A recent survey indicated, also true with my existing coaching clients, that businesses that invested in customer experience strategies, reported higher customer referral rates and increased profits. Customers expect more from their interactions with you and your business. They will advocate for you and recommend your business to others when you deliver a memorable emotional customer experience.
Today, the customer experience speaks louder than ever before. The emergence of social media and technology keeps us all online and in touch 24 hours a day. We now live in the age of transparency. Your customers have the ability to find anything about you, your product, service, business and competition in an instant, with very little effort. Often, they know more about your business than you or your employees do. They also now have the ability to easily tell others how they feel about their experience with your business through many social channels.
At the same time, your customers have become overwhelmed with information through technology such as smart phones, tablets, apps, laptops and TV. In this environment, people have become numb to advertising and traditional marketing. In the age of transparency, their trust in traditional advertising messages have diminished while their trust in the opinions of friends, bloggers, online comments and postings, of those they consider reliable sources of influence, have increased dramatically.
This has put advocacy referrals and personal recommendations at the top of any important business marketing strategy. Gaining customers and growing your business through referrals and word of mouth is the least expensive marketing channel. Prospects and customers who come to you through referrals are more qualified, more likely to buy, more likely to be loyal to your business and stick around longer.
Since fewer leads will come from traditional outbound marketing, I personally coach my clients and help them in their businesses to focus on creating a “Magical Customer Experience” that will be emotional and memorable. This always results in creating more advocates, ambassadors and loyal customers who refer their products, services and business to others, thus increasing profits.
What customer experience strategies are you using and presently implementing in your business to create a load of referrals, and word of mouth advertising? If you have never thought about this, think in terms of what touch points do you have with your customers before, during and after the sale. Make a list and begin to tackle each one at a time and think of ways to make each touch point, memorable and magical. Contact me if you need help.
Your Customer Experience is the marketing channel of the future. Make sure you are delivering those magical experiences to your customers to build a referral focused marketing channel for your business. If not, you might be wasting time, money and effort trying to buy new customers all the time. A strategy that is definitely not a long term one for your success.
Want more business? Just ask my clients? They will tell you about my coaching services, my passion and commitment to help them and how effective my presentations, coaching and training programs are to help them achieve their goals. I am sure they will even refer you to contact me right away. I certainly appreciate that, and is living proof that Creating Magical Customer Experiences will bring you positive results. Now that is Magical!