Perhaps a decade ago, organizations would typically use outsourcing to improve back-office operations through cost cutting and performance improvement. However, the situation has completely transformed and evolved in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.
Read MoreThe term ‘customer-centric culture’ might feel self-explanatory. While it does entail that you put your customers first, it only scratches the surface of “customer-centric”. To truly define its aspects, many researchers have spent a good amount of time thinking about it.
Read MoreWhen businesses think of growth, they usually think about reaching out to more people and acquiring more sales
Besides traditional marketing and customer acquisition strategies, it is brand advocacy that can help you keep your marketing costs low
It is one of the most valuable marketing strategies where you tap into your happy customer base to spread the word about your brand
There are numerous strategies that can help companies to harness the enthusiasm of their brand advocates for business growth
Getting new customers is good for any business.
But real business growth comes from existing customers.
In fact, a research by Bain and Company shows that return customers spend 33% more per order compared to new clients. Another study suggests that existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products.
Why is this important?
In an era where it has become surprisingly easy for consumers to walk away from brands after a single bad experience, turning your customers into brand advocates should be at the top of the to-do list. This is more critical than ever since new acquisition costs have increased by almost 50%.
Think of this as a fandom, like how major sports teams and musicians operate.
Instead of buying out the tickets, these brand advocates will fill their social media feeds with news about your brand, helping move prospective customers through the marketing funnel.
So how do you build brand advocacy? And what should be your brand advocacy strategy?
As you get down to turning your target audience to brand advocates, remember it all starts with the efficacy of your customer success solution. Only when you deliver experiences that delight your customers will they endorse your brand in their network.
Let’s begin.
Did you know that a staggering 76% of individuals surveyed said that they have a deeper trust in the content shared by “regular” people than content shared by brands?
Simply put, brand advocacy means that the people who are closest to your brand will continue to show their love and support for your product(s) or service(s) by promoting your organization organically to new audiences. While referring new customers, they also create content on your behalf.
Your brand advocates can include your customers as they are not affiliated with your company which makes their support genuine and more influential. Your employees can be brand advocates too. Armed with deep insights into how your solution caters to clients, they can positively influence your brand through superior customer success management.
Your business partners can also affect your customers’ purchasing decisions. These include charitable organizations and other companies affiliated with your brand. Lastly, you have influencers. A well-known influencer can extend the reach of your brand far and wide.
With brand advocacy, you will quickly find an increase in your revenue without increasing your marketing budget. Your fans will do a lot of word-of-mouth marketing for you on their social media platforms.
Another good reason is that your happy customers will continue to return to you again and again.
According to a report by PwC, 17% of consumers will leave a brand after just one bad experience. Since finding a brand that precisely caters to their needs can be challenging, customers who genuinely love a brand will stick with the company for a very long time.
Strong brand advocates will increase awareness about your company beyond your immediate target audience. This will help you eliminate costs associated with customer acquisition strategies.
For these reasons, both B2B and B2C companies have begun to focus their initiatives on developing effective brand advocacy programs.
Despite the expansive power of brand advocates, this will still be a small portion of your overall customer base.
Most customers will probably purchase from you once (or perhaps repeatedly) but will not engage with your brand as much as you hope. This means that you need to keep a steady eye on the ones who do and who are taking their time to spread the positive word about your product or service.
A simple question such as “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend” can help you understand what makes your customers happy. Social listening can come in handy. Keep an eye on people who are speaking favorably about you on social media.
Your customers want to feel like a VIP when they do business with you.
Deliver an enhanced and personalized customer experience at every touchpoint, whether it means optimizing your website for search engines to having helpful support, both chat and call options, in place.
Having a happy customer base can also be achieved through giving extra perks.
Loyalty programs can help deliver this value to your customers consistently.
Rewards, discounts, promotions, and special events will demonstrate that your relationship is more than just transactional.
Your onboarding process has a direct impact on your customer retention rates. It’s also a crucial facet of your brand advocacy strategy.
In fact, 86% of consumers are likely to stick longer with a product if they experience a better onboarding process that gives a holistic education about the many offerings.
So how do you do this?
Start with asking your customers why they are using your product and what they want to achieve with it.
Equipped with this information, guide them to the most useful features of your product rather than throwing all your product features all at once. This will also minimize friction points for your customers.
You can also give them templates so they can start using your product features at once. Additionally, develop an email sequence that educates your customers on the best use of your product.
