Making Your Customers Feel Special

Business , Customer Service

Photo credit: by bruce mars on Pexels. CC0 license.

The idea of marketing to a specialized niche of very active customers and then using that base to recruit in a viral way is new to the internet but one that goes way back in the non-internet world of marketing.  It is well known that if you create an elite group of dedicated customers, they will become a recruitment army for your business and become your marketing team that works for free without even knowing they are doing so.

This approach to marketing is not as focused on email communications as many of our internet marketing efforts were ten years ago.  But that is a good thing for two reasons.  The first reason is that dynamic marketing, meaning selling through a relationship model is far more effective and yields a higher per sale basket total as well as a much higher incidence of repeat sales than cold call selling and it is far less frustrating.

The second reason is that using email as the backbone of your sales program has become more and more problematic because of the influence of spam and spam filters which have made the free flow of marketing emails much more difficult to manage.  Because spam filtering has become so aggressive and so successful, email delivery of marketing material is harder to do and takes a greater investment of time and ongoing knowledge that pulls you away from your customers and from your businesses.  So the migration to dynamic selling and away from cold call and mass marketing email techniques is a natural evolution of the internet marketing model in the new century.

So the online experience of your customer takes on a greater importance in your marketing plan.  But you will find that devoting more time and money to building a web “place” that your customers participate in actively will be far more rewarding than any scattershot approach to email marketing could ever be even before the eruption of spam which made email delivery such a nightmare.

One way to give your customers the feel of being part of your organization is to build a specialized membership area of your web site that customers must make an extra effort to become part of.  In fact, many online retailers actually charge a small fee to be part of this membership site.  That is effective because the fee gives your members the sensation of being part of a closed community and the revenue is good for your cash flow.

Your customers who chose to become part of the membership area of your web site should get some special privileges and rewards for their elevated status.  So you might create a discount card that creates a desire to spend more in your online store only for those customers who are part of the elite membership area.  Your customers will think they are getting something very special when in fact, all you are doing is exchanging a small part of your mark up for greater volume of sales which is always a good tradeoff for you as a retailer.

One of the big values of creating a membership area is that those who populate that membership can become part of the team to make contributions about future product or service offerings.  This is tremendously valuable to your development teams because the more you “pick the brains” of your customers, the more you will offer products or services that are going to be a success when they hit the market.

You will see a greater sense of brand loyalty grow out of the people who enjoy exclusive membership in your reserved area of your web site.  Make it a point to make that part of the site look elegant and luxurious.  Its all just graphics but in cyberspace, graphics have a reality all their own.  And don’t take your eye off of the goal of using the membership area for recruitment of new customers through referrals or to take marginal customers and make them devotees as well.  A few gift memberships can go a long way toward accomplishing those goals.

Read More

Websites for Small Businesses

In first World countries the Internet is now a huge part of our everyday life. We use it at work and we use it at home. It is all around us. A person from a First World country would be in a minority if they said they had not paid for anything across the Internet or bought a product or service online through an eCommerce store. In a August, 2017 study it was found that in Europe, in 2016, residents in European Nations spent $132 Billion Euros (USD $180 Billion) through eCommerce Websites. In the next 5 years the amount spent through eCommerce Websites is set to increase by 25% per annum to an estimated $406.8 Billion Euros (USD $554 Billion) by 2021. It should be noted this only covers Europe and does not factor in the US, Asia and other emerging regions, which would easily double or triple those figures.

So, clearly there is a huge market place online that needs to be serviced by online shops and websites selling products and services. As a business owner I can see a huge market for established businesses in the real World to move into the World of eCommerce and sell online.

ECommerce Website Partners should be assessed for their suitability to deliver a quality ongoing relationship that will be to your company’s best benefit for the long term.

1. A strong history of developing eCommerce Websites with a good portfolio and testimonials
2. Hosting with reliable and strong Internet connections
3. Good design and development team with >5 people to ensure adequate support in the future
4. Online Marketing Professionals with proven history of success and a good portfolio of established clients – THE single most important feature of any shop – getting visitors through the doors!

As a business owner I would describe an eCommerce store with Search Engine Optimisation implemented as a store with many, many different doorways into it. ECommerce websites owners should recognize that the more people you get to come to your website the more sales you will make. Search Engine Optimisation does exactly this, targeting certain phrase that when searched on in Google your website shows up for. Now it should be noted that the higher to the top you finish the more website visitors you are likely to get. It has been shown in studies that 80% of all people who search on a term go to one, or more, of the results on the first page (the top 10) results. So the goal with SEO is to get on the first page and in the top 10 results shown for a given search term. So your goal in choosing a partner should be focused on good website design but more on online marketing and how they can help you spread the word and get visitors to your website.

An E-Commerce website provides many benefits to the underlying business. It gives the business an extra dimension and as mentioned above if implemented with SEO, many doorways into the shop. With more customers comes more revenues – everyone recognizes this fact. An eCommerce Shop also provides Interstate, National and even global reach for your product or service. With a Global eCommerce system you can reach the farthest reaches of the World and supply product, creating a Global Brand Name in new emerging markets.

Read More

The Invisible Customer

Business , Customer Service , E-commerce

How many times have you as a customer felt as though you were putting a salesperson out by asking for assistance or interrupting them as they were engaged in a personal conversation with a co-worker or friend?

I can recall times I’ve actually said to different store clerks, who were either fully engaged in telling their co-workers about the wild party they attended over the weekend or the big fight they had with their husband, “I’m sorry to bother you, but do you have this in my size?” and have them look at me as if I had just shattered the most important moment in their life.

Have you ever had an experience like this?

Many years ago when competition was almost non-existent for many businesses, consumers accepted this type of behavior because they didn’t have many options to choose from.

Business owners had the upper hand and could charge the prices they wanted without having any real concern for whether or not the customer was truly satisfied or had their need fully met.

Today, competition is fierce, particularly with the power of the Internet and expanding global markets.

If a consumer doesn’t like the product or service, or has a bad experience, all she has to do is tuck her credit card back into her purse and take her pick of any number of other businesses who will gladly give her what she’s looking for.

She doesn’t even have to leave her home if she doesn’t want to!  She can shop online from thousands of vendors who will gladly deliver the goods right to her doorstep.

What does this new reality of conducting business mean to you as a small business owner or home-based entrepreneur?

It means you have to provide exceptional customer service and top quality products if you want to build long-term relationships with your clients and customers.

If you have employees, it is also critical that they understand the importance of making each customer feel like a million dollar customer. It’s all about the experience you provide – the feeling your customer has when doing business with you.

Get to know your customers.  Find out what they’re looking for and why by asking questions, then really listen to what they say.  Make it a point to truly understand what it is they want to create or solve, then if you can provide a solution, offer it to them.

Building a successful, profitable business is dependent on establishing long-term, loyal customers.  Having to pursue new customers to replace those who are not returning can become tiring and expensive.

As you serve new and existing customers and clients, make them feel heard, seen and valued.  No one likes to be invisible, especially those who are about to hand over their hard earned money.

Treat every customer like a million dollar customer because when you build a long-term relationship with them, they just might very well become one.

2006 © Laurie Hayes – The HBB Source

Read More