Category: Customer Service

There are two basic approaches to marketing: the widespread approach and the targeted approach. With a widespread approach, you market your product or service as broadly as possible. The idea is that if you market to everybody, somebody is going to take you up on your offer. If you want to spend a bunch of money to get a minimal response, this is the way to go. Or, you could try the vastly superior and more profitable targeted approach.

In terms of what Primary Intelligence calls the “Win/Loss” paradigm, the targeted approach to marketing takes more time because of research and planning. Even so, your ROI will dramatically outweigh what you’d have spent if you marketed more broadly. So what do we mean when we say “targeted” approach?

Who, Exactly, Are You Serving?

Who is your ideal customer or client? How much do you know about this person? If you want to be able to sell properly to this person, you need to find out everything you can about them. This means that you don’t limit your research to basic demographic information. When you limit yourself to basic demography, you increase your risk of pandering to stereotypes and alienating yourself from your audience.

Rest assured, we do not mean that you need to start stalking people. In fact, let’s just be completely clear about this: do not stalk people to find out more about them.

Instead, the easiest way to find out more about your target customer is to simply ask your audience about itself.

What Should You Know?

We’ve covered basic demography already. That is your starting point. From here, you need to find out information like income, location, religious affiliations (if any), family status, educational background, professional background, hobbies, and even political viewpoints.

Whew, that’s a lot! How do you get people to tell you that much about themselves?

How to Research Your Target Customer

When you first begin your market research you’ll likely be focused more on quantitative numbers than qualitative numbers. There are some who will tell you to go the other way, to start small and then go broad. If you are new, though, you might not have a small group you can use to grow. If this is the case, it is perfectly reasonable to start big and then hone.

Quantitative: Surveys

Perhaps the simplest method of finding out more about your target customer is to ask people to complete surveys. Surveys are great because they can be kept anonymous and can gather information about many different types of people in a single go.

In the beginning, gathering this information first hand might be difficult. You likely won’t have a large enough customer base to survey them exclusively to figure out how to better sell more of your products. In the beginning, you’ll likely be running your surveys through local and virtual survey companies. These companies are experts at finding people who meet your demo and getting them to answer your questions.

Quantitative: Social Media

Set up profiles on the two biggest social media platforms: Twitter and Facebook. Encourage people to like your pages and follow your profiles. It is okay to offer bribes in exchange for audience members. Social media is a great place to ask general questions to large audiences because the people who use social media are, shall we say, big fans of sharing their opinions. You can use their answers to your posts and polls to better plan your qualitative research.

Qualitative: Focus Groups

Like surveys, focus groups are a great way to get people to tell you what they really think about a product. Unlike surveys, with a focus group, you’ll get context and emotion as well as straightforward answers. The point of a focus group is to get people to tell you why they come to certain conclusions. You’ll have to run a few of these to get a good picture of your audience, but they are well worth it.

Qualitative: Interviews

These are the most informative method of really getting to know your target customer. Being able to sit down with one (or a few) people who fit your demographic and basic attitudinal needs (which you will have learned via surveys, etc) and get detailed answers to your questions is invaluable to your marketing plan.

Once you have done all of this research, you’ll have a better idea of how to properly market your product or service so that you actually profit from it.

An elder woman and her coworker are working at a newsstand and there are 30 people demanding their attention. They all want their newspaper – now.  The coworker is frazzled and frustrated because everyone wants her attention. She cannot keep up with their demands.  She is getting angry because no one is patient – she can’t keep up. The elderly women next to her is so serene in dealing with each interaction and her coworker cannot understand how she keeps her composure with so much going on around her. She decided to ask her coworker how she cannot be angry or frustrated by the demands of the job.  She asks, “How do you not get frustrated and flustered by so many people demanding your attention?” The elderly lady replies, “When I am attending to a customer no other customer exists for me. I am taking care of one person and trying to make their day special by giving them my undivided attention. I know there will always be someone wanting my attention but the person in front of me is the only person in the world that I pay attention to. You are not seeing the person you are working with, you are seeing all the people you are not working with.” The elder woman learned that each interaction she has is a sacred moment.

We are blessed to have sacred moments every moment of our lives, if we allow ourselves to recognize them.

Before we go too much further, let’s become purposeful and define what I mean by a sacred moment. A sacred moment is simply a moment of truth with a customer, a customer interaction (this is not the only time we can experience a sacred moment): a telephone call, an email (yes, an email interaction if well thought out can be a sacred moment when the customer reads it,) a face to face meeting to review a project or determine next steps or simply selling them a paper or a cup of coffee.

Many time we do not interact with our customers unless there is a reason. Something is wrong, they need information only we can provide, something changed, or an emergency occurs. Something happens that requires you or your company to address a situation for your customer.

