Tag: customer journey

Posted on by Listen360

Feedback from customers is often priceless. It can help you avoid making the same costly mistakes over and over again. It can also offer insight into profitable opportunities you may be overlooking. 

However, all too often companies fail to collect high-quality feedback they can actually use to implement change that positively influences the customer journey. In this day in age, when customers are more empowered than ever, having an effective customer feedback strategy in place is key.

If you’re looking for ways to walk the fine line of figuring out what your customers really want without feeling you’re constantly spamming them with survey requests, we can help. Check out our tips below to boost your customer feedback strategy with ease.

 

Tip 1: Set Up Live Chat Support 

The faster you can answer customers’ questions, the happier they will be. That’s why live chat has become a popular support tool for many companies. 

Chat isn’t only effective for giving great customer service. It can also be helpful for discreetly collecting customer feedback in real time and at a low cost. With a live chat function, you’ll quickly be able to assess and remedy issues before they become a major problem while also gaining insight into customers’ most common complaints.

 

Tip 2: Get Your Timing Right

Feedback at any time is great, but feedback immediately following a purchase is best. That way, the experience is still fresh on the customer’s mind, and they’re more likely to be willing to offer their opinion just after they’ve completed the purchase journey. The key here is to communicate to the customer that you’ll only take a minute of their time. Otherwise, they might feel the itch to move on with their day.

 

Tip 3: Offer Incentives

Let customers know you value their feedback by giving them something of value in return. One way to do this is to create a popup that appears right after a transaction to offer a discount on the next purchase in exchange for filling out a quick survey. 

Another option is to advertise to your social media followers that they can enter a raffle for a gift card or free product by completing a survey. Whatever incentive you choose to offer, the feedback you receive will be well worth the expense.

 

Tip 4: Keep It Simple

Do yourself and your customers a favor by making it easy for them to provide feedback. Surveys as a whole and the individual questions should be short and sweet.

With this approach, you only have the chance to ask a few questions, so you need to make sure they’re the right ones. Keep in mind that the quality of the answers you receive will reflect the quality of the questions you ask. For example, you’ll get a lot more information out of questions that allow for open-ended answers than simple yes-or-no responses. 

 

Tip 5: Use the Net Promoter Score

When it comes to keeping things simple, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the ultimate solution. With one simple question – “How likely are you to recommend this company to a friend?” – you gain valuable feedback that instantly shows what your customers think of their experience. 

Responses are scored from 0, not at all likely, to 10, very likely. Your NPS is then calculated as the average of all the responses. All businesses should consider taking advantage of this simple and effective measurement tool.

By implementing these five tips, you’ll be well on your way to building a customer feedback strategy that ensures you’re taking the right steps to meet your customers’ needs and can provide an experience they’ll rave about.

 

Posted on by Listen360

Have you created a customer journey map to better understand how prospective customers interact with your business? This kind of visual representation allows you to gain a sense of what customers aim to achieve when they choose your company, including their needs and pain points. With this information, you can facilitate a smoother customer journey that generates rave reviews and repeat business.

Even if you think you have a pretty good idea of what the customer journey looks like, building a visual diagram is still a crucial step to take. Having this as a resource to refer back to as you make key decisions will ensure your team is always on the same page. Plus, it will help keep the customer’s perspective in mind every step of the way.

How to Craft a Customer Journey Map

Building a customer journey map will be well worth your while. With these 7 easy steps, you’ll soon have a customer journey map in your hands that represents one of the most important processes in all of your business operations.

Step 1: Start by setting your objectives.

Begin with some brainstorming to help clarify your intentions for making this map. Important questions to answer include:

  • What are the goals of the map?
  • From whose point of view will the map be drawn?
  • What specific experience will the map outline?

Answering these questions will enable you to build a more accurate buyer persona and draw a map that reflects your average customer.

Step 2: Research your customers’ experiences.

Do some in-depth research into the experiences of actual customers or prospective customers who have interacted with your company. Gathering feedback based on their experience will be essential to the creation of a useful customer journey map. 

There are several methods you can use to acquire this feedback, including questionnaires and user testing software. Then, put all that information into a buyer persona tool.

Step 3: Choose a target customer persona.

Your research will likely uncover a handful of customer personas. However, as the customer journey map outlines the path one specific type of customer takes to interact with your business, you’ll need to narrow this list down to a single target personas. Otherwise, your map will be a mishmash of experiences that isn’t all that helpful in the end. 

Step 4: Make a touch point list. 

Your website likely offers multiple opportunities for customers to interact with your business. These are called touch points. However, touch points aren’t limited to your website. Points of interaction such as social channels, paid advertisements, and third-party review sites also qualify. 

Your research into the customer experience should reveal which touchpoints are currently being used the most. Narrow this list down to those that most commonly result in customers taking specific actions.

As you make this list, try to see the touch points from the customer’s point of view. What emotions and motivations bring them to each point? What are some obstacles and pain points that could prevent them from ultimately taking action?

Step 5: Create a map type that fulfills your aims.

