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  • Tips You Can Use to Increase Customer Loyalty

    Tips You Can Use to Increase Customer Loyalty

    Loyalty doesn’t happen overnight, so what can you do to foster this? Focus on your interactions with current and potential customers so that you can achieve long-term success. Over time, however, it was evident that building long-term relationships with clients was more likely to pay dividends over time.

    Customers who are loyal to your brand are committed to your brand. If you have good customer service, a vast selection of goods, or any other way to distinguish yourself, you will always win the loyalty of your customers.

    Exemplified by Successful Customer Loyalty

    • The Amazon Prime membership is one of the best customer loyalty programs. A yearly subscription is required. Customers can stream Prime Video through the subscription as well as get free two-day shipping.

    Amazon has had tremendous success with this program. According to research, Prime members spend an average of $1,300 a year on the Amazon website, while non-Prime members spend $700 a year.

    • The Starbucks app, one of the most successful mobile applications in history, is used by 4 million people aged 14 and older every six months for at least one purchase. Google Pay will be used by twice as many people as Apple Pay.

    In short, the app lets users load money onto their mobile devices, which they can use in-store for purchasing items. Mobile device users can also order and pick up from the closest store using their mobile device. Customers can redeem free drinks and other perks by earning “stars” with every mobile purchase

    Strategies for Building & Maintaining Customer Loyalty

    • Incentivize customers to join loyalty programs and offer discounts –

    Customers tend to place a high value on immediate satisfaction when it comes to experience. Retailers can offer discounts on products that customers regularly buy with the use of analytics technology, your customers will be motivated to sign up to your loyalty program by giving them an immediate incentive. By offering loyalty rewards, you can help your clients stay loyal to you. If your company offers an exclusive discount for college students, veterans, seniors, you’ll reach and retain key segments of your customer base

    It’s essential to make them feel extra special when they buy from you to create a successful loyalty program. Give your customers something they’ll remember with birthday deals, exclusive sales, or free classes. Let them know what they’ve earned with your brand. By staying in touch with them, you will keep churn at a minimum.

    During traditionally slow times, people may buy from you by offering discounts. You will build a loyal customer base by letting them know that a specific day may offer a better deal.

    Movie theatres that offer $5 tickets on Tuesday and restaurants that offer 10% off on Monday for college students are two examples.

    • Encourage customer loyalty with referral programs and Wish Lists

    Your customers will come back if you make their lives easy.  Rewards don’t need to be limited to only incentivizing spending, in addition to rewarding your existing customers, a “Refer- A- Friend” program can help you attract new customers. Most successful loyalty programs let customers create wish lists and track their favorite items. Using this method, a customer can easily track what items they want to purchase and create a gift shopping list that friends and family can reference easily. You will be able to expand your client base even further if you develop a loyal community of customers. The fact is it’s one of the best ways to increase the visibility of your eCommerce brand.

    Providing discounts, coupons, or other incentives to your customers who share your content online will encourage them to engage with brands via social sharing, referrals, and honest feedback.

    Many companies have utilized referral programs since they became popular, and TransferWise’s “Invite a Friend Program” has experienced great success.

    • You should ask your customers for feedback and collect data about them.

    Hearing directly from your clients can improve your customer loyalty strategy. All you need to do is ask your customers to share their thoughts. Alternatively, you could give them incentives to do so. Without honest feedback from your customers, you’ll have a harder time cultivating a loyal following. Consumer feedback will ensure your brand is a pleasure to experience and that they will return.

    The following methods can be used to collect customer feedback –

    • Emailing surveys – Subscribers signed up for your email list to stay in touch. You can get reliable feedback on your current processes from those invested in your business.
    • Analyzing live chat and chatbot transcripts – When you look at the live chat or chatbot conversations of your site visitors, you can gain valuable insight into their concerns and pain points.
    • Listening to social media – Utilize social media monitoring and engagement to monitor what customers have to say about your brand on social media. The expression of opinions can be done using hashtags, comments, direct mentions, or likes.

    The opportunity to create a loyal customer exists whenever you receive customer feedback, even if they are temporarily dissatisfied. Responding to feedback should represent your appreciation for it and your readiness to address it. Your response will strengthen your relationship with the customer and anyone else who reads it.

