The equation is simple, adding great customer experiences into your marketing equals better performance. Companies with strong capabilities and competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competition. Read on to find out how to get people to love customer service and your brand.
This is the second instalment in our healthy marketing strategies series for UK National Heart Month.
How do you know if your customers love your service?
Hopefully, you are tracking complaints, PCA %, responding to social media posts and have a customer advocacy programme. If not, here are some worrying statistics to think about.
In a 2019 report by the UK’s Ombudsmen Services, they found that across all age groups, 52% of unhappy customers suffered in silence. Yes, that’s right, over half of complaints never manifest themselves in a call, email, online form or social media post. This is especially true for millennials, where 62% said complaining filled them with ‘dread’ and 69% also suffer in silence.
Ever ignored bad customer feedback on your social media accounts? Well, the same report identified in 2019 that 55% of complaints across all age groups now come through social media. Just imagine what this statistic looks like now with sweeping changes to customer experience.
But what exactly is customer experience and what can I do to help customers fall in love with my service and my brand? We’ll answer these two questions now.
What is customer experience and customer marketing?
Customer experience is about putting the customer first and making them feel special at every touchpoint. It’s about delighting and going beyond expectations to create a lasting positive effect that ultimately fosters loyalty and brand advocacy.
Customer marketing is about engaging and deepening relationships with existing customers to increase sales, retention and advocacy. Crucially, customer marketing also identifies those customers who are at risk of churn and sets out pre-emptive action.
Why does your service matter to your brand?
Adopting a customer first marketing strategy matters; in fact it matters a lot to your long term success and overall business health.
According to the 2017 report by the UK’s Ombudsmen Services, bad customer service cost the UK economy over £37bn. The reason why: because one bad experience can have a far greater knock-on effect than one good experience.
In addition, simply finding new leads is not going to close the revenue gap. It is well known that the cost of acquiring custom far outweighs that of retaining custom by up to six or seven times. So isn’t it time you showed your customers some love and made service a priority?
Learn how customer experience marketing makes their choice easy or call Think Beyond on 01565 632206 for a no obligation chat about how we can put your customer first.
How to increase service and brand love – 5 tactics to try today
Ready to make your customers fall in love with your service and your brand? Here’s 5 ways to create unforgettable experiences to do just that:
Go above – exceed expectations
Firstly, make your customers fall in love by going above and beyond. Sounds simple, yes. So, how do you do it? Provide additional information or offer a free demo, whatever you do, over deliver to create interactions that last. Leverage this loyalty to increase spend and customer lifetime value.
Side note: broken or slow to load websites are two of the quickest ways to create a bad experience. Make sure that your website is performing for optimum customer experience.
Create deeper, emotional relations
You know your target market; you know their pain points. Now, it’s time to go deeper. Customer journey mapping combined with neuroexperience allows you to track emotive responses across interactions and be alert to emotional cues. Similarly, apply neuroscience to your marketing campaigns to further fine tune your messaging and give your campaigns the best chance of success as part of the ‘seduction process’.
Listen to customers and act
Like any good relationship, the one between customer and brand should be a two way street. Customer feedback can help to continually improve the service that you provide and will make your customers feel that they are valued. Adopt this policy across all channels. For example, leaving social media messages unread is not only bad practice, it communicates that your customer’s voice does not matter. Ultimately, the message is that customer relationship management is a priority.
Furthermore, find out what your customers really think about your brand by booking a brand audit.
Reward loyalty
Create a customer loyalty programme that rewards your happy fans. This could be anything from discounts to sneak peak exclusives. But the goal remains the same: building brand ambassadors. Find out how to create a customer advocacy marketing strategy that works for your brand.
Start early
Finally, getting customers to fall in love with you doesn’t happen overnight. Start the journey before they are even customers by clearly identifying your buyer personas and ideal customer. By having these personas mapped in your marketing planning, you can concentrate your efforts on reaching the audience that is the best fit for your brand and most likely to be loyal.
Above all, it’s important to remember that customers are human. Now more than ever brands need to communicate honestly, openly and with empathy. The outpouring of “we’re here for you” messaging in lockdown one proved that – brands need to get personal and show their customers love too.
Where to get support so customers love customer service
How will you make your customers fall in love with your service and your brand? For support creating customer first experiences and customer marketing strategies, contact Think Beyond. We are a boutique marketing consultancy with expertise in neuroscience for experience and branding. In short, we help your customers to love customer service and keep them coming back.
Call 01565 632206 or email sales@think-beyond.co.uk for a no obligation consultation.
Additionally, you can enquire about our services by dropping a message on our 30 second contact form.
Finally, get a full view by also reading part 1 of our healthy marketing strategies series.