In recent years, much has been made of companies that take a customer-centric approach to their marketing and operations. Being customer-centric means putting your clients/customers first and placing them front and center in terms of how you market your firm and how you deal with the full customer journey, from first contact through to final sale.
However, while most business owners grasp the idea of concentrating on customers, it’s surprising just how few companies follow through with a full customer-centric experience. Below are just a few tips to help you get your clients as excited about your business as you are by making them feel valued:
Be specific and narrow your audience
There’s a common misconception among company owners that a wider market leads to greater sales potential where, actually, the opposite is true. Unless you operate in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, your company’s goods and services likely have a very specific target audience, so there’s little point trying to be all things to all people.
For example, if you’re a car parts dealer, you probably only stock items suitable for particular manufacturers and models – or if you have a women’s clothes shop, you’ll most likely only feature dresses and skirts appropriate for a specific age group. By narrowing your market – and, in turn, focusing your marketing – you’ll have a much greater chance of attracting an audience and achieving a sale.
Once you’ve identified your target audience, use leaflet distribution and flyer delivery services to reach them directly. These services can deliver your marketing materials to specific neighborhood demographics, or even directly to mailboxes, ensuring your message reaches the most relevant potential customers.
If you have an e-com-enabled website, make the purchasing process as speedy and easy as possible
In today’s fast-paced world, people simply don’t have time to go hunting through your website to find what they want. Moreover, while opinions vary, most industry analysts suggest you only have between three and seven seconds to grab the interest and attention of a web visitor before they click back to Google and a million other competitor pages (in most cases, never to return).
The shopping journey from start to finish should be as easy and quick as possible for customers, so be sure to prioritize your home page content to feature your top sellers and most popular categories. Also, you should pay particular attention to the above-the-fold content on your site to save users from scrolling. If you’re in any doubt as to the effectiveness of your website or are finding repeat cases of sales falling through or, worse yet, abandoned shopping cart syndrome, you should enlist the skills of a professional web agency to improve its layout and functionality.
Give added value to your customers and let them know they’re important
It’s considerably easier to get a repeat sale from a contented customer than it is to go hunting out new ones so be sure to let your customers know the value they bring to your company.
Offering branded freebies, which are normally personalized with a DTF printer, is a very effective way to show your clients that you care. You can choose from pens, T-shirts, hats, etc., like those produced by anthembranding.com. Additionally, clients will see your logo repeatedly, giving you free advertising and demonstrating your commitment to customer service.
Sell the benefits of your products, not the features
Speak to any seasoned sales professional and they’ll tell you it’s the benefits that sell, not the features. While the two are inextricably linked, there are subtle differences:
- Benefits are the results of using a product i.e. the emotional worth
- Features are the attributes of a product i.e. the logical characteristics
Concentrating on the benefits of working with you or your products will get clients excited about future prospects and is far more likely to result in a sale.