#prod management

[prodeasy]

10 Most Important Things To Know About Your Customers

A business flourishes because of its customers. Customers play an important role in any business. They possess the power to see a company prosper or fall. Customers are the backbone of any business and can be considered as one of the greatest asset to the business.

Don Peppers, an author and founding partner of customer-centric consultancy “Peppers & Rogers Group” , in one of his interview stated :

Even if you have made the world’s best product with the most amazing features, but you don’t have customers, your business eventually will not survive. To have a successful business tomorrow, business owners should always keep their customers on priority and should try to see the business through the eyes of the customer.

Happy customers lead to more money, growth, and sustainability. If you fail to take the customers’ views into account, it’s most likely that your business will not be successful. You should establish a long-term relationship with your customers. Once you win their hearts, it is very uncommon that they would search for any other option and not choose you. Try forming a good customer strategy.

Customers always have a Choice, not an obligation, to do business with you. Give them reasons to choose you among many of your competitors already present in the market. Engage with them. Treat them nicely, so that they feel heard and involved in the process.

But at the same time, involving customers is not about jumping to respond to every request and suggestion. Not everything can be done and therefore it is very important to select the doable things. Involving customers in product management is about knowing when this should be direct, and when to use other tools to represent their needs. For building a better product, it is important to allow customers into product management at the right time.

Knowing your customers is the most important job in a business. When you have an idea of who they are and what they need, businesses can develop products and services that are tailored to helping customers solve their problems more effectively. If you’re not creating offerings based on customer needs, you may not be able to sell them.

So, the 10 most important things one should know about its customers to build your understanding of your customers’ needs are:

1. Who is your ideal customer?

If you sell directly to individuals, find out your customers’ gender, age and occupation. For example, are they a small private company or a big multinational? Knowing this can help you identify similar businesses that you could target.

In case you are directly selling your product to an individual, it is important to know about the gender, age, family, status, occupation, personality, triggers, motivators of your customer. If you sell to other businesses, find out what industry they are in, their size and the kind of business they are. Knowing this can help you identify similar businesses that you could target.

2.What do they do?

If you sell directly to individuals, it is important to know their occupations, job title, where they work, hours, role, goals and interests. If you sell to other businesses, it helps to have an understanding of what their business is trying to achieve.

3. Why do they buy?

If you know why customers buy a product or service, it’s easier to match their needs to the benefits your business can offer.The reason may be for experience, learning, investment, personal or business purpose.

4. When do they buy?

Knowing the right time of buying is important for any business. If you approach a customer just at the time they want to buy, it will massively increase your chances of success. The various times to buy can be during holidays, weekends, after hours, business hours, school hours etc.

5. How do they buy?

Are they buying your product face to face, or online using your website, or over a phone call. Also keep in note about the mode of payment, like credit card, cash, debit card etc.

6. How much money do they have?

This step involves knowing your customer’s annual salary, revenue, allocated budgets etc. You’ll be more successful if you can match what you’re offering to what you know your customer can afford. Premium, higher priced products are unlikely to be successful if most of your customers are on a limited budget. This is the case unless you can identify new customers with the spending power to match.

7. What makes them feel good about buying?

Why customers feel like buying from you. If you know what makes them choose you, you can serve them in the way they prefer. values, education, collecting, validation

8. What are their objections to buying?

It is important to know about the customer’s pain points, objections, issues, position, funds, time and resources.

9. What do they think about and expect of you?

What are their expectations about the quality, authority, delivery, value, personal, professional terms etc. For example, if your customers expect reliable delivery and you don’t disappoint them, you stand to gain repeat business.

10. What do they think about your competitors?

If you know how your customers view your competitors, chances are that you stay ahead to them.So your competitor’s quality, authority, delivery, value, personal, professional terms, according to your customers, can be an advantage for your business.

The answers to these ten things about your customer to create products and service, can be used in offerings that your customers are looking for.

This information can be used to implement strong marketing messages and engage more of the right customers using targeted marketing delivery.These insights will also give you an idea of where you should be focused, at what times, and how you should be delivering content in those spaces.

It is impossible to run your business without your customers as they are the lifeblood of your business. If you have not tried this for your business yet, take a note of these questions and try collecting the answers and see how quickly your pitch, your marketing, your offerings and your business change because of it.

Original Source: https://blog.prodeasy.com/10-most-important-things-to-know-about-your-customers-daad96dce23

[prodeasy]

The Best 8 Strategies For Customer Retention

There might be many brands around you, with which you develop a sense of brand loyalty. And you become loyal customers to those particular brands.

But, why do you like some of the specific brands when you have plethora of brands available in the market? What are the reasons which compel you to stay with those specific brands?

