Before the age of internet, constructing a mutually beneficial relationship with your audience consisted of providing them amiable face-to-face service by hiring friendly and knowledgeable staff to handle transactions and servicing. With the number of online purchases growing at a dizzying rate, the sales paradigm is also shifting.
However, that does not imply that you should no longer be worried regarding the attitude of your clients and potential clients towards your brand. Far from it! It just means that your business needs to pursue alternate venues to ensure that your customer remain loyal and are inclined to pick your services or products over the alternatives of your competitors. Let’s find out how to achieve that.
1. Social media connections
Gone are the days when businesses thrived exclusively based on interpersonal repeat and referral. Nowadays, audiences expect to be able to communicate with representatives of a certain brand via the popular social media websites, like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and etc.
These handy channels offer potential buyers a way to interact directly, post valuable deals, list useful content and much, much more. It’s also worth noting that several studies indicate that a strong social network presence is very likely to affect the viewer’s purchasing behavior.
2. Effective online assistance
The physical assistance model is by no means obsolete, but many customers show a tendency towards trying to obtain the help they need online before taking a trip to the store or sending their malfunctioning product into service.
A number of issues can be resolved by setting up an FAQ page on your website, while for others a call center operator can guide the user through the troubleshooting steps to avoid delays and extra expenses. Furthermore, the existence of an online assistance program constitutes extra assurance for your potential clients regarding your dedication to resolving issues that may arise.
3. The implementation of loyalty programs
The effectiveness of loyalty programs, be it coupons, gift cards, discounts, free shipment, and loyalty points, is undeniable. In fact, studies conducted on North American audiences show that the propensity towards shopping at a retailer that has implemented a form of rewards for repeated business is in excess of 75%. Remember to construct the loyalty program in a simple and intuitive manner, in order to ensure that your clients are actually inclined to use it.
4. Display of customer reviews
There’s no better or more trustworthy way to showcase the quality of your products and services than to offer readers the opportunity to read what other customers had to say about you. At a global scale, in excess of 70% of undecided buyers opted for brands that displayed an extensive number of testimonials, which should say something about the effectiveness of this tactic.
5. Extensive payment alternatives
Finally, you have to acknowledge the fact that your clientele is diversified, and manifests different preferences in terms of payment. If you only offer the possibility to pay with cash or credit cards, you stand to lose massive segments of audience that prefer wire transfer or services like PayPal. A comprehensive POS can enable you to extend the range of accepted payments and grant you access to a larger client base.