Customer

Modern world retailers know why customer experience is important for their business. They understand that delivering the best customer experience can give them a competitive edge in the market. Today, customers have high expectations due to the endless options available. Their demands and requirements can be met instantly. What makes it easy for retailers to achieve useful insights to their target demographics and deliver what they demand?

It is possible by having a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior and market trends.

The 360 degree view of each customer is shortly known as Customer 360 which enables retailers to use data along with digital technologies to make better business decisions. The concept of Customer 360 can be used with targeted initiatives that use the solutions developed by retail digital transformation.

The Concept of Customer 360

Customer 360 is an idea with which companies are able to fetch a complete view of customers by gathering data from several points which are used by customer to interact with the company to buy products and services and get support.

The modern retail industry is omnichannel since it has numerous points where retailers and customers get in touch with each other. Across social media, e-commerce, in-store, and mobile apps; customers are continuously purchasing products, liking and saving the products and this data is later used by retailers.

Even when the digital technologies were absent in earlier times, retailers were still looking for customer 360. This modern customer 360 view is about accumulating each data and detail of the customer in customer profile with the help of AI and analytics systems. This enhances personalized service, customer service, and retail operations of the company. With the right practice, customer 360 can bring successful outcomes and more revenue.

Customer 360 is the customer intelligence technology that is used to understand customers by analyzing their buying patterns and their motivations to gain business growth.

Modern customer is well-informed. Today, people can have unlimited access to information about a specific brand and its offers. Such customers are more demanding and less loyal. If they are unhappy with the service or product, they will give their feedback and expect your response in return. It is important to consider the angry customer if you don’t want any PR disaster.

With digital technologies like AI, big data, and machine learning and IoT, retailers have bulk amount of data that they can’t even handle. Every customer is generating more and more data with passing time, this benefits the retailers as they get a complete profile. The issue with the bulk data is that it has to be processed for better use.

There are certain metrics that can be gathered and used by a retail CRM system to get the idea of how much data is handled by retailers-

• Demographics – It has age, name, address, occupation, contact details, etc.
• Family details – Partner details, children, anniversaries
• Social Media – All social platforms, likes, shares, posts
• Store information – Frequent purchases, most liked stores
• Behaviors – purchase trends, purchase triggers
• Marketing intel – predicted lifetime value, average transaction, etc.

How to apply Customer 360 to business operations?

Retailers must ensure that all data is collected and can be accessed by a single data analytics system in order to use data to get a 360 degree customer view. In the traditional era, there were disparate systems in which data was silo. Such data delivered inaccurate insights and limited customer view.

When retailers own a comprehensive data system that functions to collect and analyze data, they are able to build complete customer profiles and achieve a 360 degree customer view. Since then it became critical to deploy digital solutions – machine learning, data analytics, AI, and a comprehensive retail CRM to create a holistic customer profile and boost customer engagement.

When the customer profiles are created, retailers can gather extra data using interaction details. Dynamics 365 partners are intended to create a campaign performance dashboard that enables retailers to find how campaigns landed with distinct stores.

Customer 360 allows retailers to optimize customer engagement, which enables-

• Enhanced customer interaction
• New upsell/cross-sell opportunities
• Better and effective marketing campaigns
• More optimized customer strategies

It really doesn’t matter which type of business you have what matters the most is which strategy you follow to improve your web presence. Web presence plays a crucial role when it comes to enhancing the customer base and earning more ROI in less time. During the past days, businesses used to follow two important methods for improving their customer base that is: 

1. Direct advertising. 

2. Word of mouth

However, in today’s digital era a wide range of options are available for businesses due to access to the internet, it has opened up new ways for businesses that aim to improve their business’s presence on the web and grab the attention of a large audience base that also in a very short span.  

Know what is the Exact Meaning of Improving Web Presence for Your Business

Web presence simple means summing up identities that businesses have created and interaction which have been established online using this identity. These identities can include your business website, pages, social media account, and much more which pop up in the search engine list whenever any of the customers search for your business. 

Web presence is an effective digital salesforce and when businesses try to optimize their web presence they can easily create brand awareness. This digital interaction can help to turn your web visitors into your ideal clients. Once you develop a strong web presence for your business, you will definitely have a huge potential which helps you to retain and attract one through various channels available online. 

