These needs can also change over time; therefore, you must find ways to constantly stay up to date with your customer base. Good customer service is all about satisfying the requirements of your customers.
How can you identify customer needs?
Information acquisition from your customers doesn’t have to be a daunting task. There are many easy and cost-effective ways to identify customer needs, including:
Using surveys
Surveys are a great way for helping you discover more about your customer base. It’s an easy way to get into the minds of consumers to find out what they want and what they don’t like about your brand.
Analysing website data
Your website can tell you a lot about your customers and their behaviour. With an effective tool such as Google Analytics, you can find out which products or services are most popular on your website and what type of content attracts the most visitors. This can help you to tweak your eCommerce website to best suit your customers’ requirements.
Using social listening
Social listening involves tracking your social media platforms for mentions and conversations related to your brand, products or services. It entails actively following your social media accounts and using social media listening tools to monitor and analyse online conversations about your brand, specific topics, your competitors, or anything else relevant to your business. By doing this, you get insight into how your products or services are received and how they fit your consumers’ expectations.
Asking them
Probably one of the simplest ways to get feedback from customers is to ask them! This is often overlooked, especially by online businesses. But talking to your customers is a great way to gain valuable feedback. There is nothing wrong with sending a follow-up email after a sale or interacting with your customers on social media.
How can you enhance your customer support quality?
Get personal
Learn your customers’ names in interactions and use them. It can also be beneficial to research things about your customers and find ways to relate to them. Most people enjoy the experience of social interaction during transactions, so always be open to conversation.
Offer real-time support
Connect with customers via a live chat solution to deliver real-time support for queries. Investing in a live chatbot solution is one of the most valuable elements to consider with website design.
Automate customer support
Be available 24/7 by deploying a chatbot to engage with customers and answer simple queries promptly.
Offer access to existing sources
Many queries can simply be resolved by having guides and tips available on your website or social media platforms for quick answers to certain queries.
Thank customers
Whether it’s a ‘thank you’ email after a purchase or a simple courtesy call, people like to feel appreciated. Therefore, it can be highly beneficial for your business to focus on thanking your customers and making them feel valued.
Should you respond to negative feedback?
It can be challenging to interact with unhappy customers. However, as a small business owner, you must find solutions to any customer issues. That’s why you must respond to negative comments even if you don’t feel the feedback is warranted. When replying, always be apologetic and then see how you can solve any problems.
Ready to enhance your business’s customer service in 2021?
Identifying and satisfying the needs of your customers is the best approach for your small business to boost its profitability. If you need help with improving your customer service, talk to the website development and marketing team at Web Guru. We work with many South African businesses to help them succeed by satisfying the needs of their unique customer base.
