10 Ways To Accommodate Customers And Make Them Feel Welcome
Are you in the throes of setting up your business? If so, then you need to ensure it feels warm and welcoming to customers. They should feel as though you value them not just as a potential sale but as an individual. Customers want to form long relationships with your business and you want that too. If you build up this type of feeling, you can earn the crucial repeat sale in your business. So how do you ensure that your business is welcoming? Here are some options that are worth exploring.
Highly Trained Employees
First, you need to make sure that you are training your employees. Businesses often avoid this step because they don’t think it is worth the price they will need to pay. However, the cost is always going to be worth it in the long term. By paying for training you can make sure that your employees are better equipped to deal with a wide range of customer issues effectively and efficiently. You can also use training to ensure that your service is a step above other options on the market. As you might have guessed, there are a lot of businesses that don’t bother with this vital step.
Do be aware that you can complete the training online remotely. As such, this isn’t an option that you should automatically avoid if you are running something like a home company.
Live Chat
Having a live chat function on your website can make customers feel automatically at ease. A lot of people worry about having to speak to a customer service representative on the phone so the best live chat software can help both the customer and your business. Indeed polls suggest that live chat is preferred compared to options like phone services.
Having an automated chat host can help people get through to the right department quickly and effectively. It will ensure that you are answering key questions that could be in between them and a purchase decision.
Another side benefit is that live chats can save your business money in the long run as you are not paying out for a huge customer service team. This can be a necessity for large companies and even outsourcing will cause your business costs to balloon.
One thing to consider is the type of live chat that you want. Live chats can be highly automated with virtually no employee interaction. Alternatively, you can think about introducing a live chat where customers will eventually speak with an employee. Advanced software can also allow extra features including ensuring that employees can direct the market to customers using the live chat. This can be highly personalized and provide real value so it won’t be seen as spam.
The Right Website Design
Next, you should consider your website design. For the majority of your customers, your website will be a key element of the first impression they receive of your company. So you need to get this right. Ideally, you should think about matching your web design to the overall feel of your business. For instance, if you are thinking about running a wellness company the overall design should be clean, clear, and calm. In general, you need to make sure that your website is completely user-friendly. This means that it needs to be easy to navigate. Ideally, you should follow the three-click rule here. A customer should never be more than three clicks away from a page on your site that they are looking for.
Great Content
In terms of marketing, content is still king and it’s also great if you are keen to ensure a high level of user engagement. The right level of engagement will make it more likely that customers stay on your website for more than a few minutes. This increases your chance of a successful sale.
When you are creating content it’s important to ensure that it is targeted. It needs to appeal to your specific audience. If you are using freelancers or an outsourcing solution you also need to make sure that you provide them with a style guide. That way you can guarantee that it does feel like a part of your brand that makes sense and seems cohesive.
Social Engagement
You do need to think about how to make sure customers engage with your brand away from your main website too and still feel welcome. To do this, it is important to focus on social media marketing. When you’re marketing through social media you must aim for the 80:20 ratio. This means 80% of the content you post should provide real value to your customers, one of the ways you can guarantee this is by providing a mix of different content to ensure that it does feel interesting. You should also think about opening discussions with customers. If you do this, then you can guarantee that they feel as though they are being heard by your brand.
FAQs
Having a frequently asked questions page can give people immediate responses to any questions they have. This can save you and your business a lot of time as you don’t have to constantly answer questions from others. But that’s not all. The main benefit of this possibility is that you are giving customers another way to immediately get answers. This could be answers to questions that are stopping you from committing to a sale. Ultimately an FAQ page can help you avoid the problem of a large number of abandoned baskets.
You just need to make sure that you think about the questions that customers want answers to. One of the best ways to do this is to add a search bar to your site. Users will automatically use this to ask questions that they want to be answered. You can then use this option to build up a great FAQ page that does deliver real value to your customers and users. Remember for this to have the right impact it needs to be written concisely and it should be simple to understand.
Opening Video
One of the best ways to make sure that customers feel welcome as soon as they visit your site would be with an opening video. The right opening video can provide key information about your brand that customers need and ensure that you give them a taste of what your business is about. It can also ensure that you make them feel as though they are getting more personalized service. This is exactly what customers want from your brand. Essentially you need to make sure that they feel special and connected to your brand.
You can DIY your welcoming video but it does make sense to instead opt for a more professional approach, the wrong video could make your website feel spammy. This is the last thing you want as it will mean that customers are immediately turned off before they have had the chance to explore your site.
Referrals And Reviews
Why not think about having a review and testimonial page on your website? This will automatically reassure customers that you are a safe trusted business that has returning customers coming back for more each time. Recent studies suggest that more than 80% of customers will check online reviews before they commit to a purchase of either a product or a service. A similar study found that customers trust online reviews as much as they do the word of friends or family members. So reviews are definitely of value to your business, but how can you obtain them, particularly early on when your business isn’t yet trusted?
Well, there are a few options that could be worth exploring here. For instance, you could consider a sampling service. A sampling service will involve sending out samples to users that can then review them. This usually includes people with a high level of reaches such as bloggers and influencers online.
Alternatively getting reviews can be just as simple as asking for them. When a customer completes a purchase, think about sending out a quick email asking for a review. A lot of businesses shy away from this idea because they are concerned about receiving negative reviews. While understandably mixed reviews are better than having zero reviews for your business. The problem with zero reviews is that it makes your business look untested and untried. Or worse, as though you are having negative reviews in your company. If you do get negative reviews, you need to make sure that you are tackling them head-on. Show your customers that you are listening to their concerns. And that you are ready to make the right changes that they want.
We hope this guide helps give you an idea of how to look after your customers and provide them with the service they need. Remember, make customers feel reassured and safe with their purchase. Or they will leave your company in search of a website that does. Don’t forget you are appealing to the same customers as thousands of other businesses online. It is essential that you don’t fall behind the competition.