By Rigor C. Arellano
Advertising invites people. Experience makes customers.
It sounds simple enough, and yet there are varied things to consider to successfully convert store visitors into patrons.
Founder of Creative Good Mark Hurst knows this all too well. He contends: Why spend much money on driving people to a service that will only drive them away later because the owner didn’t take the time to improve, much less, optimize it for the customer’s satisfaction?
Business owners are now familiar with the fact that efforts to keep customers loyal cost greater than to attract new ones. So before shelling out some hard-earned cash on that ad campaign, you might want to:
Sit a little bit more first
Doers make the world a better place, but so do thinkers with a heart.
Ask yourself, what are they going through and what do they need at that time? If they easily get frustrated, why? Perhaps, explaining to you what they want isn’t the only thing they have to deal with at the time, but are also trying to juggle other things related to what they’re handing off to you.
Omar Soliman, CEO of College Hunks Hauling Junk, details his example in his article on Entrepreneur.com. He formed a VIP concierge and trained his team to take care of extra services that his customers might get frantic about during moving.
The result? Apart from gaining reputation as being the whole package, the business has given its customers relief knowing that it’ll be taking care of their other related concerns and worries as well.
In a word, empathize. Research has shown that it can do a lot to get customers feel more connected to your brand or service.
Experience it firsthand
“What does it take to get a table around here?” is a customer complaint that you should also be asking yourself and know the answers to.
Pinpointing possible problem or improvement areas and driving towards solutions and useful suggestions can be the start of building your own Customer Journey Map.
What does your customers have to go through to make a purchase? What could be done to make it faster? Can you have more options available at every point?
Read: How to Hurt Your Online Sales: Let Your Website Load 3 Seconds Longer
In making your customer journey map, keep in mind that each line of business has a different need, so you won’t get lost in your efforts. In any case, observe common sense.
Align your team
Firstly, we hope that you’ve found the right people for your business, or to be more precise, that you’ve found the people with the right attitude for it. Skills are taught, but attitude adjustment needs much time and patience.
Communicate to your team what you want to happen on every part of the service, and explain why. Better yet, add in a sense of purpose.
A recent study has found that explaining the importance of a person’s job requirements leaves them with a healthy sense of fulfillment. Personnel who cleaned hospital wards, for example, performed better when it was explained to them how their job helps protect patients’ health.
Or if you may, refer to the golden rule. At one point in time, we’re all customers. And when it’s our turn to be on the consumer’s end, how would we like to be treated?
Once you’ve figured out the things that’ll make people love your service or brand, by all means, write that check now and work with that advertising team. Your customers are waiting.
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