Different Way to Consider for Enhancing Web Presence for Your Business 

All types of businesses these days are using various marketing strategies but unable to get the desired and steady stream of customers for their business. No matter whether you have established business or have just started your business what matters for attracting more customers and gaining huge referrals is optimizing your web presence. 

By optimizing the web presence of your business you can easily reach thousands of customers all over the world. As a business entrepreneur if you want to expand your business outside the boundary of your local area then you have to pay attention to improving your web presence. You can develop an effective marketing strategy and can use various proven ways to enhance your web presence in lesser time. 

Optimizing the web presence of your business doesn’t happen overnight, but having a strong web presence is very essential for businesses as it helps them to achieve long term goals. It allows the customer to find your business, communicate with you, trust your brand, and much more. Having a strong web presence can sound quite challenging but if you want to achieve it then you have to plan and implement the right strategy which provides the proven results for your business. There are proven ways which you can adopt to increase conversion rates, customer engagement, traffic, and much more for your business. 

Develop a Website for Your Business

Only 51% of businesses have their business website while almost 97% of consumers are searching online for preaching products or services from the brands. Businesses who have yet now owned their business website are losing end number of opportunities what is waiting with open arms on their way. 

And for enhancing your web presence developing the website and an app for your business can prove to be the first and essential activity. With the help of the expert or mobile app development company, you can portrait an excellent piece that loads quickly on the user’s devices and provide them with updated information about your business product or service which you sell. The website or app crafted by them will be mobile-friendly, eye-catchy and will optimize your business URLs.

Sponsored Advertising

Businesses should leverage other sources to improve their web presence, they can use other sites which allow them to advertise their business online using sponsored advertising. Making advertisement using other websites ensure you to reach more customers from the desired targeted market, websites which allow sponsored advertising can be proven beneficial for your business product or service. Each click on your advertisement can bring more customers and traffic to your business website. And each view done by the customers can ensure customers have exposed your business. 

Stay Active on Social Media Platforms 

Staying active on social media platforms can help businesses to grab the attention of millions of users because the majority of customers might have their account on one or other social media platform. One of the most popular activities on the internet is Social media usage. 

As per the report, around 2.65 billion users use social media platforms worldwide, this number is estimated to jump and reach 3.1 billion by 2021. Hence businesses who want to improve their presence online must utilize the power of social media and must create their business page or account on famous sites like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and many more. 

Facebook has around 2.45 billion active monthly users, hence it will provide you the best way to communicate with your target audience. The use of social media can also help you to get more word of mouth from the customers. You can share posts on Facebook and tweet on twitter to attract your targeted audience and make them know more about your brand. You must include all the information about your business on social sites and also pay equal attention to regular updates about your newly launched product, offers, discounts, and much more. 

Multiple Forms of Content to Attract the Audience

There is no doubt that blogging is one of the effective ways to enhance your web presence online. But you can also use multiple forms of content for attracting your customers, this useful content can help you to define your brand’s voice and also build trust among the customers. Businesses should focus on developing multiple forms of content to provide customers with informative and entertaining on like: 

• Vimeo or Youtube video that represents your brand. 
• Developing infographics. 
• Podcast hosting.
• Creating a case study.
• White paper and ebook publishing. 

When you provide qualitative and unique content to your audience it will surely create a positive image in your customer’s mind and will force them to trust you. You can also convey them to make a purchase by delivering good content which will ultimately increase your business sales. 

Find the Best Match for Your Business!

All online activities togetherly are responsible for creating your brand’s images in your customer’s mind. Hence businesses who want to develop a positive image in their targeted audience’s mind must take extra care while performing various online activities. 

Put your customer’s need on top is the success mantra for all the businesses who want to enjoy a huge audience base and high profit for their business. But businesses who are lacking to have a strong business presence will not receive the desired outcome for their business in this digital world. They can use helpful tips to enhance their web presence and can reach the targeted objectives in lesser time

The customer is always right!

Therefore as the above-stage adage goes your business probably does (and certainly should) side with your customers- even if they stand out wrong.

This is because when any customer voices his/her displeasure; you usually have a good idea as to why they are right or wrong.

Now the problem lies with the fact that according to surveys done on customer experience most consumers primarily do not complain and secondarily if they are unhappy with any brand, odds are that they start looking elsewhere when shopping for their new requirements and needs.