You can do what Google does and ignore their customers (who made them billions.) I have not been successful in finding someone from Google I can talk with. This is both frustrating and counter-productive.

Or you can do what Zappos does. I recently purchased some shoes from Zappos and the customer experience was delightful. The customer service representative listened, responded as needed and as a result his efforts, I experienced a sacred moment. I did not have to fight, argue or wait on hold.

How you treat each interaction with your customer can make their day and yours. It can be a sacred moment to them and to you. They want to be heard and you need to hear them. They want to be understood and you need to understand them. That want something that typically only you can provide.

You have an opportunity to positively impact someone in a powerful way, and in that moment, a sacred way.

What does this mean for you?

It means your customer feel heard and understood. They will be loyal. I left Google and went to Microsoft because I could talk to a person.

It means when they talk about you they remember how you made them feel. They become advocates and will become word of mouth marketing machines for you.

Anyone one in sales knows they your prospect does not care how much you know until they know how much you care.   They will be loyal and buy more.

Our family members want to feel heard and understood.

Our friends want to feel heard and understood.

Our customer are no different.

It is about being present and listening. It is about follow-up.

It is about doing what is right.

Is it a simple concept? Yes. But it can be difficult to implement. Why? Because we are inundated with people demanding our attention. We are distracted by Facebook and Social Media. We have someone else demanding our attention, there is the phone ringing, the email flashing, and the next text message to address.

It is about making each interaction a sacred moment for both you and the person you are with.

Article Contributed by Abhishek Jain

We all do know and are aware of the fact that how difficult it is for the business organizations to stay ahead of their competitors when it comes to customer service trends. Consumers continue to demand a change and evolve unless and until your organization continues to stay current and the customers move ahead without even noticing you. Given below are the 6 major common misconceptions the business organizations generally believe about customer service this 2016.

If your customer has been complaining then give them something for free: A free card or product is not always the answer to your question. You would here need to find out and know what has made your customer upset and then correct the issue accordingly. Sometimes ensuring the root problem has been resolved and would not occur again is enough to please your customer back again.

Marketing would here own all aspects of customer relationship: When a customer reaches out to a call centre support, chances are a marketer does not have the answer for questions on your phone. If relationships are truly a focus for a company there must be a training across the board in order to educate and instil those relationships building considerations for everyone in the company.

Customers do not want to speak to the call centre agents anymore: Although customers could self-serve through online support that does not eliminate the need to have live agents. In a research study conducted by Gartner predicted that one third of the customer interactions would still require a support of human intermediary in 2017.

Customer complaints are a bad thing: On a first read this is something that would definitely sound to be strange. However one of the benefits of the real time insight is to hear what your customers have been saying and think of your products and services. And in occasion this would come in the form of complaints. Complaints are one valuable opportunities provided to the business organizations to learn and know what you could do better.

Making the service fast and speedy without even worrying about anything else: This is something that hold some truth. Customers are the one who want to resolve their issues quickly and easily. We would here definitely not want to deal with agents who are slow as molasses, and you do also don’t want them to rush through your service. The last thing you could do here is to feel like another number taking time that is generally required to do the right job.

Fewer calls means giving better customer service and experience to customers: Fewer complaints would here mean large pool of silent and unhappy customers. Unless and until you interact with all your clients and customers in order to find out what the real problem is, you aren’t able to respond or make improvements in the products and services you have been dealing with.

Focussing on positive customer relationship: Really?? Positive comments would not much about your business, but whereas the negative comments would tell you the most about your business helping you understand why your customers have been upset and find out the different ways you could improve them while dealing with them next time.

These are some of the myths business organizations generally believe when it comes to customer service in a BPO industry, and I am sure that there are more to come up yet. So if you have tips, advices and cautionary tales we would love to hear them in the comments below.

About the Author

Abhishek Jain has over 10 years of experience within the BPO Industry and Finance and Accounting outsourcing services. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services India delivers and manages various offshore/onsite projects in various technologies and domains.

It takes a much more resources and time to make up for the lousy customer service than to provide a good one. For obvious reasons, service excellence is a top priority for companies, but it is not realistic to nail it every time. People have less patience in the fast-paced way of modern living, and are quick to switch sides if they are not satisfied. You can learn a lot from a bad customer service, but it is preferable to learn from the mistakes of others.

I’m calling a manager

There are many communication pitfalls in the business world. Some companies fail to listen to their customers and they stick to rigid models instead. Some businesses like cable companies simply do not feel the urgency to improve the quality of customer service.  How many times were you a bit shocked with the results of a visit to the hairstylist? Well, customer’s requests are not always satisfied, and it cases such as this, it cannot be repaired right away.