Depending on your ultimate goals and the types of improvements you want to make in the customer journey, you could use one of the following map templates:

  • Current State maps visualize the customer’s experience of interacting with your company.
  • Day in the Life maps go outside the scope of the customer-company relationship to explore the pain points in customers’ daily lives and address unmet needs. 
  • Future State maps help businesses illustrate their vision and set objectives for how they want the customer experience to be, rather than how it is in reality. 
  • Service Blueprint maps include a layer representing the employees, policies, technologies, or systems responsible for different aspects of the customer’s experience. 

Step 6: Evaluate your customer journey map.

Your customer journey map should be actionable, and its effectiveness should be measurable. One way to evaluate your map is to follow the journey it lays out on your own. This should include taking on the customer persona and exploring their steps one-by-one. You might start with social media activity, online searches, or reading marketing emails to see where the journey leads you.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) can also lay out a framework for evaluating your map and making it actionable. After all, one of the main purposes of the map is to identify opportunities and obstacles based on qualitative research on the customer’s experience. KPIs can be used to visualize areas of improvement in the customer journey and prompt concrete action.

Of course, KPIs aren’t the only metrics that can be used to evaluate your map. Don’t hesitate to consider your Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures customer loyalty and overall satisfaction, to track the customer’s experience.

Step 7: Implement changes as necessary. 

Your exploration of the customer journey and analysis of important metrics should give you a good idea of changes that need to be made to your website and various touch points across other platforms. 

Whether these changes are large or small, they can have a noticeable impact on the customer’s experience. Most importantly, as you’ve done the research to figure out why these changes need to occur, you can have confidence they’ll be much more effective than going the route of trial and error. 

Keep in mind that no customer journey map is ever complete. In reality, these are always works in progress. Aim to review your map regularly, whether that’s every month or every quarter, to continually identify opportunities to make the customer journey as frictionless as possible.

Posted on by Listen360

With so much hubbub around the importance of social media in brand marketing and customer interaction, it’s easy for brands to let their websites go by the wayside. However, your website plays an essential role in your customers’ experience. It’s the central hub around which both potential and return customers congregate, providing you with ample opportunities to secure new business and build customer loyalty.

Your website doesn’t only offer a space to showcase your offerings and tell the story of your brand. If you view your site as a one-way street of information, you’re not taking advantage of its full potential. 

Your website doesn’t only offer a space to showcase your offerings and tell the story of your brand. If you view your site as a one-way street of information, you’re not taking advantage of its full potential. 

Building Blocks for Customer Loyalty on Your Website

Wondering how you can transform your website from a two-dimensional information station into an interactive experience for your customers? These four building blocks create a solid foundation on which you can use this platform to develop relationships with customers.

1. Customer Testimonials

With the right widget, customer testimonials add a personalized feel and attractive flair to almost any website. Requesting testimonials from customers makes them feel appreciated and emphasizes the fact that their opinions matter. When they see their words on your site, they’ll begin to view themselves as a representative of your brand.

Testimonials don’t only reinforce customer loyalty among existing customers. They also draw in prospective customers, providing them with the kind of trustworthy, experience-based information they’re looking for about what to expect from your brand.

Of course, testimonials aren’t only trophies to look at. They should be acted on as well. Any insight you receive from customers about their purchase experience will help you better understand what’s working and what’s not.

2. Customer Experience Analytics

While testimonials offer a written account of the customer experience, analytics represent the digital body language of customers. Customer experience analytics are vital to ensuring your website is effectively reaching customers and providing them with a smooth purchase journey. By facilitating a positive experience, you’re increasing the likelihood customers will return and develop loyalty to your brand.

With customer experience analytics, you’ll have access to a detailed analysis of how customers interact with your website. From the most frequently visited pages on your site to the products customers keep returning to look at, you’ll quickly see the most popular elements of your site. 

You’ll also learn about the types of content customers find uninteresting and any areas of friction that repeatedly come up during the purchase journey. Understanding these patterns can help you increase conversion and customer retention. 

As you make any necessary changes, you’ll also have the ability to measure the difference your adjustments are having on your overall bottom line.

3. Valuable Content

You put a lot of time and effort into your content. That’s why it’s important you’re producing the kind of content your customers want to see. With fresh, useful content on your site, you’ll have a better chance of customers making repeat visits to check out what’s new.

The goal is to become a trusted source of information for your customers, a kind of authority within your industry. That way, you can ensure they return to your site, even if they’re not yet ready to make a repeat purchase. 

By providing relevant content that’s useful to both prospective and existing customers, you’ll increase the likelihood they become vocal advocates for your brand.

4. Customer Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs offer customers an incentive to keep coming back for more, make them feel appreciated, and inspire word-of-mouth marketing. Using your website as the hub for your customer loyalty program will open opportunities to catch their attention and encourage repeat purchases.

As they visit the public-facing side of the site, they’ll have a chance to browse what’s new. Then, they’ll log in to a members-only area where they can check their points, cash in on rewards, and view members-only content. 

Personalizing this area of the website and giving it a unique feel with notifications for events, discounts, and reward eligibility will drive proactive engagement from customers and promote greater levels of interaction.

With these building blocks in place, you can work on developing a loyal following who sees your website as a portal into a community of other brand advocates. Over time, you can transform your website into a two-way street that attracts customers not only for its wealth of information but also for its opportunities to connect and engage with your brand.