    • Gamify the customer experience to improve it

    The idea of gamifying something is to take an ordinary task – e.g., a driving test – and add gaming elements to make it more interesting. LinkedIn’s gamification features have been known to inform users when their profile is told it is 58% complete, and here are four tips on how to get it to 100%.

    In a recent study, Deloitte said that gamification in marketing makes a 30-40% improvement in customer engagement online for media companies with games.

     

    The following examples and tips can help you effectively interact with your customers. You will gain a lot of respect from customers if they know you care about their concerns and value their feedback.

    Building a stable customer base begins with focusing on your existing customers. If you neglect your existing customers, you will eventually collapse. Customer appreciation is about acknowledging what your customers have done for you.

    Let talk!! How you are increasing your customer loyalty & Listen to how Blaash.io can add value to it.

  • A Great Customer Experience Strategy Should Avoid the Following Mistakes

    A Great Customer Experience Strategy Should Avoid the Following Mistakes

    Today’s world is driven by the customer. In the modern world, there are more options for customers because technology is readily available to them. Those who receive excellent customer support may become the brand’s most devoted ambassadors. Service to the customer has become a top priority for businesses. Adapting your strategy to the most recent market insights will help you create a better customer experience and be on top of the most recent industry trends. The poor customer experience of a brand has caused 49% of consumers to leave it in the past year. When customers have positive experiences throughout their journey, 65% of respondents intend to become loyal customers. Customer experience has a significant impact on keeping customers happy.

    Customer service has a great impact on recommendations, with consumers rating a company’s service as “good” having a 38% higher likelihood of recommending that company

    Brands can build a long-term relationship with customers instead of focusing solely on basic queries and FAQs. By turning prospects into lifelong, dedicated customers, the brand can yield extremely high profits. Consistently excellent customer service is of the utmost importance. In return, consumers begin to trust and believe the brand and speak highly of it. According to Microsoft research, engaging consumers in an emotional way builds brand loyalty for 96% of them. Brands that engage customers sustainably enjoy a deeper relationship with customers. This is valuable for organizations. The cost of acquiring a new customer is 6-7 times higher than retaining an existing one. With good CX, your customers will support your brand every step of the way. It is logical and business-sensical to focus on your current customers. Customer satisfaction ensures a profitable business model and happy customers.

    Nearly 80% of consumers would rather do business with a competitor after experiencing more than one bad experience.

    A company’s excellent customer service guarantees that 78% of consumers will do business with them again after a mistake.

    During the period 2022 to 2030, the CX Management market in the US is expected to grow by 15.3% annually. When it comes to operationalizing customer experience strategies, companies across all sizes and industries have faced several challenges. Customer experience is changing and experiencing new challenges. However, businesses make the most common mistakes in customer service that can be avoided.

    Figure 1 COMPARISION OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

    Companies face the greatest obstacles when they fail to –

    • Lack of Customer Understanding – Customers cannot be serviced effectively if brands don’t understand them as individuals. It is important to keep track of the behavior of the customers as well as their purchase histories. Thus, the employee can offer the best solution to the customer without difficulty. You must know the pulse of your customers, by understanding their needs and wants to discover their challenges. It is necessary for your team to comprehend the customer in-depth so that they can walk in the customer’s shoes. By creating a detailed description of your customer personas, you can achieve this effect. Your main objective is to ensure that everyone on your team understands the importance of great customer service. If you don’t have the right technology in place and the right training, you can’t build and nurture customer relationships.

    The most frustrating experience for 33% of customers is waiting on hold. Three-quarters of respondents say they get frustrated with repeated interactions with support representatives.

    Using bots to resolve issues has fallen to 28% effectiveness. In America, 40% of consumers rely on other channels to contact customer service teams, as they find bots ineffective

    • Lack of Communication with the consumer – Communication is yet another sphere where companies fall short when it comes to customer service, whether it’s via emails, social media posts, or phone calls, customers demand an instant response in today’s digital age. Often, when complaints are basically the same, representatives get accustomed to them. Due to the fact they want to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, they might react without fully comprehending the issue. Nearly half of those posting complaints expect responses within 60 minutes, according to Edison’s research. Companies can use feedback to identify potential customer service issues or product problems. Taking negative feedback in a positive light can even lead to stronger customer relationships. Companies can use it to evaluate the quality of their products or services. In exchange for feedback, they might offer discounts or free products, or an apology note. For brands, replying to customer questions/comments is no longer enough; they must act immediately. It is possible for brands to manage user comments and conversations with the right tools without having to leave their customers unhappy.

