Is your customer's experience slowing your growth?

Is your customer's experience slowing your growth? If you are investing time, energy, and dollars toward attracting new business you're in good company. It is possible to create a compelling enough message through social and traditional media, events, and sales teams to attract a client. But that customer's experience after he or she walks in the door determines whether your sales and marketing efforts are profitable - or not.

First - clarification of terms. Marketing is the sum of the activities to "prepare the soil" for customers. You help prospective clients become familiar with your brand and discover their need for your products and services. Sales are the activities that convert that prospective client into an actual client.

You might say that the deal is "closed" when the client transfers money from his checking account into your wallet. But really the relationship has just opened. Now that you have attracted that client you want to keep him, because you know that it will cost 5x as much to attract another one as it will to keep this one happy. Here are some thoughts on how to do that.

Curology's packaging features "I was made for you"
to highlight its core customer's desire for customization

Identify your core customer and hone their experience accordingly

There is a certain type of customer for whom your business is particularly suited. Look among your customers today for clues - your core customer pays full price, pays on time, and she refers other customers to you. What does your core customer want? What does she want that she cannot get anywhere else than from your business? What needs and wants has she not even expressed yet, but that would enhance her experience and reinforce her loyalty to your business?

Notice we're not talking about products and services. We're talking about experience. That includes the speed of the phone answering, the tone of voice on the phone, and the quality and duration of the time spent on hold. Experience includes the appearance (even the smell) of the business, the simplicity and timeliness of invoice and statements, and the attractiveness of specials and payment terms. 

Curology's packaging in the photo above features "I was made for you" to highlight its core customer's desire for customization. That's only one example. In-person businesses that recognize and call returning customers by name when they enter make their customers feel important. Your favorite coffee shop might make pictures in your foam or write a silly name on the side of your cup ("Marc with a C" becomes "Cark"). Some types of core customer want to linger and browse while others want the experience to be getting in and out as quickly as possible.

Manage all of the points of connection

Your customers see you before you see them looking. Websites and social media pages, email marketing messages, even billboards and print ads support - or contradict - the impression that you are intending to communicate. Live points of connection like phone or zoom calls, or at the sales counter, can be more difficult to manage because you don't have the chance to preview and proofread them. You don't always see or hear them in the first person. 

When you are committed to managing the points of connection you hire with core values in mind so your team members are on the same page re: customer focus and other company culture. You do regular training and reinforcement to enhance the customer experience.  You might need to get very specific about things you wouldn't expect to have to train - like the language your team members do or do not use in the workplace. 

One more thing - you cannot leave to chance the impact of diversity and inclusion on your business, in hiring, training, and the management of customer experience. Representation among your team, inclusion of diverse customers in your full customer experience, and attention to specialized needs help you to build a loyal customer base.

Streamline the processes

Make it easy for people to buy from you.  Cut out the complexity in your processes wherever you can, because unnecessary handoffs, approvals, transportation, and delays slow your service down and increase the likelihood of preventable rework and waste. Customers want speed, and lean processes can help you give it to them and keep them coming back. The side benefits - not too shabby ones, either - are reduction in your costs and the daily drama that interferes with employee engagement and satisfaction.