Moreover, even if they are pleased and satisfied with your products and services, consumers usually refrain from offering customer feedbacks and instead quietly keep buying from their preferred brands and businesses.

Hence in this precarious environment to build a solid customer base, companies need to understand what the satisfied or dissatisfied customers might think long before they make any buying decisions for your offerings, and to do so you need to bring out the best out of them.

Now how do you do this apparently impossible task?

According to Michael Schrage (an MIT Research Fellow) as he urges to the readers of his popular book “What Do You Want Your Customer to Become,” businesses need to reevaluate and reconsider how to calculate CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) which can be done by adopting a CLM CRM software.

Furthermore Schrage writes that while viewing from the company’s perspective when brands treat their customers as value-creating partners, loyal consumers often provides their preferred brands good ideas, try their new offerings, share data with their brands, introduce their preferred brand to other customers and even evangelize for their brands on social media platforms, which in turn helps in reducing promotional costs incurred by the companies.

Therefore in this article, we have highlighted how businesses can overcome this challenging situation by increasing customer lifetime value by following these not-so-difficult steps, to engender an even deeper relationship with their customers and also accurately measure their levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction once they use business growth technology like CLM CRM software for revenue growth.

1. Understand What Your Customers Are Doing

If you are a vendor of a popular lead management software like Salesforce or any other Salesforce Alternative CRM platforms used by small businesses the software is probably helping many businesses to drive their initiatives and aiding their brands to create long term value for your customer’s customers.

But nevertheless, how can you be sure that you are a committed partner on their growth path and helping your customers to innovate and create winning products and services?

Now software usage analytics offer a unique window into how customers are using your offerings and lets you serve as a true partner of your customers but in a non-disruptive manner.
Moreover, the insights received from your customer’s usage of your offerings also lets you incessantly and quickly create useful features and fix frustrating functions in your product line.

However, just relying on the insights received from a handful of willing customers or user surveys can never provide these above-stated objectives unless you encompass insights that are required and can be gathered through usage statistics that you can only receive once you buy CRM and use CLM CRM software.

2. Stay In Touch With Useful Information

Always remain at the forefront of your customer’s minds by crafting enticing and engaging social media posts that provide bite-sized helpful and important tips or lead to larger blog content by creating educational posts following a regular cadence, aiding your consumers with instructive instructions that they are looking for.

Now, to do this the biggest challenge that most brands face is finding the pain-points and blog topics that resonate with their customers.

However again for this, the data and insights into your customer’s usage of your offerings can easily enable your teams to identify and prioritize topics that matter the most to the consumers of your brand.

This is because, by viewing which are the features and functionalities that are mostly used by your customers, you can develop unique content that ensures your customers are maximizing the benefits of those most used features of your offerings.
Similarly by viewing the features of your products and services that are used the least, by looking into the analytics found in CLM CRM software platforms, you can progressively educate your consumers about the valuable features in your offerings that your customers have not yet discovered and if needed update your product to make those features easy to find to the consumers of your offerings.

3. Treat Customer-Related Data With Care

B2B and even B2C consumers want to know how their data has been used. Hence privacy and security should be one of the topmost goals of your company.

Moreover, with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and other data privacy and protection measures that are tightly governing the use of the information received from your customers, businesses nowadays need to take complete responsibility for how they manage and use this information stored in their business growth technology and tools.

Therefore businesses must ensure proper clarity of the data ownership chain so that they can attest to the provenance of data by understanding what information they have and for how long they possess it in their CRM database, which in turn helps in providing insights about data management processes that aids in sharpening a businesses’ ability to follow regulations and adhere to the legal regulations of their land.

Conclusion

Hence in a gist gaining total insights once you buy CRM and use a CLM CRM software on how customers use the offerings they purchased from your brand, will not only help brands to manage their customers and let them use your products satisfactorily, but it also makes the customers recognize that they have a relationship worth keeping with your company- a commitment that has a lifetime value and therefore can help in your business growth.

Top 10 Tips to Improve Customer Service in Your Business

It’s not as hard as you might think to make your business stand out in the crowded world of commerce. And you don’t have to slash your prices to ridiculously low levels to do it.

A study done a few years ago revealed that only 7 percent of consumers report having customer service experiences with companies that have exceeded their expectations. 7 percent!

