7 Ways To Improve Your Customers' Experience

With eCommerce making it possible for businesses around the globe to compete with each other, one of the best ways for any business to stand out from the competition is to provide the best customer experience. These seven strategies will help you improve your customers' experience.

1. Provide Superior Customer Service

Excellent customer service is the backbone of any customer experience. Your customer service strategy should be focused on the needs of the customer, rather than the needs of your business. To accomplish this, you must analyze every instance when a customer is interacting with your company.

One of the best things you can do to enhance your customer service is to provide real-time support. Digital customer engagement tools, such as live chat, lead management, co-browsing and video chat can help keep customers engaged and provide them with enhanced options to resolve issues on their schedule.

2. Educate Your Team

Your team needs to know your products and services inside and out. It is critical that when customers ask questions about your products and services that your team can respond in a way that is useful and gives your customers confidence that they know what they are talking about. To accomplish this you need to conduct regular, extensive product training.

In addition to product knowledge, your staff should be trained on effective customer service etiquette. Good etiquette, such as empathy and patience, will help your team better understand the customer's problem, will reduce the number of touchpoints, increase conversions and improve customer trust and loyalty.

3. Utilize Technology

Self-service options, such as chatbots, are popular with many customers because they are available any time of the day or night without the need to wait in line for a representative. They are also beneficial to businesses because they can save as much as 30% on customer support expenses and reduce response times. Chatbots can be employed to answer frequently asked questions with simple answers. They can also be used to collect customer information, such as names and email addresses. Because bots can not handle every query, you need to ensure that they can smoothly transfer customers over to other support options when needed.

4. Solicit Customer Feedback

To accurately assess the effectiveness of your customer experience strategy, you need to regularly solicit customer feedback. Ask for customer feedback after every interaction, whether that interaction is a live chat, phone call, chatbot or e-mail. Use the feedback you receive to identify opportunities to improve the customer experience.

5. Improve Your Brand Messaging

To avoid customer confusion you need to make sure your brand messaging is clear and consistent. Ensure your messaging communicates the services and products you are selling, emphasizes how your products can enhance your customers' lives and focuses on their needs. Improving your branding helps ensure that customers are getting accurate information about your products, helps them relate to your brand and reassures them that your focus isn't just on profits.

6. Make Customers a Part of Your Community

Another effective way to strengthen customer relationships is to make them an integral part of your community and social events. This helps customers feel like they are valued for more than just the money they spend with your company. Be sure to acknowledge how your customers contribute to the success of your company. Consider offering rewards for loyal customers, such as discounts, free gifts and early access to new products.

7. Empower Your Team

Overly restrictive policies that force your staff to follow a set script can be a source of frustration for both employees and customers. Empower your team to make decisions and resolve customer issues without having to get approval first.

Providing your customers with the best possible customer experience will increase customer loyalty and help set your business apart from the competition. Incorporating these seven strategies into your customer experience strategy can help you provide your customers with an experience that will keep them coming back for more.