5 Customer Engagement Best Practices That Will Dramatically Boost Your Business

by: Kathy Caprino

We can find a hundred articles a day online today about “customer engagement” but to me, a good deal of it sounds like lip service – slick advice about how to appear deeply interested in and connected to your customer, and how to “convince” (dare I say “trick”) customers into thinking you really care. “In reality, says Zendesk’s Founder and CEO Mikkel Svane, “many organizations still view customer service as a cost center that is an unfortunate necessity.”

I was intrigued to learn about Svane’s new book, Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea into a Global Business that shares the real-life story of how he and two thirty-something Danish friends started a company in the kitchen of a Copenhagen loft. It’s a modern “making it in Silicon Valley story” that will resonate with founders just getting started to serial entrepreneurs with similar battle scars. It’s a story of people who pursued their dream—and who against a lot of odds had a chance to live it. It’s also a story about growing up—and how balancing vulnerability and curiosity isn’t always easy. Now, Zendesk is an 800-person company based in San Francisco that has made a significant impact on the customer service industry in just seven years, with over 45,000 clients in 140 countries.

Mikkel Svane Photo Courtesy of Zendesk

Svane shares this:
“You often hear this advice heading into marriage: don’t stop working at making the relationship better, and don’t ever take the other person for granted. Learning how to build a great customer relationship is not that different from learning how to build meaningful relationships in our personal lives. The sooner we are able to understand that we are not the center of the universe, and that it is a privilege for us to be in the lives of our customers, the better our company will do.

In my new book Startupland, I chronicle our entrepreneurial journey from three guys in a Copenhagen loft to launching and building Zendesk, a global cloud-based customer service platform. It’s a very personal story about how we started in the early days, but most importantly, it’s about all the relationships that shaped us along the way. These experiences have deeply impacted our company culture and values and how we interact with our customers on a daily basis.

Along this journey, we learned some great tips on how to build better relationships with customers. Here are five of my own customer engagement secrets to help improve your business.”

Svane’s five customer engagement best practices are:

Consider the entire customer experience.

Customers have a much better memory than companies do. The better you are at putting yourself in their shoes and having empathy to see what the entire customer journey looked like for them, the more successful you will be. The customer who was extremely excited and waited in line for hours to buy the new iPhone is the same person who tweets and blogs about it when it breaks. Those two moments are connected, and you must connect the dots.

 

Tip: Did you get an angry email with a customer wanting a return on something? Have your customer service team browse the customer’s public social channels back a few weeks or months to get an idea for their “entire experience.” Maybe they were a brand evangelist just three months ago, or the purchase was a birthday present for their child. It is important to know the context outside of the initial complaint and to understand the entire relationship of a customer to your company.

Recognize the right relationships and adapt.
Not every relationship is created equal. Some friends are great to meet up with at the bars, others are lifelong friends you keep in touch with despite differing geographies, and others simply wave when you pass by. The goal is to have the right relationship with each individual – and being able to speak to each person in a language that resonates with them. This requires becoming skilled at reading people. Figure out how to accept and improve the relationships you have, and say “no” when a customer relationship is unhealthy.

Tip: Ever heard of the book, The 5 Love Languages? The New York Times bestseller posited that people give and receive love in different languages, and that it’s all about making sure two people are speaking the right languages to each other. Although the book is meant for personal relationships, it’s a great concept you can apply to customer relationship building. Each customer is unique and can feel “loved” in different ways. Does one customer care more about the tone to which they are spoken? Or another care less about tone and more about a quick solution? Think about what these categories are and how you can speak the right language to the right person.

Be something actual humans can relate to.
People like talking to humans, not robots. Back in the day, when we were first starting out with the company, we tried making fancy emails that were perfect and without typos. No one responded. Then we decided we would change it up a bit. We’d craft more personal and unique opening sentences. We added spelling errors. Soon, we realized that we were getting a higher response rate. Once our customers saw that there was a human being (and not a robot) writing all these responses, they were more willing to write us back and interact with us.

If you asked any customer to choose between a “bot” that worked behind some virtual customer service desk versus a real, smiling, human being, of course they would choose the latter. It is not just a “nice to have” when it comes to having a personality as a company, it is vital, when customers have so many other choices in the marketplace. Many companies don’t succeed because they forget to be human.

Tip: In every message that you send to customers, leave one line where you add in something unique and personal. Is your customer back in the east coast going through the worst storm of the year? Include a line wishing that they are staying safe and warm this week. Talk to them like you would talk to your friend.