That means there aren’t many businesses out there going above and beyond for their customers. So if you can improve customer service, you can easily gain an advantage over other businesses.

Do you want to improve customer service within your business? Check out 10 tips for improving your company’s customer service skills below.

1. Answer the Phone When Your Customers Call

Unfortunately, there are tons of businesses these days who are greeting their customers with an automated recording when they call.

This frustrates those who just want to speak with a real person, especially if a business makes it difficult to track down someone through their phone system.

When you pick up the phone during business hours and greet your customers, it’ll go a long way towards making them feel like they’re important. It’ll also allow them to address problems or ask questions more easily.

Discover more about how answering the phone can help a business to see the benefits of doing it.

2. Learn to Listen to the Needs of Your Customers Better

When someone calls your business and starts to tell you about a problem they’re having, you should steer clear of immediately trying to fix whatever issue they’re experiencing.

Rather than jumping right in and saying what you think might be wrong, you should allow the customer to talk and express themselves before you respond. You should take that time to really hear what they’re saying to you.

This will show the customer that you care enough to hear what they have to say.

3. Avoid Responding to Complaints About Your Business Negatively

Many business owners get very defensive with customers who have complaints. They end up arguing with customers rather than helping them fix the problem they’re having.

Avoid negativity at all costs when conversing with a customer. Instead, take a positive and proactive approach to dealing with complaints.

A customer might be angry at first when they call you. But once they see you’re genuinely interested in trying to assist them, they’ll be more likely to forgive you for whatever went wrong with your product or service in the first place.

It’ll increase the chances of them coming back to you again in the future.

4. Make the Complaints From Your Customers a Priority

If a customer does have a complaint about a product or service you provided for them, don’t put off dealing with it.

You should spring into action right away and make them feel like their business is important to you. By making them a priority and pushing them to the top of the list, you’ll show them that you care about whatever complaint they had.

The longer you put off dealing with a customer’s complaint, the less chance you have of earning their trust back.

5. Keep Any Promises You Make to Your Customers

If you tell a customer you’re going to do something, make sure you do it.

Breaking a promise is probably the easiest way to lose a customer. You can improve customer service simply by sticking to your word and not breaking it for any reason.

6. Be Nice to People Even When It Won’t Benefit You Immediately

Far too often, a person will pop into a business to ask for directions or use the bathroom and get turned away.

On the surface, you might not think anything of this. They weren’t coming to you to buy a product or service anyway, so who cares how you treated them?

Don’t look at it like that. Instead, looking at a random pop-in like this as an opportunity to be nice to someone and potentially earn their business in the future.

You might be surprised to see that same person pop back into your business in a week or two to repay you for your act of kindness.

7. Tell Your Customers How Much You Appreciate Their Business

Every single time you speak with a customer, whether on the phone or in your business, you should tell them how much you appreciate them calling on your company.

You can’t say “thank you” enough to your customers. So make it a point to say “thank you” and “we appreciate your business” any chance you get.

8. Give Customers Free Promotional Products

People enjoy getting things for free. It makes them feel like they’re important.

If you don’t have promotional products already, you should order some now and start handing them out to your most loyal customers.

From pens and sticky notes to T-shirts and hats, there are so many promo products available. They’ll allow you to say thanks to customers and help you brand your business at the same time.

9. Always Ask Your Customers If There’s Any Other Way You Can Help Them

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” is a question you should ask to your customers early and often.

This will let your customers know that you’re there for them if they need anything else.

Even if they don’t need anything at the moment, they’ll feel more comfortable coming back to you later for assistance if they need it.

10. Provide Customer Service Training for Your Employees

In addition to making every effort to improve customer service on your own, you should also bring your employees into the mix.

They might not feel quite as compelled to be nice to customers as a business owner does. But with the right customer service training courses, you can show them how you expect them to treat customers.

Your employees are usually your first line of defense when it comes to dealing with customers. Make sure they do their part to improve customer service.

Improve Customer Service and See Real Results Today

When you improve customer service in your business, you will see more and more customers return to you in the future. It’ll lead to more sales and give your business a better reputation in your community.

Improving customer service is also just one of the many ways you can go about building up your business.

Check out our blog for more tips that will help you put your business in a better position.