4 Ways Your Business Premises is Giving Your Customers The Wrong Impression

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Business Premises|4 Ways Your Business Premises is Giving Your Customers The Wrong Impression Many businesses, especially retailers, have a blended approach to their operations encompassing elements of ecommerce and brick and mortar retail. However, running a business with a physical presence brings with it a certain set of responsibilities. Like your website, your social media presence or your content marketing materials, your physical premises is an extension of your branding. Your customers and visitors will judge it accordingly. And if you plan on growing your business, you can’t afford to take a single first impression for granted. The challenge, then, is to ensure that your physical premises gives your customers or clients the right impression even before they walk through your door.

But that can be easier said than done.

No matter how hard you work to create and maintain an optimal business premises, sometimes even little things can undo everything you’ve worked so hard to build. With that in mind, let’s look at 5 ways in which your business premises can give your customers the wrong impression…

They can’t park

Your customers’ first impression can be formed long before they set foot on-site. If they have to drive around for a long time to find a parking space because your employees have taken up the best ones, this can inject a sour note into their experience that you’ll need to work much harder to erase. Optimizing your parking lot, encouraging car pooling and having clear policies on where employees can and cannot park can all be useful in creating a harmonious customer experience and a great first impression.

It’s not consistently clean or tidy

You know how important it is to keep your space clean. Especially under the current circumstances. But customers don’t just notice the broad strokes. They notice the little details, too. For instance, they’ll notice if there’s one corner that the cleaners have missed that’s dirty and grimy. They’ll notice a bathroom that’s not been cleaned to a satisfactory standard. They’ll notice if an employee’s desk is cluttered or swamped with paperwork. It’s up to you to ensure that cleanliness and tidiness are consistent in your space, and that each employee does their part to ensure a clean, tidy and pleasant workplace. Even if you have cleaning staff.

It’s too hot

It’s a scientific fact. We all hate being too hot. Even if your premises is a little on the cool side, that’s infinitely preferable to being too hot. Being too hot makes us cranky and irritable. It can make small inconveniences seem like big issues. It can escalate conflicts and at the very least make us feel sweaty and unpleasant. So it’s up to you to keep your premises cool. From ensuring that the orifice HVAC system is working to servicing air conditioning units regularly or placing filters over your windows to block excessive heat from the sunlight. There are all kinds of ways in which you can maintain a pleasant temperature.

Your employees seem stressed and irritable

Finally, even if your premises is immaculate, your employees’ actions can make things seem chaotic, poorly managed… or really unfair to them. If your employees look visibly stressed, irritable and on the verge of nervous breakdown that can send a very strong message to your customers. Of course employees have stressful days. But they need to be trained and encouraged to seek out help when they feel out of their depth and to keep stress-induced outbursts out of the eyes and ears of customers.

Improving Customer Satisfaction As An Online Business

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Satisfaction|Improving Customer Satisfaction As An Online BusinessProviding ultimate customer satisfaction when you have no face to face interaction with your clientele can often seem like a bit of a tricky task. Giving customers the best experience possible involves more than just being respectful in your tone, as every feature of your business, products and services contributes towards the individual opinion of the people you serve. Luckily, finding out exactly how you can improve customer service when operating a business exclusively online doesn’t have to be as difficult as you might initially believe, as there are a few innovative ideas that you can utilise to start making beneficial changes today. So, if you would like to find out more, then read on to uncover some of the best top tips and tricks to make the most of now!

Design Matters

One of the biggest factors that you simply mustn’t skip over is the design of your web store, as this is the first thing that a customer will see upon clicking your link meaning you must take the opportunity to give off an amazing first impression. Focus on creating a design that will work for different people from all walks of life, making accessibility a key feature to ensure that those with impairments and disabilities can just as easily navigate around your site. Utilise white or yellow tones as a background colour and a strong dark black or blue for text, as this will make the words jump out from the screen whilst being extra handy for those with difficulties such as dyslexia too. Picking a colour scheme that matches in with your brand or it’s products and services can be a great way to include a little style, so stick with a couple of shades and use these to highlight and draw attention to important features.

Providing Information

A considerable issue that may be holding you back from achieving your full potential as an online business is the lack of information that you provide to your customers. Simply posting your products or services with a small brief description is not enough to give potential customers faith in your business, and it can give off the feeling that you put just as little effort into the quality of the items you sell, too. Providing as much information as you can about the history of your brand, the origins of your products and materials, your environmental pledge and other key areas will allow customers to get a better understanding of who they are buying from. If you sell your products and services outside of the country, all of this information should be provided in the correct language for local customers to understand your business too – investing in the help of a professional translator such as Para Plus Translations can provide you with everything you need to maintain your quality customer experience all around the world.

Improving customer satisfaction as an online business has never been so simple when you are able to make the most of the top tips and tricks detailed above!

Why are your Customers Paying You Late? (And What to do About It)

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customers Paying Late|Why are your Customers Paying You Late? (And What to do About It)If you keep on finding that your customers are always missing your payment deadlines, then you probably understand how infuriatingly frustrating it can be. You may feel as though you are putting a lot of work in and getting very little out of it, and this is the last thing that you need. If you want to get around that then it is vital that you put in the work to make sure that you are always controlling the process and that you know where you stand. For most business owners, this starts with understanding why your customers are paying late in the first place.

