Harry Gordon Selfridge coined a phrase- “The customer is always right“. It was in the 20th century that he summed up the importance of offering a flawless service to the customers. It’s only now that the businesses are able to make the link between customer experience and the bottom line. The Current Market is full of evidence as to how customer experience pays off dividends for any business in the long run.
Why is the customer, the King?
1. Customer’s wish is your business’s command
If your business does not satisfy your customer’s wishes they will not have a positive recall value for your business. Why would companies like Amazon invest so much time and resources towards customer experience? It’s exactly so the customer recalls their brand fondly.
2. No Customer= No Business
Henry Ford once said “It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.” For any healthy business to sustain, the business needs returning customers, and that can only be done if the customer thinks of your brand fondly..
3. One Happy Customer Brings a Hundred Leads
In the era of google reviews, one customer review can influence the perception of 100s of potential customers. Word of mouth still remains the best form of publicity, it’s just become much more amplified now, when people who are strangers in real life can influence what your potential customer thinks, just by a review they leave for your business online..
This reminds me of something Ken Blanchard said, “Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create raving fans.”
4. One customer can make or break the brand
Businesses today are investing millions of bucks to create an appealing brand image in the market. We are well aware today that customer perception is what will make or break the business. Dropbox & Zappos are clear examples of how taking care of each customer helps in establishing a brand while AOL could not sustain because they just didn’t understand their customer’s needs and what they wanted.
5.Customers help the businesses get a reality check
Ross Perot once said “Spend a lot of time talking to customers face-to-face. You’d be amazed at how many companies don’t listen to their customers.” Not the product owner and not the employees but patrons and their feedback about the product is what helps build sustainable businesses. It all runs down to one thumb rule – make for those who wish to buy and so everything to make them stay.
Jerry Fritz once elaborated on the importance of customer service in today’s competitive business climate when he said “You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be too easily duplicated. But a strong customer service culture cannot be copied.” It’s crucial for businesses to remember that only customers get to decide whether they want to spend on your product or not & secondly, customers can choose any product from a diverse range of options available in the market. All the more in today’s world. Price is becoming increasingly less of a concern when choosing a product, with the economically mobile customer today. What they are looking for is experience!
So now, What should your Customer Research Cover?
-Do your customers want what you are selling?
-Is your product helping the customer in any way?
-How much are the customers willing to pay for my product/ service?
-Are my competitors offering better value to these customers?
-Are you able to offer better products or services than your competitors?
-Can You engage with them online, where do the customers prefer to buy?
-Is your business meeting the customers’ expectations?
-Do you make them feel valued and appreciated?
Market Research is a great tool to understand your ideal customer. You can use traditional tools like google survey or more advanced tools like FRAGO’s conversational AI, which will allow you to send a video based questionnaire and get your customer’s review in real time.
Market research is a great tool and a potent way of collecting data. The information through the gathered data could throw insights about the customers you want to attract. You will not only get to know who your customers are but also what they are really seeking. By investing in a good market research campaign you can directly affect the specific customers you want to showcase your products or services to.
Knowing your customers is crucial because only they can help you get more leads for the business.Knowing them is the key so that we could give them good service that helps build strong customer relationships. As a result you get new sales through recommendations and goodwill.
Use the Insights On Your Customers To Form Cross Selling And Up Selling Bundles
It often requires thoughtful & thorough analysis to know what the customer’s buying preferences are, so that we can anticipate their wants and exceed their expectations. Customer Insights is the best way to form Cross Selling and Up Selling Bundles Your business must create cross selling bundles that add value to your customer’s experience. The highly aware customer of today likes it when an offer that’s being run by a business adds value to their lives. Such informed bundles can only be created once you are aware of what your customer actually wants out of your business. Customer analysis will act as the strong backbone to forming new cross selling bundles.
Analyze Customer’s Real Time Behavior
Data analytics experts suggest businesses to invest in a tool that gives you real time insights on your customers. Traditionally people used tools like CRM, but they just don’t cut in a scenario where customer data is scattered all through different channels. Today a business can operate online, while still having a brick and mortar store. Increasingly sales are coming from social media platforms as well. A business today needs a tool which can crawl through all this data. A technology based Data Analytics solution like FRAGO helps you gather the data from all channels in real time and give actionable insights to your Business.