Prejudging or humiliating customers can be devastating for the company. In a time where every other person uses social networks, bad news and consumer experience spread like wildfire. Even when facing an angered person, hanging up or ignoring is not an option. Quite often, these situations are solved by calling someone more experienced, like a manager or executive. But, they are not always there to save the day.

Put on a smile

Thus, business organizations must equip employees with tools and knowledge to solve problems and answer questions. A lot of people have encountered workers saying: “That is not my department” or “I am new here”. That is unacceptable because it reveals the flaws in service quality. All employees share the responsibility to get the job done right, and one incident can cost you a loyal customer.

Even companies with thousands of employees must keep track of their performance and how do they represent the enterprise. Poor work performance of one worker affects the reputation of the whole company. And without a positive image, you cannot hope to attract new or keep the old customers. This is what some banks and financial services like American Express do not understand.

With that said, safe money transfer method is something of the utmost importance in a digital age. Those companies losing people’s money or unintentionally leaking their information lose the trust of the customers. Enterprises that want a secure platform tend to use options such as an escrow account, credit cards, or services like Amazon Payments. Only when you show care for both the customers and their money you can hope to prosper.

Under impression

Each company claims that it cares about customers a great deal. But, clients don’t always have a positive experience.   First impressions are sometimes the last ones you get the chance to make on someone. We are not talking just about face-to-face ones. Such impressions can be based on marketing campaigns, social media presence, premises, etc. People like to make assumptions, for better or worse. A customer wants to be greeted as he walks in the door. He wishes to hear “Good day”, “Thank you” and “Goodbye”, more often than “I’m sorry” or “I can’t help you”.

About the Author

Sonya is a passionate business consultant from Melbourne, Australia. She has a wide range of interests, including online writing, technology trends and marketing in general.

It is easy to assume that in this ever-expanding, global, e-commerce-based marketplace, excellent customer service won’t be missed. But research today dispels this as a misconception while highlighting the fact that customer service still matters very much indeed.

In fact, it may matter more than ever as a differentiating strategy for brands today. Here are three ways you can exceed customer expectations that are far easier than you might expect!

Personalize Your Packaging

One of the best ways to stand out from the crowd is to make your packaging fun, inventive, unique – more like receiving a present than simply opening another industrial-looking box or bubble wrap mailer. It doesn’t matter what the item is – in fact, the more mundane the purchase, the more fun and surprising it will be if it is creatively packaged in a unique and reusable way. Many custom box companies help turn your ideas and designs into well-crafted, efficient, and attractive boxes. Visit this site to see an example of custom box creation website.

For instance, perhaps you can use packaging that your customers can easily reuse – it is just that functional and attractive. Or you can tuck in a coupon, discount code or even a personalized “thank you” note to begin building that relationship (which can lead to repeat business and referrals).

Using fun colors that match your company and making sure your packaging carries your brand and logo is another excellent way to differentiate yourself – these speak of those extra touches that make every day events something special.

Think Beyond Your Own Language

If you have ever ordered an item that has come with instructions in a language you don’t speak – or (even worse) instructions in your language that you can’t understand – you already know the impact it can have on your trust in the company and the product.

Whether you are selling DVDs, pet supplies, software, appliances, computers or bicycles, at some level the purchase only benefits your customers to the extent they can easily use the item right out of the box. Here, having readable native language guides, manuals and warranties is both expected and essential.

As well, if you ship globally or locally in areas where dialects differ widely, you definitely need to ensure that the captioning service you use has expert translators who are fluent in both your company’s language and the language spoken at the customer’s destination. You will also want to have someone who speaks the destination language review the captions for accuracy and readability. Not only does this impress your customer, but it also safeguards your company from potential liability and legal issues.

Add Value Beyond What Was Purchased

A big facet of exceeding customer expectations is to find ways to add value to what was purchased beyond what the customer was expecting to receive. There are many ways to add extra value – it doesn’t just have to be offering the item for a lower price that your competitors.

Here are some great unexpected strategies to add value your customers will appreciate:

– Add in an extra free upgrade, attachment or replacement part (say a filter, or a battery).

– Include a guide for less common uses for what was ordered to help your customer get more usability out of the item.

– Offer a link to a customers-only web portal where customers can ask questions, post reviews, offer comments and make requests.

– Include a sample of a new product or a fun themed freebie (for instance, something festive for the winter holidays).

– Create a repeat purchase club for supplies or replacement parts that offers a discount on subsequent orders, then give the customer an initial discount off the discount.

By implementing some version of these three fun, useful, surprising and undeniably valuable perks, your company will be able to build buzz, generate repeat business, increase referrals and create long-term customer relationships in a very natural, organic way that is enjoyable for all.