3 Ways to Better Understand Your Customers

Customers have changed. Here are 3 ways to get up to speed or get left behind.

The way customers think about your business has changed. Loyalty has lost out to low bid and “right now” has replaced getting it right. Customers are less able and willing to spend, they have shifted their priorities, and the way they interact with you and your business has been completely altered by technology.

Engaging customers in an environment of higher and higher expectations requires a fundamental reboot. You can no longer win business by telling your customers how great your company is. Competitive advantage will come from showing customers how great they are by putting their needs first.

Facts

• 83% of customers cite exceptional service as their most important criterion for deciding what company to buy services from
• 73% of customers expect service companies to understand their unique needs. The ones who don’t, lose the relationship.
• 61% of customers switch to a new company after one bad experience.

Did you know Increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase profits from between 25% and 95%? Companies that grow faster derive 40% more of their revenue from personal service than slower-growing competitors.

Don’t just be a better learner. Be a better understander.

• Make better use of your data and capture everything about your customers to avoid blind spots. When you integrate all your service and operations analytics into a single data ecosystem, you can extract the value and insights you need to continuously improve customer experience.
• Invest in customer relationship management tools that allow you to track and forecast behaviors, and predict customer questions before your customer even asks.
• Use customer surveys to gain feedback and information across touchpoints such as buying habits, service preferences, and expectations.

Leverage service interactions to humanize your business. While you’re at it, ask the right questions

• What problems keep you up at night?
• What trends and challenges are expected to have the greatest impact on your business?
• What help do you need to transform your business over the next 18 months, how can we help drive progress on goals, and what can we do better?

Customer-first is more than a tagline. It means putting customers at the heart of your strategy, your growth plan and your decision-making.  But it can’t stop at the bottom line.

Your customers’ experience with your business is everyone’s responsibility. This means every employee needs to be empowered to make customer satisfaction their number one priority, and have the tools, knowledge and training to help drive a customer-focused company.

There has never been a better time to create new value.

Contact Robert Clinkenbeard at [email protected] to keep your business at the forefront of change.