Turning customers into brand advocates means sharing exciting news, exclusive sneak-peeks, and one-time-only discounts to keep the excitement going.
Hold special “fans-only” shopping events where customers have unique access to your products. This will encourage them to spread the word in their network.
Amplify this word-of-mouth marketing with referral rewards for fans who successfully encourage someone to buy your product or service. Such rewards can be a free product, a discount, or even cash for their next purchase.
Zendesk conducted a detailed study of more than 45000 businesses across 140 countries and found that almost 70% of customers expect companies to collaborate between different departments on their behalf.
If your employees are transferring a customer to another BU for issue resolution, it can create a bad image in the eyes of your customers.
This is where a customer-centric culture can help you. Brand advocacy can only be effective if you help establish a culture where customer satisfaction and happiness are at the center of all your key decision-making.
Such a culture must be part of your core value system and every department should take the onus of effective customer success management.
While 70% of consumers expect brands to respond within a day of reaching out over social media, the average brand response rate stands at just 25%. The more active you are on social media, the higher your chances are to reach out to your potential brand advocates.
Don’t be active on every channel. But you should be present in more than one.
Conduct an analysis of the platforms where your customers are the most active.
Once you have established the channels, it’s time to get creative.
Encourage your brand advocates to create their own content. This can be through video submissions of how they are using your product for YouTube or images where they are using your product for Instagram Story.
Immersing your brand advocates with content development can help them feel like they are part of your brand and not just observers.
Your job is not done when your customer has successfully transacted. Keep your customers engaged to turn them into brand advocates who will do a lot of the marketing work for you.
Brand advocates play a critical role in driving sales for you.
While in the age of 24/7 connectivity and social media, it’s not so tough to keep your customers engaged. The challenge, however, is to be consistent in providing your customers with first-class services. This helps to nurture your customers into brand advocates.
Looking to make customers your best growth engine? Benefit from a world-class CS strategy at scale, Partner with MarketStar today!
One of the most effective ways to build brand credibility is to craft long-term customer relationships by understanding their customer journey. According to a PwC study on the future of CX, 1 in 3 customers will walk away after just one bad experience, ensuring a smooth and streamlined customer service journey needs to be a top priority for businesses.
Read MoreIn today’s competitive world, customers expect immediate, transparent, and accurate delivery of their purchase
Customer experience has become the key to building loyalty and trust in on-demand delivery services
Brands can make it a reality by putting the right technology in place. This will help them to communicate efficiently and strike deeper connections with customers.
On-demand delivery services have witnessed steady growth over the years, charting the path for innovation and success.
With the pandemic, the steady expansion gave way to a sudden explosion in demand.
A report by IBM states that the wide-scale disruptions of the past two years have powered a shift away from stores to online shopping by close to five years.
This sudden growth of the e-commerce ecosystem has brought sharp focus to the capabilities of on-demand delivery services.
An on-demand delivery service can be described as a business that provides an order to a customer within hours or even minutes. Many SaaS providers have changed the way on-demand delivery works. Take DoorDash and Uber for instance.
What these services require is hyperfocus on creating a better customer experience from the customer’s perspective.
But before we jump into approaches that can be employed to be customer-obsessed, let’s understand why it is vital.
Customer obsession is essentially a business that puts its focus on delivering the most value to its ideal customers. Connectivity is the key. So are user interfaces, customer service channels, top-down and bottom-up team communication, and customer feedback cycles.
As customer obsession entails a consistent effort to better the buyer’s journey, your clients are more dependent on you and your brand. Consequently, they begin augmenting their frequency of purchases, and in the process, advocate your brands to more people.
Think of customer service as the individual interactions your customers have with your company. This includes the assistance they are provided with before, during, and after their purchase.
On the other hand, customer obsession is your customer’s overall journey with your company, and how it made them feel. The overall customer experience is the foundation on which they will talk about you to people in their lives.
Some of the most successful companies across the globe are focusing on becoming customer-obsessed brands. Take Disney for instance.
Disney goes above and beyond to create a world-class customer experience. And it’s reflected in everything they do–from treating all guests to their parks as VIPs to cutting-edge training for their staff.
In most cities, on-demand delivery is now a part of everyday life, making the customer experience a critical game-changer.
A common assumption is that the customer experience journey starts when the customer has placed the order. However, the customer starts interacting with the logistic provider much before that.
To help you navigate the ecosystem, we have listed down steps that you can incorporate into your on-demand delivery for a better customer experience.
