Top Tips To Keep Your Customer Satisfied!

There’s a rough ride coming! The double whammy of surviving the slow climb out of recession and the knock on effect of severe public spending cuts, about to be unleashed, will place a huge burden on business. In order to survive, every customer will count, and keeping them happy and spending will be the only game, online !

Keeping the customer satisfied is paramount at any time! In a ratcheted up eCommerce environment, today’s marketing strategies focus on optimising a company’s ability to engage and respond faster than ever before to their customers needs. Listening and responding and keeping it as simple as possible for customers to engage and buy means offering a consistently high level of service.

The importance of online marketing to reach out and foster an attentive audience of potential customers and keeping costs down are two of the highest priorities for businesses. As a result of social media interaction, user expectation continues to grow and trying to keep customers loyal to your brand identity is no easy task – as in the end, it may just be down to purchasing on price, anyway!

In the tough times ahead, buying on price is likely to increase. Also, let’s not  forget the rapid takeup of mobile search using one touch mobile apps as indicative of the desire for ‘faster search and find’ on the move, which will multiply as smartphone use grows.

Most customer satisfaction surveys consistently show a high percentage of people who readily admit to remaining loyal to a retailer regularly offering discounts! The growth of the popularity of purchasing online will only continue if people believe that there are better deals to be had online than in the high street.

Businesses must make it even more easier for their customers to buy! Top priorities are always website accessibility, site navigation and purchase/check out. These are the common hurdles where visitors will fall at the slightest doubt – so ensure your website design and marketing team relook at function and performance. It may be that a website refresh is urgently needed!

Here are some more basic, low cost tips you can take to help keep customers loyal:

Remove the ‘barriers to buy’ – incentivise customers to shop online through cut-price offers, discount codes and voucher schemes. Incentives will only keep customers close if they are relevant, engaging and the online purchasing process is simple.

Be responsive – customers now expect to get the same or greater treatment online, regardless of supplier. Consumers are able to switch to another supplier in an instant. While initially lured by value, consumer confidence is mainly driven by the quality of customer service. It is therefore of vital importance that no query goes unanswered and a response received within 24 hours.

Website experience – a poor experience will damage any business. Creating strong consumer loyalty demands a positive experience from first impressions through to product search, payment, delivery and customer service. Customer satisfaction is not driven by cost alone but by how easy it is to find and buy what they’re looking for and by consistency in the quality of every interaction they have with the brand.

New Customer Engagement – stimulating customer engagement and asking for feedback is key in today’s user-generated content world. Savvy businesses are tapping into the process, improving their ordering and SEO keyword searches , introducing product ratings and using social networking features such as blogs, RSS feeds and quick polls.

Measuring and Analytics – New advances in online research techniques means businesses are increasingly turning to online research and analytics as they provide cheaper, faster and more dynamic insights into the business. It allows for customer profiling and more immediate response to minute-by-minute visitor behaviours – what’s selling or not selling, thus, keeping on top of changing market trends.