customer experience

Optimizing Customer Experience: 5 Tips for Start-ups

Optimize and personalize every customer experience and have repeat clients. The customer journey will speak for your brand, so make them happy.

So you’ve decided to start your own business. Congratulations! You have a revolutionary new product and great ideas for your business model. You’re excited to introduce it to the public.

However, the products you create or the services you offer are not the only considerations in opening and growing your business. There are more things you need to learn before officially launching your company.

Customer Experience (CX) Optimization is something you should pay attention to. Detail your plans from initial contact with clients to customer retention strategies.

What is customer experience optimization?

To put it simply, customer experience is your customers’ perception of how your brand treats them. It’s the quality of all interactions and every point of contact. It includes visiting your social media pages or watching your ads, making queries using the live chat services on your website, or purchasing your products—these, and a lot more.

An essential part of the CX is the emotions associated with each interaction, such as expectation, satisfaction, loyalty, or disappointment. Think of it as the totality of your brand’s relationship with an individual. These interactions, along with associated feelings and perceptions, affect behavior.

Customer experience optimization, then, can be understood as making the process of attracting customers, engaging with them, and improving their perception of your company better. This is key to striking a balance between the customer’s expectations and your brand’s goals.

In today’s world of oversaturation and competition, a top-notch customer experience will set you apart from the crowd. Positive brand recognition is just one of the benefits that start-ups can enjoy, thanks to CX optimization. Here are some tips you can use.

1. Create a loyalty program

Attracting customers to buy your products once is good, but clients who regularly support your company are better. Making your customers feel valued builds brand loyalty. It will also make you the most profit in the long term.

One of the best ways to do that is by having a loyalty program. This can look and function differently depending on the products you offer, but the goal remains the same. In restaurants, for example, birthday celebrators get free cupcakes.

Stamp cards, often used by cafés like Starbucks, encourage customers to buy more frequently to get stamps for their every purchase, of course, with the promise of a reward in the end. These can be free drinks on the house or products like tumblers or pens. The Starbucks planners are trendy and practical. Since you cannot buy it without purchasing a set number of drinks, customers will spend more.

Additionally, these products can serve as promotional merchandise. Giving discounts to repeat customers is also a common practice. The cost of implementing a loyalty program often pays for itself by driving extra sales.

2. Be present on multiple channels

The development of social media platforms, messaging services, and the like has provided many opportunities for better CX. Your website or your emails are not the only points of contact you can establish anymore.

You can take advantage of social media by making a presence on all relevant channels. Social media sites and apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all used by companies. Such tools aid in engaging with their current user base and attract more potential customers. Each platform has its features and communities that you can take advantage of.

Messaging services can also make it easier for direct communication between you and your customers. The instantaneous response time expected is more favorably received than email. Also, make sure to prioritize the mobile interface. Smartphones are now used in going online as much as laptops are, and your website needs to adapt to this change.

3. Regularly monitor reviews and complaints

A bad review from one customer can quickly go viral in minutes and do significant damage to your brand. To prevent this, it is a good idea to monitor your Facebook page, for example, or any popular review sites where your customers may be present. Complaints may result from a misunderstanding on the customers’ part. Responding can clear your name to prospects who base their opinions on other customers’ reviews.

4. Request feedback from current customers

You can glean lots of helpful insight from asking your current customers. You can, for instance, learn exactly why they buy your products or services. There may be specific reasons for different groups of customers that you can take advantage of. Happy customers may have suggestions that can increase the good experience of other customers.

Identify areas for improvement to provide better service. Are there any aspects that they feel dissatisfied with, for example? Does the overall service meet all their expectations? You may even scope out potential interest in future products or offerings.

Giving customers discounts for their feedback makes them more likely to stick around and entice them to buy more. You, in turn, will have data that you can use to improve your business. It’s a win for everyone.

5. Be responsive

Customers often feel valued when they get quick responses to their feedback or inquiries. Whether through email or messaging services, they don’t want to wait for answers. Faster response times make it easier for you to capture customer interest as it comes and lead to higher success rates. Answering customer queries immediately can be challenging, primarily if your start-up is composed of a small team.

