Small Business Customer Experience: How to Get It Right
Consumers in the twenty-first century expect nothing but the best in terms of customer services and experience. After all, they choose you above all other options available to them.
With continuous changes in consumption patterns and the wide variety of options available to people in each niche, businesses large and small need to not only provide product options to customers but also improve the overall experience for them.
According to a study, it is estimated that customer experience is going to overtake products and prices as the key differentiator in 2020.
Speaking of differentiators, if you are a small business looking for the missing piece of stellar growth and a few useful tricks for conversions, then my dear reader, you are more than welcome here.
This blog is all about the strategies for small businesses to offer the ultimate customer experience that substantially boosts the rate of conversions.
We understand that prioritizing customer services while operating on a small scale might be tough. And it might seem like a new hat you may not be willing to put on, but trust us, when you provide incredible customer experience, then there is nothing holding you back.
Understand the difference between customer service and customer experience
Did you know, 84% of companies working to improve the customer experience are reported to experience a significant increase in revenues?
The primary difference between customer service and customer experience is the impact on the customer journey. While customer service is limited to interactions with the customer, the customer experience is the analysis of the subjective experience of each customer when they visit your store physically or online.
Both of these elements are critical to the success of a small business. We are currently focused on how a small business can improve their customer experience without burning a hole in their already tight pockets.
1. Answer your customer
The basic rule of thumb for improving customer experience is the presence of the business. A small business may not have a significant market share in the beginning, but it can build an audience that loves them and would like to stick around for the long haul.
How can you develop such a secure connection with your audience, you may ask?
Well, there are no elaborate tricks to it. You can win their trust only if you answer the phone, email, comments, or DMs that your customers leave for. Doesn’t cost any money to reply to a message, does it?
When you start answering queries, the audience gets a glimpse of your commitment to them, hence adding value to the first step of stellar customer experience.
2. Engage the attention
Once you have a little attention from your loyal customers, then it is time to attract a broader audience.
While big businesses can spend a massive amount of money on branding to stay at the top of the customer’s priority list, small businesses cannot do that. They don’t have enough resources. They only way for them to increase their brand awareness is by managing the response from their customers.
This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software comes in handy for small businesses. CRM for small businesses is a huge blessing, as it makes the task of response management very simple.
It enables businesses to gather the customers’ responses across various platforms on a single software and then manage them effectively. Thus, saving the cost of hiring a marketing team to take care of each and every social media platform.
Once the customer response is taken care of, you can start creating a hype about your products and services on social media by engaging a few local social media influencers or starting a low budget campaign for user-generated content. Either way, your small business gets the attention it requires.
Once a customer realizes that they are interacting with a fun and tech-savvy brand, then they are more than likely to buy more from you and also recommend your store to their closest friends and family.
3. Ask for feedback
72% of customers do not take action unless they read a few customer reviews about the business.
This statistic is critical for all small businesses evaluating the performance of their marketing strategy. Imagine the number of leads you miss only because you fail to collect any customer reviews.
This is why we suggest our readers be actively engaged in the customer’s journey so that they have no option but to post a positive review for your attentive service and high quality of product/service.
As a small business, you can start with a discount offer to incentivize the consumer to post a review. For example, if you are a local cosmetic brand, you can offer a free makeup carrier on the next purchase if the customer posts a review on the first purchase.
This reward system would not only retain customer attention but also motivate them to shop again from your store. You are hence achieving both goals of smart marketing and customer retention.
4. Have the right team
A business is nothing without its team. Whether you run a one-(wo)man-show or have a small group of friends and family working for you, it is essential to have all hands on deck when you are restructuring a business or working to improve your services.
As a small business, you do have a lot at stake if you lose even a single customer or perhaps have a negative review posted about you on the internet.
In any case, it is your responsibility to have a team that holds customer satisfaction paramount and is willing to cater to clients instead of holding their own and berating a consumer.
5. Be persistent about providing the best
Excellence is not achieved without persistence. When a small business decides to establish a firm footing in the ferocious waters of competition, it must offer nothing but the best to its customers.
Even when you have a small base of customers, your service has to be dynamic enough to differentiate you from the rest of the businesses in your industry.
Final Takeaway
Small businesses often feel shriveled and sidetracked when competing with market giants. But what they do not realize is the plethora of benefits they can derive from their small size. These businesses have the opportunity to offer a customized service to each consumer as opposed to a big brand.
When a consumer gets a fantastic experience from a small business, they try to support them through any effort possible. Your customer experience is what drives your target audience to interact with you. So make sure you nail it each time.
For any further questions and ideas, please feel free to leave a comment down below. We shall be looking forward to hearing from you!
About the Author
Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.
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