Your customer’s expectations begin before the order is even placed. Suggest the best possible slots to them but the flexibility of making a choice should rest with the customer.
Automation will allow you to provide instant quotes to your users. However, it is necessary that you have those delivery times and convenient fulfillment options set up in the first place.
From the moment an order is placed to the time it reaches your customer’s door, your delivery process should be coordinated and digitized end-to-end.
This will enable you to have visibility over your operations. When you have visibility across the entire last-mile flow, you are better equipped to utilize your existing resources to complete demand deliveries.
Cart abandonment is at an all-time high. Why? Because 40% of customers will leave a shopping cart if there is no free shipping, according to the survey of European customers by Sendcloud.
When consumers are increasingly driven to choose brands that offer discounted rates, make way for such a model in your own on-demand delivery service.
On-demand delivery entails the ability to meet your customer’s demand, irrespective of the time or day. You can enhance your capabilities by adding third-party delivery solutions to your existing fleet management tools.
By doing this, you can also enhance brand awareness and sustain your customers’ satisfaction.
Automation during the purchasing stage is just a small facet of its potential.
Automation must be embedded into every aspect of your on-demand delivery process to augment customer experience.
An automated system will make the right decisions based on business rules pertaining to cost, volume, and other goals. It can also help you to determine whether the delivery should be done in-house or outsourced to third parties.
While automation can free your teams from more repetitive tasks, it is important to remember that your customers would want a human touch to get their queries solved.
So, you can make use of chatbots who will take care of your customers’ queries, but make sure to design the automated system in a humane way with the possibility for your customers to speak to your personnel at the end.
On-demand delivery services are more than just offering an app to customers.
It is about restructuring your entire last-mile delivery operations for enhanced customer experience and fast and quick fulfillment.
With customer behavior changing, putting speed and convenience at the top of the list, customer-obsessed companies are recalibrating their model to deliver a smooth last-mile experience.
This is the first installment in our series on Customer Obsession where we look into the benefits of having a customer-obsessed mindset and how it will help businesses understand what’s motivating their customers.
Head over to Growth Hub at MarketStar and discover more insights.
Read MoreThe past couple of years, there's been a remarkable shift in how companies perceive and prioritize their customers, evolving from a mere transactional relationship to a full-blown commitment to being “customer-obsessed”. And this is true across any landscape, customer success included. From being a mere support function to being recognized as a strategic pillar for business growth, this domain has undergone quite the transformation. Gone are the days when customer interactions were merely part of a routine; the current landscape champions the art of cultivating lasting relationships.
Read MoreOn-demand delivery services are slowly becoming a part of everyday life, with half the urban population expecting same-day deliveries
While such a model has innumerable benefits for businesses, it does come with its own set of challenges
The inability to identify and properly address such challenges is one of the reasons why on-demand operations fail
Any business looking to establish or grow its on-demand offerings must ensure that they are in tune with its current and future projections. They must weigh the pros and cons of such a model before putting a plan in motion
It’s 2022 and it has never been easier for customers to get what you want with just a few clicks. From a cup of coffee to a slice of pizza to a ride to a concert, there’s an app for everything.
Needless to say, on-demand delivery services are booming.
Websites and application-based digital platforms are major drivers of its rapid growth. A report by Statista highlights how the revenue from platform-to-consumer delivery is expected to reach US$96,864 million by 2024.
Technological innovations are not the only drivers.
Evolving customer expectations, the need for instant gratification, convenience, cost-efficiency, and the emerging gig economy markets are all playing an integral role in its boom.
With on-demand delivery services witnessing a rapid uptick among business owners, it is also vital to understand how such a business model can play a pivotal role in improving customer experience.
One of the finest examples of a company nailing the on-demand service model is Instacart.
The American company revolutionized the grocery shopping industry by bringing groceries right to the customer’s doorstep. Instacart’s partnerships with big names such as Whole Foods, Costco, and others went a long way in piloting the company towards success.
Instacart’s tremendous success can be attributed to its focus on omnichannel to close the customer experience gap. This is also a leading reason why more and more businesses are making an on-demand delivery service model their first choice for a business model.
There are several opportunities to enhance the customer experience with an on-demand delivery business model.
Customer Base: Compared to traditional brick-and-mortar outlets, on-demand delivery services help brands to reach out to a larger customer base, spanning both local and international locations.
Access to Customer Insights: On-demand delivery services leverage advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to better understand the buying patterns of your customers. Consequently, this improves the chances of upselling and cross-selling products.