    Live chat is the preferred communication method for millennials over every other communication method.

    • Lack of Customer Data Usage – Since CX teams deal with hundreds of data touch-points day in and day out, they will require CRM tools that can analyze the data and extract valuable information from the data mine. Many businesses don’t take advantage of their customer data. Making better use of this data will benefit their customers. There are different communication channels preferred by different customers. In some cases, online chat is preferred over phone calls or e-mail exchanges. As competition and customer touchpoints change constantly, an organization’s marketing mix must encompass investments in CX as well. It is essential that organizations have an always-learning culture in which leading and lagging KPIs are regularly reviewed.

    Over 90% of consumers believe a company with a “very good” rating can be trusted to handle their needs.

    • Lack of Customer Respect & Privacy –

    If you are in charge of customer support for a SaaS product, your job is to explain how customers can use it and identify their problems. It is always wise to treat the customer nicely. Never engage in argumentative behavior. Customers can seriously take offense if they receive offers, they don’t want at inconvenient times, and if their personal information is used without their consent. A transparent policy of how you use their personal information is the best way to ensure that they can opt-out of any activities that might make them uncomfortable. Schedule your emails and texts regularly, but not too often.

    Personalizing consumer experiences can increase our online conversion rate by 8%

    70% of the customer’s journey is based on how he or she feels like they are being treated.

    Four essential elements should be addressed by customer experience leaders. Alignment with business objectives should be central to their strategy. Customer experience strategies guide resource allocation, provide guidance in designing a specific experience, and prioritize resources. Customer service strategies need to be updated and re-evaluated for companies today, especially when facing a fiercely competitive market. The customer experience needs to be continuously reviewed and monitored, and companies need to change if the experience is disappointing. The final point to remember is that no single strategy will work when it comes to providing a superior customer experience. Creating a winning CX strategy starts with understanding the brand’s customer base and factoring in the company’s goals. Are you onboard?

  • IMPACT OF SOCIAL COMMERCE ON E-COMMERCE BRANDS

    IMPACT OF SOCIAL COMMERCE ON E-COMMERCE BRANDS

    Social media was once used for photos and videos of entertainment, connections, and communication. Today, social media is used for an array of different purposes like Shopping, Marketing, Building Community, and many more. D2C brands’ success has been unstoppable because of this digital revolution. With its capabilities of providing direct access to target consumers without time and distance restrictions, social media helps us to reach a wide audience in a short amount of time.

    In 2020, there were around 80 million social buyers in the US, an increase of 30% from the previous year.

    30% of eCommerce firms are already selling on social networks, and another 12% plan to do so in 2021.

    Additionally, as the pandemic increases the impact of digitalization, both brands and consumers have experienced a change in their respective purchasing and selling behaviors. The use of eCommerce and social media has changed consumer shopping habits, triggering an increase in social commerce platform usage.

    Social eCommerce is a trend that originated in Asia and has spread globally. Especially in India, the growth would be imminent, since a large part of the population uses social media, from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapshot, Pinterest, etc. Almost every business is trying to integrate social eCommerce into their operations, as part of the larger eCommerce sales category, social commerce is expected to reach $4.2 trillion this year.

    On social media, 11% of users make an online purchase immediately after discovering a product, while 44% purchase it later.

    The rise of social commerce creates a lot of opportunities for D2C brands since they frequently use social media for awareness, influence, and sales.

    D2C brands and social commerce benefit from the fact that their consumers spend the majority of their time on platforms where they are active. If you look at Instagram or Pinterest, two platforms that target the same generation, you will find that the evolution of D2C and social commerce is directly connected to these digital media platforms.

