One of the biggest roadblocks to exceptional customer experience is not truly knowing and understanding your customers.

What do they want and not want?
What are their interests?
What made them walk into your store or pursue your services?
What are their buying patterns?

It’s important that we work to have a comprehensive understanding of them, just like any relationship in our lives.

Empathize… Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Consider all the interactions between your customer and your business. If meeting in a physical establishment, how is the customer service and overall environment? How is the customer spoken to and treated? If online, how quickly are emails and phone calls responded to and what is the tone? How quickly are orders fulfilled and delivered?

Analyze… Investigate data you have on your customers, using Google Analytics and/or other tools. You can see their purchasing and correspondence patterns, and you can track how your business has responded to them.

Engage… What do your customers think? How do they feel? Engage with them in real time! You can do this via personal phone calls or messaging tools, to name a couple of options. This type of interaction can provide insight with a personal touch. Encourage them to share their thoughts and opinions in these ways or perhaps through an occasional feedback survey. It’s good to have varying customer contact strategies.

When we know what our customers want, we are better able to meet their needs and exceed their expectations. Optimizing their customer experience is the best way to foster customer loyalty, get new customers, and increase sales. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me to discuss this topic in more detail if you need help!