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Tag: social media customer service

Boost Customer Loyalty with These 10 Techniques

Creating a customer-centric business involves putting the needs and experiences of customers at the forefront of all business decisions. Here are ten ways to make your business more customer-centric:

Understand Your Customers:

Conduct regular market research and customer surveys to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points.

Develop detailed customer personas to better tailor your products, services, and marketing efforts.


Enhance Customer Service:

Train your customer service team to be empathetic, responsive, and proactive in solving customer issues.


Implement multiple channels for customer support, such as phone, email, live chat, and social media.


Personalize Customer Interactions:

Use data analytics to personalize marketing messages, product recommendations, and customer interactions.


Send personalized follow-up emails or thank-you notes after a purchase.


Foster a Customer-Centric Culture:

Ensure that all employees understand the importance of putting customers first and how their roles contribute to customer satisfaction.


Celebrate and reward employees who go above and beyond to deliver exceptional customer experiences.


Gather and Act on Customer Feedback:

Regularly collect feedback through surveys, reviews, and social media.


Analyze the feedback and make necessary changes to products, services, and processes based on customer insights.


Improve Product and Service Quality:

Continuously innovate and improve your products and services to meet customer expectations.


Perform quality assurance checks and address any issues promptly.
Streamline Customer Journeys:

Map out the customer journey to identify and remove any friction points.


Make it easy for customers to find information, make purchases, and receive support.


Engage with Customers:

Build a community around your brand through social media, forums, and events.


Encourage customer participation and interaction through user-generated content, reviews, and testimonials.


Offer Value Beyond Products:

Provide helpful content, resources, and tools that add value to your customers’ lives.


Offer loyalty programs, exclusive offers, and incentives to reward repeat customers.


Measure Customer-Centric Metrics:

Track key performance indicators (KPIs) related to customer satisfaction, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES).


Use these metrics to identify areas for improvement and measure the impact of your customer-centric initiatives.


By implementing these strategies, you can create a more customer-centric business that prioritizes customer satisfaction and fosters long-term loyalty.

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Choosing a new vendor? Three Tips to Consider

Selecting a vendor for your business can be time consuming and stressful. You are making an important choice that will not just impact you, but an entire department or business. The goal should be to create a partnership with your vendor. Price is important, but it should not be the only thing to consider. Here are three tips that are worth noting.

Communication

Communication is my number one tip. How they respond during the sales process is important. Do you feel as though they are interviewing you? While it is perfectly understandable for a sales exec to pre-qualify a lead, it is also important to treat the person with respect. The tone of a person’s voice, their demeanor, level of patience when answering questions are all important. This sets the tone for how the relationship plays out over time.

Ask yourself, “Will I want to turn to this person with a problem or issue down the road?” How well they communicate & how quickly they respond will tell you a lot. Pay close attention to their genuine willingness to solve your problem or provide a solution that will benefit your business. How well do they listen?

Social Media

One area I always look at when considering a new vendor is their social media marketing. When I check it, I am looking for several things:

  • The date of their last post. I see so many businesses start social media, run it for a few years, and then drop it. How current is the last post? If it is over a year ago, it may be a red flag.
  • What do they post? Do they post relative information that provides their readers with useful tips and news within their industry? Sharing is caring in social media. Pay close attention to what they have to say.
  • Number of followers play a role as well. Too small of an amount may mean that not enough effort was put forth. Too many unevenly distributed between following/followers may suggest a bot was used. Many companies use bots, and while I don’t feel it is a negative, it is worth noting.  
  • How do they respond to customer service issues within their profiles? This is a very important area to take a look at. Unhappy customers many times will go to social media when they can’t get the right answers from normal customer service channels.

Flexibility

How flexible are they to change? As much as we all try, there are times when we need something handled and we need it yesterday! I remember a payroll vendor of ours once telling me that she was going to discount something for me because over the years, we never requested customer service. By looking over our account and determining we had been a good, quiet customer, she rewarded us. Kudos to the company for empowering her to make that call.

Be sure to ask about their customer service turnaround times. Is it within 24 hours of placing a call or inquiry via the web? Be sure to understand this before a problem comes up.

Proper vetting can save you a lot of time in money down the road. The added effort is well worth it.

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When All Else Fails….Turn to Social Selling

During the COVID:19 Pandemic, business owners have had to be very creative in order to survive. In an instant, an owner may be left with no customers. What is next? Creative thinking to the rescue! Interestingly enough, many find new ways of selling their goods and services. Social selling is one option.

A great example of this is how a Minnesota Farmer got quite creative when faced with meat processing plants closing suddenly. One farmer had 1200 pigs that were ready for slaughter, with nowhere to go. “We went from having planned all of this 10 months out, having a market for these pigs – that flipped on a switch,” Kluver said. Brad Kluver is a third generation pig farmer, who has never seen something like this happen. He goes on to say that they were stuck, with no alternatives and the pigs were getting fatter every day.

Social Media To the Rescue!

So the family decided to try selling their pigs in social media. They turned to their community for help through their social media accounts.

“In just 48 hours, we had over 400 families reach out to us wanting to purchase pork and help support us through this,” Brad said. “We were left high and dry with nowhere to go and nowhere to turn and that’s where our community stepped up.”

The family was also able to get connected with other, smaller pork producers who were able to take some of their pigs and get them ready to be sold to consumers. 

Time to Try Social Selling?

Social selling is really nothing new, however, it is new to some industries. The impact of COVID-19 has made everyone more aware of social selling and it will be interesting to watch and see if this trend continues. When you think of social selling, LinkedIn comes to mind. LinkedIn has been the best place to date to build relationships and acquire more customers. This is especially true for B2B companies.

However, now is a great time to start building your social media community. It doesn’t matter if it is in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. The Pig Farm story is a good example of social media ROI. I bet the farmer never would have thought this online community would be of benefit to him at any time now or in the future. But it was. It may also make him think of his business differently post COVID.

Consumer Reports recently reported on the increased importance of social media customer service which goes hand in hand with social selling. Once you commit to being there, you must maintain it and monitor it. Customers are eager to reach out to you there. To get that personalized service that everyone wants these days.

Maintenance goes a long way in social as well as your website. As more and more people turn to online shopping for essentials, be sure:

  • Outbound links in social media are all in working order.
  • Contact information correct.

Take time now to be sure everything is up to speed. Are there ways to increase your followers? How well are you engaging? You never know when it will all come in handy in ways you never would have thought!

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