a small business guide to improving customer experience

It goes without saying that any business is nothing without its customers.

And with major companies shelling out millions to boost their customer relationships, it’s especially crucial for small businesses to strengthen their customer ties as well.

However, if you want your customers to fall in love with your company, you can’t solely rely on customer services. While this is indeed an important function, it’s only one stop in a customer’s journey with your company.

Instead, you should focus on the customer experience aspect of your business.

focus on customer experience

This encompasses everything that a customer encounters when they work with your company — from reading helpful information guides to interacting with chatbots on your website.

In short, a business’ customer experience is the impression that they leave for their clients. To this end, small businesses must cultivate this to really help them stand out from the sea of competition.

If you’re a small business owner looking to improve your customer experience, we’ve rounded our top tips to help you!

1. identify who your customers are

Before making any interactions with your customers, you should first know who they are!

From their age and gender to their favourite items, understanding who they are will help you communicate with them more effectively. For an enhanced customer experience, it’s not enough that you only speak with them, you must also build a good rapport with them.

As I’ve previously covered on my ‘The Best Way to Attract Customers’ post, you can strengthen your relationships with them by keeping them informed promptly. What’s more is that you should make an effort to let them know that you value them by showing them respect, attention, and care.

When they know that you care, they’ll feel more comfortable trusting you, and are more likely to become loyal customers to your business.

2. understand your customer’s journey

To truly enhance your customer experience, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your customer’s journey before, during, and after purchasing your products.

For instance, before making a purchase, your customers should have a good idea of what you offer. Plus, if they have any enquiries, it’s vital that you answer them right away.

And when it comes to actually purchasing, one key area that must not be forgotten is payments.

This process should be seamless, with FIS Global highlighting how digital payments that don’t complicate the customer experience allows consumers to “pay the way they want, any time, any way, from anywhere and through any device.”

You wouldn’t want them to give up out of frustration and cut their customer journey short right when they are about to pay. Be sure to get the right systems that allow your customers to pay wherever and however they want securely and efficiently.

Once they’ve paid, see if they were satisfied with how things went down. If they weren’t, you should offer them a customer survey to help improve their journey.

3. don’t take customer feedback for granted

Speaking of customer surveys, this is another integral part of your customer’s journey!

True enough, The Guardian reports that nearly half of customers surveyed by the Institute of Customer Service aren’t satisfied with how their complaints were dealt with.

Although it may seem like an afterthought or even a bother for some businesses, receiving feedback from your customers can actually make all the difference for their experience.

Moreover, Forbes notes that good customer experience entails not only listening to what your customers have to say, but also making them feel heard and appreciated.

In line with this, it’s important to utilise a customer survey service that doesn’t just ask for ratings or comments, but allows you to stay in communication with your customers, too. This way, you can easily address concerns or solve problems that they could have countered in their experience.

Whether it’s a positive or negative response, receiving feedback for your customers will help you understand your customers on a much deeper level.

the road ahead

Which areas of your customer experience do you think needs improvement? Share with us in the comments below!

And if you’re not sure about what to do, you can book a free consultation with me for some guidance.