Small businesses have the unique position of creating customer experiences that are unique and more down-to-earth than other business sizes. If you want to milk that advantage, here are a few approaches.
1. Implement omnichannel communications
Implementing omnichannel communications is a strategy to ensure an excellent customer experience, even for a small business.
When your business is in multiple communication and marketing channels, it becomes easier for customers to know your business. Since you have a consistent presence wherever they may be, it’s much easier for them to remember your company. The more familiar they are with your brand, the likelier they will patronize your business.
With an omnichannel presence, you have more touchpoints with your customers. When potential customers are interested in buying from your business, they’ll do it through the most convenient channel. That’s why having these feelers out through different channels is essential as much as possible.
Of course, as a small business, it’s a lot harder to manage these multiple channels. You can use tools to help make that task more manageable, which we’ll cover later, or be more discerning of the channels you choose to be in.
You can get customer feedback and check which channels they often come from and which ones they have heard of you.
2. Incorporate helpful tools and infrastructures
We mentioned using tools earlier to help manage communication from multiple channels simultaneously. Well, there are tools and infrastructures you can use to make it much easier for you to improve your small business’s overall customer experience in multiple stages.
For example, you can use tools such as Airdocs customer experience management software, which makes it easier to handle your different points of communication with your customers.
You can also use tools to conduct surveys and receive feedback from your current and previous customers. These tools will make checking the trends in their feedback easier, letting you know which actions worked well for them and which ones you can improve.
There is also software available that provides a toolkit of multiple tools to help you handle numerous phases of the customer experience with your business. These are usually more costly, but they have a lot of usability, so it’s a good idea to get them only if you can take the hefty costs associated with them.
3. Resolve customer complaints as soon as possible
It shouldn’t just be a customer interested in buying from your business that you talk to quickly. One type of customer communication that needs a prompt and fast response would be customer complaints.
Although unpleasant, you should address customer complaints as quickly as possible. Responding to their issues can prevent them from thinking negatively about your business. Aside from that, their problem might be simple enough that it will be easy to solve, so it won’t take you too long to finish resolving it.
If you don’t resolve customer complaints immediately, they can leave negative reviews and post about it publicly. These reviews can deter potential customers from patronizing your business, which is why you want to prevent them in the first place.
If you cannot resolve the customer complaint despite solving the issue, at least you can use the complaints to determine what you may be doing wrong. If there’s a pattern to what people keep complaining about, you should resolve that as soon as you can.
4. Listen and respond to customer’s feedback
Customer feedback is a valuable tool that ensures you’re on the right path regarding customer care and service. Who better to tell you if you’re doing good than the people you’re trying to cater to?
You can conduct surveys and interviews with customers to get their feedback directly. Some businesses offer incentives to participating customers, like a free product or a discount. These are great options if you’re looking for the opinions of current paying customers.
You can also use surveys to get information and data about potential customers who don’t buy from you. Social listening tools are a great option if you want to know what people say about your business, even behind your direct communication channels.
5. Respond to your customers promptly
Customers are mindful of the speed with which you respond to them, so you must react quickly.
When you quickly respond to customer queries and concerns, they notice and appreciate your prompt response. It doesn’t matter whether this fast response is for a good comment, a customer complaint, product or service delivery, etc. If you promptly provide them with a sufficient response, customers will take note of that and like it in business.
There are different ways to ensure that you have a faster response rate.
Having a designated customer support team is helpful, and you can outsource it if you still need to hire full-time teams. We’ll cover more on that later, too.
Chatbots are another valuable tool for prompt responses to more general inquiries and questions your business usually receives. White-label chatbots are an excellent solution for businesses looking to maintain brand consistency while leveraging chatbot technology. These customizable chatbots allow small businesses to provide instant responses to customers without revealing the involvement of third-party software, ensuring a seamless and professional brand experience. If you have a website, it’s a good idea to set up a chatbot to help potential customers find answers to their most frequently asked questions or if they need assistance as they browse your business’s offers.
6. Personalize the experience of your customers
Personalization is a great way to make customers feel special. When you make them feel like they are individuals and that you care about them closely, they may have more fondness for your business.
Some people personalize the customer experience by addressing customers directly by name through promotional messages like emails. Another way to do that is by creating personal customer support experiences, like giving freebies with a gift card in their name.
These simple changes and personalizations can make your customers more loyal to your business, and they will prefer working with your business more than others.
7. Conduct customer satisfaction surveys
Conduct customer satisfaction surveys to attract and retain happy customers simultaneously. We’ve mentioned several times before how surveys are a great way to measure how happy customers have become with your business collectively.
It lets you know your strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of your customers, who matter most to your business.
Using that information to make decisions based on accurate data is easier than just assuming it will work.
8. Train your employees
Training your employees in customer service is critical to ensuring they know the best things to say and do if they have to handle a customer directly. As a small business with a few employees, every employee can interact with a customer.
Of course, you should also train the customer-facing employees more in-depth, like those in your sales team. When you train your sales team to handle common customer concerns and questions better, your customers will have a pleasant customer experience with your business.
9. Developing a customer success team
A dedicated customer success team will simplify controlling your business’s branding through customer experiences.
They support the customer during different phases of the buyer’s journey, guide customers through dealing with the product, and have a deeper view of the customer experience so they can push the customer to have a positive experience with your business.
Conclusion
These strategies can improve how customers experience your business. With more positive customer experiences, your customers will be more loyal to your company, which can lead to more customers becoming patrons. That’s why consider these strategies so your small business can have a steady stream of customers.
Cover Image Source: Unsplash - Christiann Koepke