Empower people to do what’s best.

You should always encourage your employees to act like people.  This means giving them the freedom and room to be who they are – listen how they would listen to a friend – or solve a problem creatively, with their special touch. Did you really screw up on an order? Send them a pizza with the words “I’m Sorry” spelled out in pepperoni. I am sure your customer would appreciate this much more than a canned “I’m Sorry” email. Little mistakes or inefficiencies will inevitably occur when you allow people to make their own decisions, but the business can embrace these as the very things that make the business easier for customers to relate to – and ultimately, more human.

Tip: Encourage each member of your customer service team to come up with one thing that is their “personal signature.” Do they love inserting funny GIFs into messages to get a smile from a customer? Do they have one “grand gesture” they can offer if there is a key customer you’re trying to make happy or win back (i.e. spontaneous pizza delivery)? Empower them to bring to the table how they can best help customers in their own personal, unique voices.

Be truly transparent.
Once you lift the veil between you and your customer and they see that you are being real with them, you’d be surprised how much more empathy you will get from their end. People relate to and appreciate organizations that are open and honest. It’s not a perfect world, and sometimes you will not be able to serve up a solution on a silver platter in exactly the way they would want. Give them all the information you have – good or bad – and in a timely manner. We are up against years of people feeling like companies are not on their side and that they are out to get them with hidden fees and confusing return policies. The only way to build the kind of trust that lasts is to show your cards.

Tip: Don’t be afraid to share reasons for a delay in response. Are you understaffed because a team member had a personal family emergency? Share that. Once you show that behind your brand is a team of real, breathing people, just like them, it becomes easier to build a mutual understanding of trust and empathy.
Finally, remember there has never been a more important time for a company to focus on building authentic, real, relationships with their customers than now. For a lot of businesses, building customer loyalty means rewarding repeat behavior. You buy a sandwich five times and you get the fifth one free – but are they coming back because they love your sandwiches and the interactions they have with your employees, or are they coming back for a free meal? Customers are people who have a very tangible experience with your product and brand, and it should be the mission of your company to make sure it is an authentic and meaningful one. The customer voice has never been louder.

To view the original article please visit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2015/01/19/5-customer-engagement-best-practices-that-will-dramatically-boost-your-business/3/

Marketing to Millennials

By Hannah West

If your store has been around for a few years, you probably have some loyal customers you know by name. Many of these customers are part of the Baby Boomer generation and respond well to more traditional marketing and advertising.

But there is a new generation in town. When young adults born after the early 1980s reach 18, they are grouped into a category called "Millennials" or "Generation Y." Ten years ago they may have been running around your store asking their parents to purchase items FOR them, but now they have their own disposable income.

Here are some things to keep in mind when trying to get more Millennials in your doors:

1. They grew up with technology

When it comes to technology, it is like second nature to Millennials. They grew up with cell phones, computers in school and some may have even read their college textbooks on a screen rather than a page. They have plenty of ways to access information from anywhere. Millennials are not only accessing information from computers, but laptops, tablets and phones! Some fast solutions to their even faster lifestyles:

• Mention in your emails that discounts will be included if you show the email at the cash register on a cell phone.
• Share your sales, news and promotions on social media sites as well as email and traditional media. Luckily, SnapRetail makes this easy for our subscribers with an option to automatically repurpose an email for social media.

• Run Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest-exclusive promotions or contests.

• Invest in offering a smartphone app.

2. They have different priorities than older generations

Since Millennials cover a wide span of ages, your customers can range anywhere from an 18-year-old girl looking for dorm accessories to a 27-year-old father looking for a gift for his young son. Every customer is different, but Forbes.com had this to say about the spending priorities of young adult consumers: "Whereas older adults prioritized family-focused expenditures… today's Millennials spend their money on themselves, primarily on technology and travel."

 

There IS good news when it comes to Millennial shopping habits. According to a study done by Edelman Digital, 40% of Millennials claimed to prefer buying local. Appeal to Millennials' preferences by:

• Emphasizing the "shop local" movement in your marketing messages. Take note of important events such as Independent Retailer Month (July) and Small Business Saturday (November).

   

• Focusing on what products can do for individual customers in your messaging. How will this benefit them and their busy lives?