Having auto-responders or chatbots is an excellent solution to this. You can use auto-responders to set expectations for when customers can hear back from you. Chatbots can answer common questions that do not necessarily need your team’s attention.

6. Put your customers first

Good quality products and low prices are not the only deciding factors for customers anymore. Customer Experience is now widely considered essential for businesses. Companies are prioritizing CX optimization over other factors like pricing and product development. Start-ups especially need to focus on the quality of CX they offer, as initial performance in this area can affect the growth of their business.

Following these tips will undoubtedly help start-up owners optimize the buyer’s experience and retain customers.

Author: Trevor Michael

Author Bio: Trevor Michael is a Customer Contact Industry Specialist of Select VoiceCom. He has operated successfully within this niche industry for over ten years across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. He enjoys writing, golf and going to social events.

5 SaaS strategies to take your B2B Customer experience a notch higher

Before learning more about the strategies, you can implement to take your customer experience to the next level, you need to understand why it matters a tad more in the SaaS landscape.

“Every day we’re saying, ‘How can we keep this customer happy? How can we get ahead in innovation by doing this’, because if we don’t, somebody else will?” – Bill Gates

Keeping your customers happy is not only about offering them a superlative product or exceptional service, rather it is about offering them a top-notch experience.

When you are in a domain as competitive as SaaS in a B2B set-up, customer experience becomes all the more critical. If you don’t offer optimum customer support, you may lose out on valuable customers, leading to eventual stagnation in your company.

You may have the greatest software products for companies, but since you’re catering to human beings, they will need support at least once. Thus, it makes sense to invest in a CX strategy that goes the extra mile to not only grow but also retain your buyer base.

The challenge intensifies as you onboard more clients because you will have more pain points to address and more expectations to meet.

While you will definitely need seasoned customer support experts to address queries and issues, having multiple support agents dealing with the same customers can be a challenge in itself.

At this stage, switching to a cloud-based CRM software may be the best move for your SaaS company. It helps restructure communications and keeps all the agents up-to-date on customer data through a unified database. In fact, there is much more that you can do to enhance your customer experience.

While investment in CX tactics, technology, and training could be an expense for your business, it is worthwhile because it drives retention and growth.

Before learning more about the strategies, you can implement to take your customer experience to the next level, you need to understand why it matters a tad more in the SaaS landscape.

Why does Customer Experience matter for B2B SaaS Companies?

A recent report by Accenture states that 90% of B2B executives consider CX a vital factor when it comes to achieving the strategic priorities of their organisations. Also, a majority of B2B buyers look for the same experience as their B2C counterparts.

So, the thin line between B2B and B2C buying experiences is blurring in the current landscape. While buyer expectations were only critical in the B2C world initially, they are now as important for B2B sellers as well.

In fact, they may be even greater when you are selling a technology product because buyers tend to be more aware. Moreover, key decision-makers for businesses want quick and convenient purchases, along with personalised experiences because they are pressed for time.

If you envision rapid and sustainable growth for your SaaS B2B company, going the extra mile with CX makes sense.

Strategies for Elevating the Customer Experience

Now that it is clear how valuable customer experiences are for SaaS businesses with B2B clients, it is imperative to look for ways to enhance them. Here are some tried and tested strategies you can rely on.

Connect with Prospects just as they Sign Up

As soon as prospects sign up for a SaaS trial, customer support starts. It is the best time to demonstrate your commitment to being a part of their journey with your product and brand. While phone calls may not appear feasible if you have hundreds of sign-ups every day, every phone call holds immense potential for business development.

Also, these phone calls get you some actionable insights that you can use for experimenting with your SaaS onboarding funnel. They serve dual benefits, in terms of getting new customers as well as consolidating relationships with them for the long haul.

Tune-up Omnichannel Experiences

Since digital platforms are quickly taking over traditional sales channels like in-person visits and telephonic sales, an omnichannel approach is imperative if you want to ramp up your CX.

The same goes for customer support––you need to think beyond conventional channels like phone, email, and chat. Digital platforms enable B2B buyers to engage with SaaS products according to their convenience and preference.

