Putting the Customer First
Running a successful business means putting the customer first. When the customer is happy, you're happy and that's the key to getting repeat sales, loyal customers and that priceless word-of-mouth marketing. There are many roads to customer satisfaction, including through direct interactions, problem solving, relationship building and marketing, so how can you ensure your marketing is putting the customer front and centre?
Are You Being Served?
No, not the 1970s sitcom, although the spirit of Grace Brothers is what we want to channel. Customers want to be served, not merely sold to, and this becomes more important the higher the value of the product or service. Buying a chocolate bar isn't a high-value transaction so the customer doesn't want a conversation or a long interaction, but buying work equipment, or a security system is a high-value transaction. In these cases the customer wants to feel their needs are not only understood, but served by the business and the product.
Taking this approach to your marketing communications means using soft sell tactics and even sending useful content without a strong sales message. Serving a customer means building that relationship where they feel seen and heard, so be prepared to set the hard sell aside at the start of the customer journey.
Listening vs. Understanding
Do you really listen to the feedback your customers give? Are you aware that they're giving feedback passively all the time? Surveys and reviews are great, they usually give some meaty insights that you can only get through this method that allows for long-form answers. However, customers give feedback all the time without taking action – the way people respond to new products and marketing campaigns, plus whether your competitors are gaining ground are all passive feedback channels that provide unsolicited, honest feedback.
If a marketing campaign isn't being well received investigate why that is – perhaps is the subject line of an email, a high proportion of spammy words, being launched at the wrong time or it's simply not relevant to your customers. If you're personalising emails by sending messages tailored to customer cohorts then you can get even more accurate feedback by comparing the performance of each one against the others.
Take Action
Take the insights gleaned through feedback channels and use this to not only refine your marketing messages, but to tweak your products and services too. This sort of activity doesn't just benefit one area, it can inform product development and ensure you stay relevant and ahead of your competitors when it comes to serving the needs of your customers.
If you're not already doing so, develop solid customer personas and journeys to get into the mindset of the people you want to sell to, then ensure that what you're really doing is serving them.
Parua can help collect and analyse data, collate feedback and tweak your marketing messages to put your customers first.