    A survey conducted in June 2021 found that 35% of respondents were influenced by social media ads when purchasing. Generation Z respondents are more likely to be influenced by social media ads at 75%. Among social media users ages 18 to 24, 55% made at least one purchase on social media, followed by those 25-34. In a recent survey, 54% of Gen Z shoppers and 58% of Millennials agreed that social media platforms are better for discovering new products than online searches.

    The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for social commerce is expected 28.4% from 2021 to 2028.

    More than two-thirds of global internet users use social media to buy products.

    You can offer your audiences exciting shopping opportunities via digital platforms they prefer with social commerce. So why not use it? Listed below are the top strategies which you can use to increase social commerce worth for your business.

    • Choosing the Right Social Media Platform –

    Compared to e-commerce, social media shopping is a more interactive experience. Every day, millions of people use a wide variety of social and digital platforms, but brands have restricted resources to use for digital advertising. Shoppers say they research products on Instagram and Facebook before purchasing them, claiming that up to 81% do so. Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok have all started expanding their social commerce offerings and are gaining ground with Instagram and Pinterest.

    One million Facebook Shops are active every month, with over 250 million active participants by Q1 of 2021. If you compare Pinterest users with people on other social media platforms, they’re 7x more likely to say Pinterest is the most influential in their purchase journey. In the period July 2020 to February 2021, Instagram Shopping contributed 80% of total sales to one retail brand, Jane.

    In the U.S., Facebook is the top social commerce platform with 56.1 million buyers.

    Brands pursuing social commerce should gather and analyze detailed information about target audiences’ preferences before moving forward. Understanding your customers will make it easier to figure out the best channels to target for marketing campaigns.

    In comparison with shoppers on other platforms, 85% of Pinterest shoppers have more in their baskets.

    • Organize live shopping events –

    With eCommerce, consumers can purchase their favorite products from anywhere around the globe and have them delivered right to their homes or offices. It’s interesting to note that live streaming shopping in a way modernizes the age-old practice of home shopping. Conceptually, nothing changes, just the channel.

    In China, live stream shopping accounts for $312.5 billion.

    The advantage of live shopping is that customers can view products in actual time, and sellers can showcase their products. By leaving comments on the live video, users can gain more insight into the product, just like on Instagram Live. Review and recommendation information is flashed on the screen, guiding viewers during the selection process. Viewers are captivated by live commerce, which is immersive and entertaining. Video and retail merge is better engagement, to bridge the gap between products and customers, and drive sales. Online Marketplaces, Live Auctions, Influencer Streaming, Tutorials, Live Events, Gamification, and Interactivity are the most common formats for live shopping today.

    • Create a content creators’ network for your brand –

    There is no doubt that in 2022, there will be an explosion of creativity and the emergence of a new type of economy fuelled by more than 50 million content creators across the globe and on social networks. Now the social platforms allow purchases through their apps, and creators can tag products directly on their posts. Globally, it grew by 42% this year to $13.8 billion and is expected to reach $15 billion by 2022. Spending on influencer marketing rises because of this transition. With the growing ease of setting up an online store thanks to technology ecosystems, influencers and brands will be working together more and more. In order to grow brand awareness, create engagement, and generate conversions, creators introduce their brand and products authentically and discover the right creator, explore the social media accounts and feed into your industry that drives engagement. In addition to these options, brands can collaborate with a variety of influencers and micro-influencers to develop a multi-tiered influencer marketing strategy.

     In the United States, 78% of social network users learn about new products via Facebook. Instagram and Pinterest come in second place with 59% each. 

    By 2027, social commerce sales are expected to be worth $605 billion.

    Online stores that have social media buttons can benefit from social commerce. Your followers care about your commitment to diversity in leadership and the use of organic ingredients when it comes to growing your social commerce as consumer needs brands that support the causes that are important to them. Your brand will be more effective if you engage your consumers in content that helps them understand your offerings in a relatable way. A majority of users access social media platforms on mobile devices. Due to its user-friendly features, social commerce has become the shopping site of choice. Consumers’ behaviors can be captured through social media without interfering with their social lives. If you want to navigate the social commerce realm, keep in mind that followers want to be inspired and entertained by D2C brands.

     

    Whether you’d like custom strategies based on accurate data or the development of eCommerce websites, we can help. Learn more about investing in digital commerce by contacting our team of experts.