Customer Loyalty: More than 57% of respondents in the 2021 Loyalty Barometer Report by Merkle said they stayed loyal to a brand despite the events of 2020. Tech-savvy brands that are taking advantage of logistic tools to enhance customer experience and provide personalization are benefiting from a customer base who act as brand advocates.
Reduced Manual Dependencies: Speed and the ability to ensure quick turnaround time are important facets of an on-demand delivery service model. This requires the automation of manual delivery processes. These include delivery scheduling, task allocation, route planning, roster management, and dispatching.
It is always a good idea to keep up with changing market dynamics. However, some businesses may find it a daunting exercise to identify the challenges of an on-demand delivery service model.
While it is difficult to start something new and capitalize on opportunities, understanding the obstacles can help you find ways to resolve them.
A report by Statista highlights that 56% of global retailers experienced moderate disruption in their supply chain in 2020, while 12% faced heavy collapse.
With the global supply chain making a brand-new start, it is vital for manufacturers to re-architect an existing business model towards an on-demand delivery service app to stay afloat.
Addressing such challenges in customer experience means designing effective, resilient strategies by investing analytics in the supply chain management system.
Customers want to see prices for various fulfillment options at checkout as well as view order progress in real-time.
Logistic providers require visibility into contracted fleets to ensure that Service Level Agreements (SLA) between shippers and consignees are being met. Similarly, retailers need visibility into not just inventory, but also how customers are interacting with the brand.
As challenging as it may seem, this instant, granular level of visibility across stakeholders requires reliable integration between systems as well as effective information sync, so that the data is easily digestible at any point.
Many names in e-commerce fulfillment have achieved this level of visibility in order to close the customer experience gaps. Think of Amazon, FedEx, and Walmart.
Consumer behaviors have changed since the pandemic disrupted industries across every sector.
Today, people rely heavily on new online shopping experiences.
In fact, 60-70% of consumers are shopping in an omnichannel way with social media becoming a new form of window shopping, according to a McKinsey research.
We also see a focus on value-based purchasing, convenience, and availability. Where to shop, the quality of products and the purpose of purchasing have all become the drivers of consumer decision-making.
To compete in such market dynamics, brands can find a better fit for themselves through an on-demand delivery service model.
A leading issue with the on-demand delivery model is that there is a very short period between when customers place their orders and when those orders are sent out.
With over 27% of shoppers abandoning their carts when delivery options are not fast enough, there is little room for errors with on-demand delivery.
Such services work when all processes have been automated to be completely seamless and on time. Solving CX challenges in on-demand delivery, along with adopting a mobile-first CX strategy, will be successful with the automation of logistics.
Despite the clear wins, the on-demand delivery service model is not suitable for every industry and geography.
You should carefully select your niche based on factors such as your expertise, tech background, users’ needs, budget, and legislative and regulatory framework.
Additionally, the model that you deem fit for your business might require tweaks, now and then.
Starbucks is a fine example of this approach.
The Seattle-based company changed its reward program to enable people to earn points through payment methods. Previously, this was only possible through the Starbucks card. And it paid off. The company’s active member base increased to a record 21.8 million in Q1’21.
A Mckinsey report shows that over 60% of US consumers have experienced out-of-stock items in the last three months of 2021. When this happened, only 13% waited for items to be restocked.
To stay in demand, brands should reconsider their offerings.
A strong brand image and corporate reputation will go a long way in creating a credible online environment where your customers will be more inclined to keep coming back.
On-demand delivery service means the ability to meet customer demand, irrespective of the time or day.
Addressing CX challenges in this model requires you to react quickly to customer needs. This is where third-party delivery solutions come in.
Adding third-party delivery solutions to your existing fleet management tools will help you optimize your on-demand deliveries, enhance brand awareness, and help you deliver a stellar customer experience while keeping customer satisfaction on a high note.
With customer expectations at an all-time high, businesses must put customers at the heart of what they do.
The success of an on-demand delivery service also depends on how well you relay messages to the customer. Delivery apps can give your customers different levels of visibility into their order’s status and location.
Additionally, look for solutions that can push notifications to customers when their orders leave the warehouse or to the store when they arrive.
The success of any on-demand delivery service can define the value of a brand.
Personalization, convenience, and good performance, mixed with a dash of strong branding, will help you not only close the customer experience gap but also enable you to win repeat customers.
This is the second installment in our series on Unique Challenges where we look into the hurdles faced by businesses in different industries and their game-changing impact on business growth.
