Why is customer focus important? In the age of social media and mass education, we learn that a business which values its customers last long. Customer-centric businesses develop long-time customers compared to those who give horrid experience. However, what is the key to making a company more about the customers than the sellers?
How do you build a product that has more customer orientation than corporate gains? It’s not wrong to be concerned about the revenue, but appearing to the public as a money hungry brand forms an unprofitable image. And increasing your customer focus competency is one sure way of making a brand image for yourself that is liked by the masses and produces good revenue.
Understanding Your Customer
How do you adopt a more customer-centric approach to your business?
Customers today are smarter and more informed that they were decades ago. Becoming more discerning and more alert to whatever you sell them which makes marketing harder and more complicated. Information is just at the tip of a finger. This also means that reputation-damaging data can spread from one customer to the whole world. Take Dolce and Gabbana’s scandal, for example, it’s a case of wrong marketing concept and horrible customer treatment.
The Value Proposition
Before you start rehauling your whole stock of products and posting and “Customer First” Campaign ask yourself do you really know your customer? Buy that we mean can you confidently point out what ticks your customers off and what causes them to go a buying frenzy?
Understanding your customer through a value proposition chart will help you and your team make correct marketing decisions. That way you create ads and campaigns that warm their hearts and not anger them. You can only get their attention if you offer them something that they crave for, or desire to attain. Moreover, you can do this by following the different points below and making a chart fit for your business.
1. Know Whom You’re Selling To
Identify your customers is the trickiest and most crucial point in creating a customer-centred business. Before you even begin drafting your Ad or your copy, learn first and foremost who are you selling to? Don’t lump them in one big label and say “I sell to businessmen”, there are many kinds of businessmen. Some sell medical equipment, others own party shops, while certain individuals sell luxury items. Which of them are you referring to when you say that your customers are businessmen?
For example, you’re a CRM software provider for Infusionsoft by Keap, and you target businessmen. However, of all the businessmen in the world you find that the people who actually avail your service are food industry related businessmen. This significant fact changes how you will market your product, and there are a lot of businesses who sell CRM Singapore software. If before you used to address all businessmen now, you’ll be more specific and use examples and issues that tackle problems commonly faced by restaurant owners, or those in the food production industry.
Another thing to point is your style of communication. Do you use humour? Or, prefer a commanding tone instead? Do you use emotional triggers like love and family in your adverts? Or, maybe you like the professional approach. Whatever style you use it’s always safe to test it out first because what may be humorous to you would be an insult to another person. A great example of bad advertising choices is Dolce and Gabbana’s advertisement. Which to the developers was humour but it ended up becoming a great insult not just to their Chinese buyers but to everyone who uses chopsticks.
2. Learn Their Pains
Find out what annoys, hurts and worries your customers. You can do this either by observation, a case study, or even a survey. By, knowing what pains them you can then improve or present your product in a better light. For example, your prospective customer is complaining about unresponsive CRM vendors in Singapore. You can then build your whole business structure to address this need by making sure that you respond immediately to their queries and complaints. By looking at a problem as an opportunity instead of a headache, you end up making a solution and not another problem.
Ways you can get an idea of your customer’s pain points
- Go to the forums – reviews and forums come quite handy when you’re trying to be a sleuth and uncovering what plagues your buyers. A site forum or even that of other sites gives you a full idea of what annoys them. For example, a shoe buyer is angry at a seller because they sent the wrong size shoes. You can get this fact and make sure that your business markets itself as never making a mistake in shipping.
- Case studies – there are many studies conducted online that will help you jot down real-life problems that most people who buy your product experience based on statistics. Being observant to the changes in society will help you create a feature that’s up to date and goal oriented.
- Ask them – the most effective way to knowing what your customer wants is through asking them in a written interview, quiz or even a survey. You get a more personalised result that fits your brand and is based precisely on your buyers and not someone else’s customers.
3. Find Out What They Want
Now, you know what pains them it’s time that you ask them what they want. Notice how we mentioned want and not need. Most often than not, people attend to their wishes more than their needs. In the same way that you managed to pinpoint their problems, you can also use it to get their wants. Remember that their desires are usually the answer to their problems. For example, if a client sees waiting in line at a mart as a problem, then the outcome he or she would want is fast check out. The solution you can give would be an automated checkout or a faster machine that can detect barcodes quickly.
Here are some ways you can use to get a clearer idea of what your customers want:
- Forums
- Surveys
- Social Media
- Case studies
- Research
- Quizzes
4. Show How Your Product Helps Them
It’s one thing to focus on your product and another to get customer satisfaction. Zooming in to what you’re product offers is good but showing how they can help your customers is better because it will profit you more in the long run. You can put all the research you put into learning the problems and wants of your customers into good use. You do this by showing how your product fixes the problem and gives them what they want. For example, you sell marketing automation software. You learn that your customers want to do more but can’t due to limited time. They want to sell more without attending to the business 24/7. With this information, you can then market and present your product as a tool that helps people do more for less the time.
Conclusion
People are emotional beings, and by looking deeper into what your customers are struggling with and what they want, you can mould your business to be more customer-centric. By touching on people’s emotions and showing an image of a brand that cares you build a more likeable reputation for yourself. Remember, that a product that solves nothing will get earn nothing, and this is based on the principle of supply and demand.
Click Here To Acquire Infusionsoft by Keap
