. Provide customers with the option to opt-in if they want to share information. A well-crafted privacy policy is also a must. If you are unethical in data management, you can lose the trust of your customers and this can taint the image of the business.

Create a Backup

Data backups should be non-negotiable. There is a high chance of losing online data, so you need to prepare for the worst. By having a backup and recovery plan, the effects of data loss will be minimal. Otherwise, it can cripple the operations of your business.

Pay Attention to Data Security

Data security is important to protect information from attacks. Whether it is physical or digital means, you need to have proactive measures to prevent a data breach. For online data management, using strong passwords and multifactor authentication will help. Installing antivirus software can also be effective. It will also be good to limit accessibility.

From using a customer data platform to implementing data security measures, this article talked about the best ways to manage customer data. It is crucial to have a comprehensive approach to data management to protect its quality.

Easy Ways to Encourage Customer Retention

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Retention|Easy Ways to Encourage Customer RetentionCustomer retention is one of the hallmarks of a successful business. When you have repeat customers and genuine loyalty, you know that what you have to offer is just what your customer base is looking for. And, when this happens, you don’t need to worry so much about figuring out ways to appeal to more people or different groups. You know where you’re pitching.

Designing a customer loyalty program is one of the most effective strategies to boost your business growth. It is organic and doesn’t require the same amount of resources or time as trying to locate and identify new customers. However, this doesn’t mean that you can be complacent about your customers at all. You still need to think carefully about how you can keep their custom and continue to raise the bar.

So what does it take to ensure customer retention?

Make it Easy to be Loyal

People like doing the easy thing. We prefer supermarkets because they offer everything we need under one roof, we prefer products that free-up our time and once we’ve found something we like, we tend not to keep searching. This is ultimately what customer loyalty is about – you need to make it as easy as possible for your customers to stick with you.

One way you can make it easier is to offer a subscription service with easy and accurate billing. Billsby is a great option for this and the software can even give you a greater understanding of your customers with a value score. For your customers, a subscription means that they don’t have to think about using your company, they can make their choice once and then roll with it.

Another good way to make it easier to be loyal is to offer your customers incentives to continue shopping with your business. Supermarket loyalty cards are some of the best-known programs and many offer their customers discounts and exclusive deals, often based on the customer’s shopping habits. This is why loyalty programs like these are so important – not only can you encourage your customers to spend more by offering small discounts, but you can also learn a lot about them.

The easier you can make it to be loyal, the more likely your customers are to stick by your business. Just make sure that you understand what your customers are looking for and continue to meet their needs better than your competitors!

Stay in Touch

Staying in touch with your customers is all about communication. If you can’t talk to your customers, you won’t be able to tell them about the latest deals you have for them or find out what they could be looking for. There are so many ways to stay in touch now that if you don’t have a social media account, you are already way behind the times! Don’t even bother to continue reading this article just yet – open a new tab right now and set those things up!

Welcome back!

So, now you have a social media account, you need to know how to use it. Social media is brilliant for showing off your brand identity and engaging your customers on a more personal level. You don’t need to be constantly advertising or showing off; you can ask questions, comment on industry developments or simply post things you find interesting or amusing.

Another crucial form of communication is the humble email campaign. Again, if you don’t have one already, you must start thinking about this as soon as possible. You can even use your social media presence to build up your list of email addresses. The key thing to remember is that your emails must be relevant to your audience and provide some value. This might mean sending a newsletter including links to your blog but it could be more tailored and include particular deal codes they can use with your business to get discounts or other incentives.

Staying in touch with your customers should also allow them to influence how you grow and develop your business. In other words, you need to be able to have a conversation, not just a one-way lecture.

Use a Customer Feedback Loop

And that’s where the customer feedback loop comes in. If you want to know what your customers think of your services and business, the best way to find out is to ask them. Yes, it’s really that simple!

Surveys are one of the best ways to ask a lot of customers about a specific aspect of your business and to find out what the majority think. However, you must ask the right questions to get the information you really need. Remember that even though you might really want positive responses to all the questions you ask, the reality is that you know that there are things you need to improve and you need to be neutral to find out what those things are.

Another way to gain customer feedback is to run a focus group. This is a brilliant way to gauge interest in new products or ideas you would like to experiment with soon. Customer focus groups also provide forums for people to give their opinions in a more open way. Though you should certainly keep the conversation from deviating too far from your requirements, allowing your customers to express themselves openly could be hugely beneficial. Asking a market research company to run these groups on your behalf will also remove any possibility of unconscious bias.

Customers want to stay loyal because it is easier than constant shopping around. However, you still have to make an effort to keep their custom and ensure that you don’t take them for granted. Shopping around might be frustrating but it doesn’t mean that your customers can’t be tempted away. Keeping an eye on the competition is one way to avoid losing customers but you should also be thinking about what unique services or products you could offer.