Gone are the days when adding a person’s first name into a generic email promotion counted as personalization.
Read MoreCustomer experience has become the top priority for businesses and the reason is simple: companies that focus on customer experience reduce churn and increase revenues.
Effective customer success strategies offer a way to significantly improve customer experience
An effective customer success strategy requires supporting your customer at every step in their journey to get the result they want. This begins even before the sale is made and sticking with them until they achieve their desired result
It’s no surprise because customer experience has taken center stage in the current business landscape. It has become one of the key differentiators for any brand.
Improving customer experience should be your prime focus to make your brand stand out.
When 74% of customers are somewhat likely to buy based on experiences alone, customer experience improvement can have a major impact on your bottom line.
Considering the mounting need to improve customer experience, customer success has become more critical than ever. Although there are differences between the two, they are inevitably connected.
The customer is at the heart of both disciplines—and each shares the objective of helping organizations understand customers better.
Consequently, when you focus on customer success, you make progress in enhancing customer experience.
A staggering 90% of organizations are able to understand their customers better by using personas, with 82% of them having improved their value proposition.
Buyer personas are often considered a marketing tool.
It helps the marketing team figure out what potential customers are looking for. However, the same information can be used as a customer success tactic, creating an improved experience throughout the entire customer journey.
With better personas, you know what your customers are going through, the problems they face, their communication preferences, their pain points, and so on. You can then tailor your interactions to suit them, and in the process, improve the customer experience.
Twilio Segment’s The State of Personalization 2021 Report highlights that 60% of consumers will become repeat buyers after a personalized purchasing experience.
The first step in personalization is identifying each customer’s unique goals.
If your Customer Success Managers (CSMs) can show your customers that they understand the unique situations and desires of each individual, you will build a base of customers who want to stick with you in the long term.
If a new feature can help your customer, have your CSM call that customer and talk to them about how it will specifically help their business. You can also send them an email congratulating them on an accomplishment that you saw in the news.
Onboarding is perhaps the most critical stage for any B2B company.
You can smoothen out the shift from acquisition to onboarding by having internal operations involved during the last leg of the sales process. Similarly, your sales team can stay involved during the beginning of the onboarding stage.
Remember, your client has shared a lot of useful information with your sales team and they are excited about their decision to work with you. You can help buyers by having one person oversee all onboarding activities and ensure that these are carried out in a timely manner.
Customer success takes a proactive approach.
Your customers should have your solutions before they run into a problem. Thus, you need to get them the information they need before they ask for it.
You can enhance your customer experience through proactive outreach.
A leading example of this type of approach is the welcome email series. You get these when you sign up for a free trial. Such emails include communications encouraging you to use the tool or service to its maximum potential. It might also contain tips on how to get the most out of the service.
Take this approach a notch higher by letting your customers know about industry trends, and even, changes to your products.
It will be rare for any customer to immediately understand the value of your product.
But you don’t have to wait around for them to figure it out. Actively showcase your best product features during the onboarding process and work with them through its implementation.
Don’t forget to have a full grasp of your customer’s expectations in order to successfully chase their ‘a-ha’ moment. It will be advantageous if you can anticipate their needs at every stage of their engagement.
Educational marketing materials like eBooks, case studies, and others can help you bring in leads and at the same time drive solid returns.
Publishing educational materials about your product and its features should be a part of your customer success strategy. When you post content about issues your target audience deals with daily, you establish a stronger relationship and pave the way for brand loyalty, even before they become your customers.
Later, this will help you not just minimize any potential roadblocks people might find themselves in when using your product, but it will also create a more user-friendly customer experience in the long term.
It is easy to get caught up in high-tech tools that monitor keyword searches and web metrics. But an effective feedback system can be as simple as asking your customers what they need.
Once you have collected all the feedback, you’ll need to implement changes before customer churn becomes a problem.
Furthermore, training and offhand conversations can be excellent routes to get a better understanding of the gaps in your product, thereby helping you to enhance and deliver a superlative customer experience.
While each company has a different journey, it’s vital to commit yourself to customer success.
You can start by implementing any of these strategies with the relevant adjustments and necessary tweaks.
The entire customer lifecycle benefits from a customer success mindset. And when you start making improvements, you will see a marked difference in how your customers are benefiting from your product or solution.
Ad ops was quite straightforward in the pre-digital days, with media companies selling ad spots that ran during TV programming. The landscape has changed.
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