When you sell in a B2B landscape, you engage with important people within the client organisations. These people may prefer using various digital channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and more rather than conversing on the phone.

It is vital to identify and make the most of all the omnichannel opportunities to ensure that your buyers get a consistent experience regardless of the channel they use.

Leverage Visual Aids to resolve Issues

Incredible customer support is all about stepping in their shoes and resolving any issues that they may face. When it comes to selling SaaS in a B2B setup, using software to solve their problems is a great idea.

You can rely on a business CRM software that comes with screen-sharing features to ease resolution issues for customers. Visual support such as videos and pictures help customer support reps resolve any concerns and explain solutions to the users more explicitly.

Screen-sharing and videos bring transparency and clarity to the process so that buyers can understand things better. Such tools simplify the client’s journey and let the support reps’ complete tickets faster, leading to higher satisfaction rates.

Train your Customer Support Team

Customer support is as vital as any other functional area for businesses. B2B customer support for SaaS companies specifically depends on collaborations.

This is because resolving even the simplest of issues may require several complex steps. Having a skilled and resourceful support team can make all the difference to the CX you deliver, and eventually, the reputation of your business.

Investing in training for your team gives them the clarity and confidence they need to deal with customers and address their issues effectively. Encourage them to interact with each other to learn about typical queries and situations and how they can address them better.

Additionally, using a collaborative software such as a cloud-based CRM solution takes their efficiency and potential to the next level.

Listen to the Voice of the Clients

Feedback is the mainstay of good customer support as it helps you identify the gaps in CX and close them for good. Listening to the voice of your customers is vital as it gets you valuable insights into their current experiences and expectations for the future.

A widely-used practice in the B2C landscape, it can power up the support function for SaaS businesses that cater to a B2B clientele as well. Consider conducting regular surveys and gathering data to form a real picture of your clients and their expectations.

While it may take some time and effort to gather customer insights and conduct data analysis, it is worthwhile for a SaaS company that wants to stand apart from the competition.

The takeaway…

Great customer support is a cornerstone when establishing a successful SaaS business in the B2B landscape. However, it is easier said than done because the workload is heavy for the team, considering the number, variety, and complexity of issues they receive every day.

Moreover, managing loads of information and explaining technology to customers with limited tech-savviness are additional challenges. The best way to handle the challenges is by investing in smart solutions that empower your support team with better communication, smarter insights, and high-end CX tools.

Author bio:

Vanita Arora is a marketing enthusiast. She is currently working with Servetel – a leading cloud telephony service provider based in India. Travelling, photography, and reading keep her rejuvenated.

How to improve customer experience for your business

There are multiple ways to improve the customer experience as this depends a lot on what kind of business you run. But there are a few general techniques you can bear in mind to improve in this area.

It is no secret that when it comes to business success, customer service is king. It doesn’t matter if you have the best products in the world; without an excellent customer journey, your business will find it difficult to reach its intended pinnacle of achievement.

There are multiple ways to improve the customer experience as this depends a lot on what kind of business you run. But there are a few general techniques you can bear in mind to improve in this area. Read on for more info.

Streamline Cross-Channel Interaction

Your business will undoubtedly have multiple touchpoints for customer interaction. If one of these fails anywhere in the chain, you could lose a customer forever. One way around this is to ensure that certain channels are used for specifics purposes.

For example, many businesses use chatbots for general customer queries. These bots can then refer the customer to a live agent if the query is more specific. This helps streamline the customer experience because their query is addressed in multiple ways. Also, with the shift to remote working, you may want to invest in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services as it allows your employees to answer telephone queries from home. If you’re new to this technology, experts at outsourceIT can help you set this up.

Invoke Curiosity

Being curious essentially means learning about your customer. What are they interested in? What makes them tick? What do they want? While this seems like an obvious point, many businesses spend too much time on product delivery and less on what their customers truly want. By being curious, you open a dialogue to learn more about their spending habits, preferences, and desires. If customers know you care about them, they will be more likely to buy your products.