They Are Waiting for Authorisation for Payment

Some companies, especially bigger ones, tend to have very strict payment procedures in place and these need to be navigated properly if you want to get a payment on time. If you can, learn about things like this before you get to the invoice date so that you can ensure that this excuse is never going to be used again.

One of the best and the easiest ways for you to try and safeguard your business against practices like this would be for you to make sure that both you and your client are on the exact same page, right from the get-go. This can be achieved by providing a robust set of terms and conditions. It would also help for you to read more invoicing software for small business at bestinvoicingsoftware.com so you can make a decision on which is the best investment for your business.

They are Waiting on Payment from their Own Customers

When cash flow is tight, some businesses will put off making any payments until they know that they are in a good financial position. At times like this, payment providers will often prioritise their payments and if you are at the bottom of the list then you may find that you are waiting a very long time to get paid. One way that you can overcome this would be for you to keep in touch with your customers. If you want to do this, then you need to get in touch with your customers. If you do this then you will soon find that you can adjust your own cash flow accordingly.

Needing a Copy of the Invoice

Believe it or not, creating a good invoice is a huge part of getting paid on time. It doesn’t matter whether your customer says that they have never received the invoice, or whether they have lost it, it’s vital that you find out about this as soon as you can so that you can prevent any kind of late payment. Put in a courtesy call on the day that you expect the invoice to arrive so that you can make sure it arrived on time, or even switch to e-invoicing.

They Can’t Afford to Pay

The cost of business is continually rising. Widespread late payments and economic uncertainty really do make it hard for businesses to stay on top of the cash flow they have. As a result of this, some customers might not be in a position where they can settle the invoice with the company. In instances like this, it can be very beneficial for you to set up a payment plan so you can get paid eventually, even if it is over a long period of time.

How To Operate When Consumer Confidence Is Low

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Confidence|How To Operate When Consumer Confidence Is LowIt’s not easy running a business in the best of times, yet almost no one on this Earth would be liable to label 2020 as ‘the best of times’ so far. Unexpected and thorough societal change has caused many of us to change our habits, and this has rocked the economy and business world. Despite the fact that in some areas Covid-19 is starting to dwindle, or at least reduce in some capacity, consumer confidence is still relatively low. This is understandable.

However, as a business, we cannot simply accept this fact and wait until spending returns to normal levels. Normal levels may not be something we have the luxury of for some time. For that reason, it’s up to us as firms to encourage people to spend their money well, and to be confident and careful in our approach. We cannot use half-truths, or emotional appeals, or untoward suggestions to our clients or consumers in order to have them support us. Instead, we must get creative, but still offer our services and products in an authentic, reliable manner. With the following advice, we hope to help you get there:

Stay Honest & Open

Stay honest and open with your audience. They are fully aware that Covid-19 has caused industries to go through tough times, and they may also be going through them. It’s important not to approach this particular situation with deception or a sense of entitlement. It can be worth considering how you might gear yourself to these times and become more relevant as a result. For instance, it’s a small thing, but many supermarkets are now registered with food delivery services such as Uber Eats, and offer masks or other cleaning items as part of their library of products. Simple things like this can help you once again become a node on your audience’s map.

Improve Employee Communication

It’s important to have your employees become more effective and productive during this time. Important marketing ideas that float to the top, or the attentiveness it takes for them to deal with a support request in the best way never comes out of a vacuum. Using the best employee communication tools can help you share your formulated strategy. The business world moves fast, and now more than ever time is of the essence. Sometimes, helping your employees move through challenging times isn’t always forcing them to train harder or work longer hours, but rather removing the difficulties with which they may not be able to perform at 100%. Implementing excellent communication tools can serve as one of these removed difficulties.

Offer More Value

We need to encourage our audience to spend more and to have more confidence in their expenditure. This means that you need to offer more value. If they feel that there’s a timed element in potentially acquiring a great deal, your audience is more likely to go for it, or budget their spending to better acquire that which you have to offer. This doesn’t need to be seen as a deceptive practice, sometimes you may quite literally be offering an olive branch to help them engage with your items once more. You needn’t have to give out free gifts or make them follow your social media profiles to force this attitude to fruition. Simple acts, such as offering free delivery on all of your products, can go a long way in getting the ball rolling.

Invest In Marketing

Investing in marketing is also a valuable measure. This can seem counter to your spending aims right now. However, when we hope to start a stopped car, we turn the engine while pushing from behind. This extra ‘shunting’ action helps the engine to tick over and ultimately resume its operation. In other words, the old adage ‘you need to spend money to make money’ is relevant.

This may mean that you invest in subtle marketing methods, such as organic SEO advertising, or even take out social media banners or promoted posts as part of your new branding strategy. The importance of this is to remind people you’re still there, that you have something great to offer, and that you’ve missed your customers or clients. As people are slowly starting to return to work and potentially begin spending again, you can position yourself at the forefront in the line of companies chomping at the bit to once again establish their audience in the best possible way.

