Having a profitable business requires much more than high profit margins. In fact, the selling price and cost of goods sold are just some of the minor factors that contribute to the overall profitability.
Other crucial aspects of maintaining a successful brand include everything from proper marketing to a positive customer experience. In order to ensure that these conditions are satisfied, however, companies must spend a lot of time developing their operations and figuring out how to accommodate a need in their sector efficiently.
Nevertheless, making the buyers feel welcomed and incentivizing them to come back is arguably going to be the number-one reason why some businesses thrive and others fail. So, what are five easy ways to put the customer first?
Understand Who the Customer Is
A lot of companies spend millions of dollars on their customer service departments and still fail to establish a positive interaction between themselves and the buyers. This is generally caused by a lack of understanding of the customer that the brand is focused on. For those unfamiliar, every organization is going to have a specific type of buyer that they are targeting. Some are in the market to sell products to middle-aged women, per se, while others are mostly focused on retired folks or teenagers.
In the end, the combination of all of those factors and demographics that the company has to analyze goes into the targeted customer profile. So, how does this play a role? Well, according to the founder and medical director of the Center for Medicine and Plastic Surgery in Longueuil, Quebec, Dr. Pierre Courchesne, failing to conduct proper research will be an expensive mistake. The reason why is that it will lead companies to target the wrong type of customer and their sales are going to be negatively affected.
Be Responsive
When individuals are looking to buy a product or a service from a company that they never bought something from before, there is going to be a fair amount of skepticism involved. And rightly so. After all, spending money should not be done lightly and most buyers understand this. Thus, it is crucial to respond to all inquiries in a timely manner and show the customer that their business is appreciated.
Doing so will make it much easier to turn them into a long-term buyer who is willing to make that first purchase.
Offer Good Incentives
Dr. Pierre Courchesne further advises businessmen and women, if you are not restricted by a professional regulatory body, to offer good discounts to their buyers if they want to keep them happy. This strategy has been around for a long time because it is one of the most successful ways to instantly increase revenues.
Obviously, however, it is important to have good incentives in place that are tangible enough to make someone spend money. For example, having a $10 rebate on a $500 item will be laughable and could cost one their customers. Instead, offering a $100 discount on that item will most likely lead to dramatically increased demand.
Ask for Customer Opinion
After realizing a purchase, it is equally as important to follow-up with the buyer as it was to motivate them to buy something. Why? Well, failing to do so could lead to a scenario in which the buyer is so dissatisfied with the service that they want to get a refund. And most situations are going to result in the refund being processed as buyers tend to have the upper hand in such scenarios. Additionally, listening to feedback could be a good chance to improve one’s operations so that they can fit their customers’ needs.
Give Back to the Community
Ultimately, there is little that shows a company truly cares and puts the customer first as significantly as giving back to the community. This is because people have a tendency to value companies that are making an obvious effort to improve the state of society and are not afraid to donate money or time to charity.
As a consequence, the company could still end up being profitable even after donating their funds because people’s awareness of them will increase.