In the 21st Century, the consumer world is incredibly competitive and every company is doing all they can to attract new customers and to retain the ones that they already have, and one of the main ways that they go about doing this is by enhancing the customer experience and service. If you receive first-class care and attentive service, then you are much more likely to recommend the company to a friend thereby helping to drive their business. Businesses are well aware of this fact, but often it is difficult to come up with new creative ways to enhance the customer experience and boost your ROI.
Here we will take a look at three creative solutions all businesses should use to enhance their customer experience.
1. Offer Live Chat On Your Website
The nature of business has changed over the last few years and customers now demand the information they want when they want it. They are not prepared to hang around or to be kept on hold on the phone while somebody attends to them. Getting your customers to your website is the hard bit, so why let them go as soon as they get there by providing poor service? The best way to maintain their interest is to introduce a live chat function into your web page so that somebody is engaging with them the second they appear.
You can use analytical tools to see when customers are visiting your website and can plan for a real person to be at the end of the chat function during these times. If your site has 24-hour engagement, then you will need to have the chat manned the same, but the fact that you have an engagement that high is already a good sign you are doing something right. So, offer the customer the experience they are looking for and you will turn hits on your website into actual business thereby increasing your ROI.
2. Customer Training
Customer training is a relatively new concept and involves you as the business training your customers on how to use your products. It is most important if you are selling software or service rather than a physical good because customers don’t want to spend hours learning to use the system, they expect to be trained to use it at the point of sale. You can do this in two ways: you can offer a complete guide on your website as to how to operate the software, or you can offer immediate phone support at the point of sale. Whichever method you employ, you will be enhancing the customer’s experience by providing an all in service, hence boosting your ROI. Just as importantly, you will also attract new customers through the support you will get from word of mouth reviews and social media posts highlighting the great experience your satisfied customers have had.
3. Be Reactive
Being reactive is an extension to having a live chat facility except that you will mainly be answering queries over your various social media platforms. Social media has grown incredibly over the last 10 years and no business can function without it. Many people use it to ask questions directly of companies, or sometimes to praise and occasionally to complain. Whatever reason they have for getting in touch, you need to be in a position to respond immediately so that the customer sees you as attentive. You are then in a better position to drive them to your products and your ROI will therefore increase.
If you receive bad feedback or reviews it is even more essential that you respond promptly because the reach of social media is so large that any negative comments can easily spread like wildfire. So, by responding to these comments early and in a polite manner, you will be nipping the bad news in the bud, and you will also create the impression you care about your customers and value their business which adds to the overall positive customer experience.
As we have discovered, enhancing the customer experience is key in the modern world if you want to maintain the business that you have already attracted, and if you want to boost your ROI. By offering a live chat facility you are in a position to answer any customer queries as soon as they come in, and by being reactive on social media any negative comments will be banished immediately through your great service levels and offer of support. Give training to your customers so that they can easily understand your software, and can use it to its maximum potential. In short, do anything you can to maximize the service and experience you give to customers, and you will find you boost your ROI immeasurably.