Relaunch / Motivate

Relaunching your brand or motivating your audience to take a second look can be a great idea. What have you learned from the lockdown, and what changes do you hope to make? Remember that people will have noticed how you treated your staff or processes as the world began locking down, and so now is the time to heal or promote your best actions as something worth supporting. For instance, you may relaunch your customer support line but now make the adjustment that people will be working from home to contend with their needs.

Sometimes, a full rebrand may help you change after the great cultural milestone that was this difficult experience. Some businesses will not want to invest in this, and that’s more than understandable, but even a new slogan can perform as well in this space. It’s important to bring some energy to your strategy. Your business must be seen as active, ready and welcoming. Despite the challenges we have all been through, we mustn’t limp along and slowly convince our audience to return. We must be seen as strong, able to take on business, and more than happy to stay relevant. This will inspire consumer confidence, and ultimately secure you the purchase you’re looking for.

Understand Your Place

Ultimately, if consumers aren’t confident, they’re not confident. We can pull out all of the stops on our end, but remember that people have suffered due to societal lockdown, and it’s worth keeping that in mind. This simple fact will help your strategy remain subtle, and that’s the most important measure of all.

With this advice, we hope you can learn to operate, even when consumer confidence is low.

How To Use Your Website As An Effective Customer Service Tool

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Service Tool|How To Use Your Website As An Effective Customer Service ToolMany businesses don’t consider how important their website is when it comes to customer service, but it’s actually one of the best tools that you have at your disposal. It’s important that you have a well staffed customer service team that has the right training and knows how to deal with customers, but you also need to consider making changes to your website. If you manage it in the right way, your website is an incredibly effective way to improve customer service throughout the customer journey. These are some of the best ways to use your website to improve customer service.

Set The Right Tone

Many people don’t consider how their website sets the tone for your customer service strategy, but it’s important that you think of your website in the same way as you would any other customer service operative. If somebody calls your customer service line, do you want an operator that answers with no enthusiasm or do you want somebody that is friendly and welcoming? Do you want a long and complicated menu system that is frustrating for the customer to use or do you want to connect them to the right person immediately? These same questions can be applied to your website and they should direct your website design from the outset. If you create a website that is vibrant and welcoming, and take steps to improve the user experience so the process of browsing products is quick and easy, that sets the tone for your customer service experience as well. People will feel more comfortable buying products from you because you have given them a good first impression and they will feel confident that they will receive good customer service from you.

Make It Easy To Contact You

If people want to contact your company, they will probably start by visiting your website and looking for contact details. It’s important that you make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch with you if you want to improve customer service. You need a ‘contact us’ page on your site but you should also display your phone number throughout the site. Don’t just put it on one page, have it on the header and footer of every single page so people don’t need to search through the whole site to get in touch with you.

As well as a phone number, you should also include a simple contact form on the website. Many people prefer to contact you via email, and a contact form makes it quick and easy to do. If you just display your email address, the customer still has to open their email and input the details etc. But with a contact form, it’s all there for them.

Live chat features on your site are a must as well because they’re perfect for customers that don’t have much time and want to chat with you directly. Say, for example, somebody has a quick question about a product before they buy it. They’re not likely to take the time to call you up or send an email, so they will probably just leave the site and forget about the purchase. However, if they can fire off a quick question and get an answer right away, their first interaction with your customer service team is a positive one and they’ll be more likely to buy products. It also improves the service for existing customers because the response time is so much faster. Live chat apps also help you to save money because one customer service operative can deal with multiple queries at the same time, which is far more efficient than dealing with customers over the phone.

Provide Useful Content

Content marketing is a brilliant way to drive traffic to your website and it has many other benefits outside of SEO, but did you know that it is also a great opportunity to improve customer service for your existing customers? If you post content that addresses frequently asked questions about your products, you can solve customer issues without them having to contact you directly. You can also provide content that gives tips on how to get more out of the product, so you add value and improve the customer experience long after they have made their purchase.

Make Returns Simple

If a customer needs to return a product for any reason, it’s important that you handle it efficiently. If the returns process is long and complex, the customer will leave with a bad impression of your business and they are far less likely to use you again in future or recommend you to friends and family. It’s important that you have a simple returns process on your website so people can easily send products back and get a refund or replacement. Before any product is purchased, you need to make sure that your returns policy is clearly stated because this will avoid any conflict later on when a customer wants a refund but you will not accept the return.

Integrate With Social Media

Social media is one of the most important customer service tools that you have at your disposal. Many people prefer to contact companies directly on social media when they have an issue, rather than emailing or calling you up. That’s why it’s important that you integrate social media with your website. Adding simple follow buttons to the website helps you to build an audience on social media and makes it easier for customers to contact you on social media without having to manually find your account. You can also use social media to promote the useful content that you provide, which will boost likes and shares and expand your audience.

Many businesses make the mistake of viewing their website as a sales tool and considering it separately from the customer service branch of the company. However, the reality is, your website is a hugely important part of your customer service strategy and you need to consider that when building and maintaining your site in the first place. If you make these simple changes to your website, you can improve your customer service in a big way.