3. They love "sharable" purchases

When a Millennial loves a product, everyone knows. And if they hate it, the same rule applies. Millennials love to share their product feedback on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and any other medium possible. As much as they love telling others what to buy, they also look to the web to make their own buying decisions. Another Edelman study revealed that 42% of Millennials check four or more sources when they are trying to decide whether to pay for a product or service. This may be due to the way Millennials connect to products and what purchasing these products says about them. According to casualliving.com, "Sharability of the experience and 'association' are twice as important to Millennials as to Boomers. Millennials don't only think about how they should share their thoughts on a product, they think of how associating themselves with the product will make them look. Give them something to talk about by:

• Claim online listings on sites such as Yelp, Foursquare and Facebook places and encourage customers to check in and review.
• Encourage customers to add photos of themselves using purchases or tweet at your store to let you know how much they love their purchase or experience.

Marketing to Millennials is crucial since they are largest age group of consumers in the world. In addition to the size of this market, they are highly educated and racially diverse. The qualities of this age group in conjunction with their increasing buying power makes them worth the adjustments in your marketing.

 

To view the original article visit: http://www.snapretail.com/posts/2014/marketing-to-millennials.aspx

3 Ways to Attract Repeat Customers

Written by: Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle

There’s a misconception in retail that you need to gain new customers all the time when in reality, repeat customers are what any business should aim for. Of course, gaining new customers along the way should remain on any business owner’s to-do-list – but if you treat all customers in way that makes them want to return, merchants are more likely to gain long-term success.
Below are three strategies to help retailers and other small business owners alike in combating “one and only” sales and instead gaining repeat, loyal customers.

Employee Engagement 
Many businesses overlook the value of their employees and the impact they have on their customers. Particularly in retail, restaurant and service oriented businesses, employee and customer engagement is a key piece to the customer loyalty puzzle. The reason for this is actually very simple. People like to go to places that they enjoy, and they like to go places even more when they respect and enjoy the people who work there. This includes the employees – not just the owner or manager – whom they engage with.

Making employees a priority through customer service trainings, expectations and overall store standards can help create a destination that customers will enjoy not only for the product or services offered, but for the employees, as well. Setting standards within your own hiring and training habits can strengthen this, while delivering quarterly, bi-annual or at the very least, annual reviews can help, also.

Customer Value 

Keeping employees top of mind isn’t the only piece to the customer loyalty puzzle. Customers are a key ingredient here, and they want to believe you recognize this, as well. Delivering experiences that make your customers feel valued and appreciated is a great way to gain repeat, loyal customers. Among the ways you can do this is as simple as expressing gratitude – communicating a sincere “thank you” goes a long way – but even more so, offering incentives for referrals and repeat business is both recognized and valued by customers. Their response to your actions not only increase your sales, but strengthen your brand reputation.

The Barking Cat storefront in Salem, MA is well known for it’s outstanding customer service and in return, repeat customers.

Christopher Barnard, President and Co-Founder of Points – a company dedicated to making loyalty programs more valuable and engaging – believes that offering rewards, miles or “points” is key in attracting repeat business.

“Today’s shoppers are looking for more than just products to buy: they’re also looking for points, miles and rewards to accompany their purchases. At Points, we recently surveyed over 1,500 loyalty program members from across North America to learn more about the ways that consumers want to earn with their favorite loyalty programs. The results revealed that the majority of shoppers have redemption goals in their programs (81%), and they are willing to work toward them. 66% percent of consumers agree that earning even small amounts of points or miles in a loyalty program is important to them,” explains Barnard.

 

Product Knowledge
Let’s face it – if you’re a small business owner competing with the big dogs like Walmart, Target TGT -0.97% or any other nationally recognized business, you have a few disadvantages at your side. This said, you also have countless advantages to your side… such as knowing your product or services offered better than anyone in your marketplace. By positioning your brand, store or business as a leader in product knowledge, customers will return to your business for stronger support, trusted expertise and valued insight over your competitors. Plus, this also puts you in a position to gain media attention by becoming your local market’s go-to-resource whenever it comes to needing insight on what you sell.

With this in mind, sharing your expertise is also a great way to lure consumers of other businesses to yours – particularly when combined with stellar employees and reward based incentives. In fact, the Points study mentioned earlier also revealed that 69% of consumers said they would break their own habits and buy a different brand or from a different company to earn more points or miles.  As Barnard explains, “this information can really help pave the way for retailers and merchants that are interested in developing a loyalty program to woo shoppers.”

To view the original article visit: Forbes