Here comes the concept of Customer Retention.

Customer retention refers to the activities organizations use to “increase the number of repeat customers” and “reduce the number of customer defections”.

It is the ability to win customer loyalty and make them your regular customers for a longer period of time, by focusing on quality products and better customer service.

Customer retention involves strategies designed to ensure that your existing customers do not opt for any other substitute and stay with you and take your services for a longer period of time. A customer retention strategy is an important step to build a strong customer relationship.

Most of the companies focus more on the acquisition of new customers than customer retention. In fact, around 44% of companies have more focus on customer acquisition, around 18% focus more on customer retention and around 40% focus equally on both. However, customer retention is actually much cheaper for companies than customer acquisition.

IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER RETENTION

Customer retention can elevate your revenue to a great extent, when your customers promise for longer stay with your brand. A mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost your revenue by 25–95 %. Customers that have already used your brand and are loving the quality and values they are getting, are more likely to come back to you. Repeat customers make up a considerable part of your brand’s revenue, and the more they buy, more chances are there for them to buy again. With every purchase their chances to buy from you increases.

One of the studies has shown that the customer’s fifth purchase from the same brand increases their spending by 40%, compared to their first purchase. By the time the customer reach to the tenth purchase, they were spending a massive 80% more. And this is huge.

STRATEGIES TO FOLLOW FOR CUSTOMER RETENTION

1. Setup Highest Standard of Customer Service.

A good customer service is important in every industry. It forms a strong base for success of your business. Great customer services helps in engaging customers and make them stay with your product or service for longer duration. Even when your product is not so amazing but you have the capability to serve your users efficiently, there are more chances that your customers will stay with you. Customers form a positive attitude when they are served by apologetic staff that makes them realize that they are doing their best to satisfy their needs.

2. Listen & empathize with your customers and focus on personalization.

Listening patiently is an underrated art. In fact, inculcating listening culture is a great retention strategy for your users. Customers feel connected when they are heard patiently and your empathetic attitude creates a great impact on them. Companies already have the data and information of their customers. One should use that information judiciously before contacting each individual.

Give them a better personalized experience so that they feel like a part of your company and associate your company with a smooth and easy experience. Each customer is different and requires a different approach.

3. Define, Check and Validate Customer Expectations.

It is very important to clearly define what they can expect from you, in case they need your assistance. It is advisable to define expectations lower, and respond to customers with quicker replies. For example, you have promised your customer to pick up the product which needs to be returned, within 2 days, then try to keep your promise and it would be even nicer if you do it before 2 days. Quick response will delight your customer and will build their trust in you. Always try to meet the deadlines on time.

4. Create Interactive Content to Educate Your Customers About Your Product.

Apart from selling your product or service to your customers, it is important to educate them about your product. You should create easy to understand and authentic content to educate them well. This information can make them more comfortable with the product and gives better insights about your product and service.

You can make use of Case Studies, How to Guides, Social Media Posts and Customer Testimonials for better content creation.

5. Use Feedback from Customers to Improve Product Quality.

Customer Feedback is a great source to know the pros and cons of your product or service. It is important to collect feedback and use them to trace your performance.

Both negative and positive feedback should be used to improve your performance. Customers should be regularly asked to provide their feedback about your product usage and their overall experience with your product.

This will not only help businesses to track their performance, but also make customers feel that their opinions and feedback matters to you.

6. Prioritize Customer Communication.

Quick response time is one of the key factors for good customer experience. One of the studies has shown that approx. 59 percent of consumers are more likely to buy when brands answer the phone in under a minute; 73 percent more likely to recommend highly responsive brands to other users. You should always prioritize customer communication for better customer relationships. One should be quickest in addressing customers’ problems and resolve them as soon as possible. This builds the trust of your customers and increases their chances to be loyal towards your product, in near future.

7. Start a Custom Loyalty Program.

Loyalty programs are great in attracting your customers. Something extra is always appreciated. Try to delight your customers with special offers and rewards on a regular occasion, try making them feel good about purchasing and give them reasons to come back to you. Delight them with surprises, discounts and credit return. This really works excellently.

8. Keep Your Website, Mobile App or Any Purchasing Process Up to Date and Customer Friendly.

We are living in the world of the internet; almost everything is available on the internet now. This has made the user experience more smooth and easy. Try to make your online processes easy to use and user friendly. So that user does not find any difficulty in going through it. Try incorporating more language options, so that language does not become any hurdle while dealing with you. Always keep your website and mobile applications up to date.

Original Source: https://blog.prodeasy.com/the-best-8-strategies-for-customer-retention-79901af9282d