If you really want to keep your customers, the best thing you can do is keep them at the very centre of your business plan.

5 Reasons Customer Service is Important to Small Companies

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Customer Service|5 Reasons Customer Service is Important to Small CompaniesAs a small business owner, you may at times find yourself strapped budget-wise. Operating costs, marketing, and logistics may take priority over customer service but it should never be overlooked. Customer service is crucial – especially for small businesses looking to establish themselves in their respective industries.

The following article will articulate 5 reasons why customer service is so important for small businesses.

Customer Referrals

Word of mouth referrals is very important for a business, even more so for one that is just starting. No one is going to tell their friends or family about your business if they were treated rudely or didn’t feel valued as a customer.

People are much more likely to use the products or services of a company if they heard of them through a trusted friend or family member. Keeping existing customers happy is a great way to ensure you have consistent purchases.

Encourages Brand Loyalty

According to most answering services, when customers feel valued by a company, they are more inclined to stick with that company and purchase new product lines outside of their norm. Good customer service is therefore imperative for brand loyalty.

This is how you can extract the most value from a customer since the revenue you get from them comes with much less effort than trying to convert new customers. Great customer service can create life-long brand advocates and who doesn’t want as many of those as possible. One way to achieve this is through a call center or answering service that can tend every customer that calls.

Offers Valuable Insight

Having good customer service can add a valuable resource: knowledge. Some market research can only be done via a customer’s interaction with your customer service reps – and you don’t have to pay extra for it.

For instance, you can train your reps to ask questions about why a customer likes your product or what they use your service for. Their valuable answers can be used to direct your marketing campaigns to truly resonate with your customers. A well-trained customer service team can seamlessly insert these questions into their conversations with your client and phrase them so they are simultaneously providing value to them.

It’s Cost-Effective

The initial investment in your company’s customer service may seem costly but it pales in comparison to new customer acquisition costs. Having return customers means you don’t have to spend anything on their return business. Plus, customers are likely to spend more money with a company they like. Focusing on customer service is usually less expensive than focusing on new customer acquisition.

More Margin for Error

Customers tend to be more forgiving when a company with good customer service makes a mistake. Let’s say a shoe company ships the wrong pair to a customer. Usually, that is enough for a person to stop buying shoes from that company, especially if the company has bad customer service.

As much as the person likes their shoes, one small slip up can be enough for them to abandon them if they are known for poor customer service. Having good customer service will incline a consumer to stick around if you commit a shipping error or even if you raise your prices.

At the core of everything you do you should be providing great customer service because without your customers you wouldn’t be in business and doing what you love. We hope this article has provided you with insight into why this is so important even in this digital age.

Developing Trust With Your Customers

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Service|Developing Trust With Your CustomersPeople tend to think that it’s the quality of a company’s products or services that determine how much success they’re going to have. And it’s true that they are important, but if a business is going to reach its full potential, then there has to be a solid foundation of trust between the company and its customers. Without it, there’s only so far that they can go — and it really isn’t all that far. As such, it’s important that you’re taking steps to develop your customer’s faith in your business. We take a look at a few ways how below.

Make Yourself Available

You could have the best products at the best prices, but if there’s no-one there to answer the questions and concerns of your customers, then there will be a trust issue. If you’re running a business exclusively online, then make no mistake: you need to make yourself available. People are understandably cautious when it comes to buying online, so you really need to show them that you’re trustworthy. If you have a phone number they can call, and answer your email and social media comments quickly, then you’ll be on the right path.

Consistent Performances

Trust is built over time. A new company has no credibility; with them, it could go either way. You can’t win your customer’s trust overnight — you have to do it by offering a high level of service over an extended period. They need to see that you’re reliable. This can happen in various ways: first, you can just build up your website, and your positive reviews. That takes time. You’ll also need to be reliable in other ways, such as always being online. People have doubts if a site is always going offline and/or is slow, so make sure you’re working with a company that offers managed IT services. They’ll ensure that you’re always online and ready for business.

Do What You Say You’ll Do

It’s all good and well promising a customer the world, but if you can’t deliver it, then you’ll end up doing more harm than good. People prefer honesty over boasts! If delivery is going to realistically going to take five days rather than three, then make sure they know it. You don’t impress anyone by telling them how good you are — you just have to show them, and let them come to their own conclusions.

Handling Problems

It doesn’t matter how watertight your ship might seem, eventually you’re going to run into a mistake that affects a customer. This doesn’t have to be the end of the world, providing you take care of the issue. People are pretty forgiving so long as the business does all that’s within its power to rectify the mistake.

Build Your Authority

Finally, look at building your authority. If you know a lot about your products and services, then share the knowledge through blogs, podcasts, and your social media accounts. You’ll quickly become trusted as the go-to company in your field.

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