Always
consider your customer's goals, not your own.
There's nothing like the
feeling of success. As business owners, our ideas of success involve growing our
companies, increasing sales and leads and creating high-quality products. Many
companies, specifically SaaS brands, are focusing on the success of their
customers after they've made their initial purchases. The traditional buying
process doesn't end after the customer pays and receives their product.
Focusing on improving the
lives of your customers by giving them the tools and resources they need can
have a significant impact on your business. Customers who find success with
your business are more likely to be repeat customers and will have an overall
better experience.
Let's take a look at how
you can nurture your customers after they've purchased a product or service on
your website.
Focus on customer
needs.
There's a big difference
between your needs and the needs of your customers. When you're designing a
product or service, it's crucial that you take some time to consider why a
consumer may consider buying your product.
In most cases, the reason
they are making a purchase is to solve a pain point in their life. For example,
if you were a gardener but were having some trouble growing plants, you would
sign up to a monthly newsletter about gardening to solve the pain point of not
being able to grow a successful garden. In this example, the publication would
focus on the struggles and needs of its customers concerning gardening.
When you start with your
customer needs and think backward, you're ensuring that they will have a better
chance of finding success with your product.
Create a customer
success team.
Customer support and
customer success are often used interchangeably, though they are drastically
different. The one thread that connects these two teams is their interactions
with consumers.
Customer support is
considered a reactive process in which your team is waiting for consumers to
reach out with questions or concerns. When someone comes to your website and
has a question about a product or service, they will reach out to your service
team, and they will react by solving the problem.
Customer success, on the
other hand, is a proactive process. During the development process, you'll want
to come up with a course of actions for consumers that will help them get the
maximum value out of their purchase. It's your job to anticipate what your
customers are going to need.
Hiring a customer success
team means you'll have a small, focused group with one common goal in mind.
When your employees only have one primary task -- helping customers succeed --
there's a higher chance for success.
Collect feedback.
Finally, it's helpful to
collect customer feedback as a way to nurture the success of future consumers.
There are various ways to see what people think about your site design,
products and customer success program.
One of the best ways to
gather feedback is by sending out customer satisfaction surveys. If you're
trying to measure your success team, it's usually a good idea to send out an
email asking the consumer to fill out the feedback form a couple of months
after their initial purchase. Waiting for a few months can help the customer
find new uses, or flaws, in your product design or customer success
strategy.
As you begin to hear
about customer experiences, start taking note of common patterns that emerge.
For instance, if you sell marketing software, and a majority of consumers wish
they had more help when it comes to email marketing, you can use this data to
enhance your success strategy.
There are plenty of ways
to retain customers, but very few methods are as personal as nurturing customer
success. If you get the chance to go on this journey with your audience, you'll
gain plenty of experience and insights that help you build stronger
customer-focused products and services.
As you help current
customers succeed, you'll develop a framework for helping future customers make
the most of your products or services. The key factor you must consider here is
your customer's goals, not your own. Think carefully about what you would
expect from a company that sells a service similar to yours, and determine what
you can do to extend and enrich the customers' lives post-sale.
Syed Balkhi is the
founder of WPBeginner, the largest
free WordPress resource site that helps small businesses start their
website. PUBLISHED
ON: AUG 23, 2019 The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own,
not those of Inc.com.
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