Become Obsessive

It’s all well and good to care about customer service, but the businesses that truly reign on top are obsessive about it. Apple and Amazon, for example, can credit their enormous success on this very premise. A sift through interviews with Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs on YouTube will likely bring up a conversation about their undying commitment to the customer experience. If you can become obsessive about delivering top service to your customers, you will help your brand stand out in today’s heavily saturated and competitive market.

Personalize

Consumers nowadays want to be treated like people, not like numbers in a box. But personalization can be a tricky one to get right since your customers want individual attention, but without it being stalky or creepy. When done correctly, though, personalization can go a long way to boosting your sales. Userlike.com suggests that you implement ways that make personalization less dependent on gathering consumer data and more on actual conversations.

Audit

Auditing can be essential for learning whether your customer experience is hitting the mark. Whether it’s sending out surveys, chatting with customers, or analyzing analytics, you’ll want to audit your customer service experience and continuously improve on it. A detailed look into your marketing (i.e., what content your customers are visiting most) and sales can reveal a lot about how well you’re performing. But perhaps best of all is asking for direct feedback from your customers to find out how satisfied they are with the experience.

No matter what industry you may be in, customer experience is vital for the lifeblood of your business. Heed the above tips and ensure that your customers keep coming back for more.

Outsource Your Customer Services

If you are a small business that doesn’t have all the resources to streamline your customer service operation, why not consider outsourcing the whole process? There are lots of affordable answering services available for businesses of sizes. They can provide inbound, outbound, and sales services for a variety of different industries.”

Create a great customer experience – 6 strategies that work

If you want to succeed, you have to make your customer happy.

If you want to succeed, you have to make your customer happy. Period. You can create happier and loyal customers by focusing on improving the customer experience. Let us look at 6 strategies that can help you achieve that.

Examine Business Mission and Vision

You can strengthen the position of your business brand by using data obtained by market research software.

Use the data to define clear missions and vision that focus on the customers. Create a set of statements that can act as a guide.

The vision you choose must reflect your company culture. Once you have the vision in place, it will drive the behaviour of the organization. Instil these values and principles in all areas of training and development. Having a clear vision will eventually lead to better customer satisfaction.

Create Customer Personas

Understanding your customer is the next step. Try to bring them to life based on their personalities and needs. This will help your customer support team deliver great customer experience.

Create customer personas. For instance, John is 20 years old, extremely tech-savvy and can follow tech instructions easily; Gerry is 57 years old and needs to be instructed about technology.

When you create such personas for different customers, the customer support team can instantly recognize them. They will understand them better due to which they can provide better support.

Work Backward

What kind of experience do you want to give your customers? Once you answer that, work backwards and plan your customer experience accordingly.

– List out the different customer experience stages and instances where you can create a lasting impression. For instance, you can deliver the product earlier than promised.

– Focus on solving customer problems. Count even the smallest of the problems and work on how you can solve that.

Capture Customer Feedback

The only way you can know if a customer is happy or not is by asking them. This is where customer feedback comes into play.

Real-time customer feedback helps you to understand if they were satisfied with the service or not. You can send surveys, a follow-up mail or call them and ask directly.

Identify the Training Needs

Once you have customer feedback, identify the training needs for the customer support team.
By giving them the proper training tools, you will enable them to respond better to the customers. Train them regularly and keep the training program updated.

Understand Customer Experience Metrics

If you cannot measure something, there is no way you can improve it. You need to constantly monitor and measure the customer experience to ensure you are not missing out on important information.

Understand the metrics involved and measure them regularly. One metric that almost every company uses is the ‘Net Promoter Score’ or NPS. It collects valuable information by asking a single question:

‘Would you recommend this company to a friend or relative?’

Design your customer experience strategy based on the results from these metrics.

Customers are having higher expectations from the companies. This means the customer experience management must be in place. If you take the right steps, you will see increased customer loyalty, higher customer retention and increased revenues.

Author Bio:

Bhavika Sharma is a survey designer at SurveySparrow, where she designs surveys that work by making them more conversational and engaging, fetching 40% more responses. When she isn’t designing killer surveys, she loves to travel in search of adventure and to meet new people. Her travel experiences have taught her the importance of conversation and that is what she brings to the table while creating surveys or content for her readers.