Customer service is the key aspect that sets your business apart from competitors. Therefore, how they are dealt with during the purchase matters greatly.
So, your primary goal to succeed is to retain and grow your customer base. There are many strategies businesses employ to keep their customers satisfied and keep coming back for more.
A specific term coined for this is ‘customer success.’ The sooner a business learns the importance and ways to boost customer success, the more their business will grow.
However, it is still a relatively new concept for businesses. Hence it's not easy for everyone to jump on the bandwagon and start with customer success strategies.
So, here we’ll take you through a deep understanding of the concept, how it can help your business and the top customer success strategies.
What is Customer Success?
Customer success is the way businesses work to help customers achieve their goals through their products and services. Customer success strategies increase customer engagement, retain them and increase the chances of their success with your products.
An important thing to consider here is that customer success is different for every business. Since it depends on each product or service, and the customer expectations, it can vary per product and company.
So your job is to bridge this gap. Bring the customers as close to their aims and objectives as possible.
Remember that the service counts most while you are dealing with them. Research shows that 89% of customers switch to a competitor brand after a bad experience. So you must ensure customer delight or satisfaction at the very least to retain them.
Also, your products and services must be tailored to their requirements. You need a proactive approach here and ensure that your offering is an answer to their problem even before they speak of it. This is the key factor that boosts customer loyalty.
These customers then become your advocates and help expand your customer base. Ultimately it leads to the achievement of your organizational goals and bottom line.
What is a Customer Success Strategy?
A customer success strategy is a plan of action that helps businesses keep all customers happy and successful. You may have a specific department that deals with it or - for a small setup - even the whole organization on board to ensure it is implemented.
The gist of it is to form a partnership with your client. That way, your relationship with them strengthens, and as they get value from your offering, they are more likely to achieve success.
You need this strategy to retain these existing customers and bring in new clients.
Why is Customer Success Important for Business?
Consider this scenario: A customer walks up to you and asks about a product problem. You patiently respond to their query and even go a mile out and offer them a complimentary gift. The customer is delighted.
Now the kind of experience they are taking from here is really good. So the next time the customer wants the same product, they will buy from you and will now spread the good word about your brand.
So you aren't just retaining a customer but also attracting new ones this way. No matter what type of business you are in, customer success is pivotal for growth and success.
Top Customer Success Strategies for Business
Whether you are an entrepreneur, a sole business owner, or run a full-fledged company, these strategies are the greatest ways to ensure customer success. Here are the top twenty customer success strategies you can implement to help the customers meet their goals and stick around for long.
1. Selective Approach
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However tempting it may seem, don’t go crazy getting everyone on your boat. Instead, find those customers with higher chances of success with your products or services.
This means less work for you and limits your focus. Your team is more likely to satisfy these clients with your product that is tailored to their specific needs. The marketing efforts will be driven the right way, and you will get just the audience you need for the product and service.
So you get more conversion and less dissatisfaction.
2. Ease Up On-Boarding
Make it easy and quick for the customers to get on board with your brand. People are multitasking, and working on the clock today, so you need to keep things moving.
Ensure the CTA is visible and customers can quickly get your products or services without unnecessary delays.
The more time it takes, the more likely they will turn away and find the same product as your competitors. So prepare and engage them as soon as they walk in or visit your webpage.
This approach will add value to their experience and may even be why they reach out to you in the future.
3. Extend Your Support
Make sure as soon as your product is up for selling, so is your service staff. The customers may have many questions, concerns, or issues with the product or service. The more promptly you solve their problems, the more likely they will turn to you again.
However, to do that, you needn’t have round-the-clock staff to greet them; make full use of technology where you can. You can use:
Email tickets
Live chat
Chatbots
FAQs
Lead them to blogs and knowledge articles, etc.
You may even use a combination of these strategies to provide them with the best service possible. However, as discussed, dealing with the customers is crucial to success, so your first interaction matters a lot.
Equip your sales team with the knowledge of handling complaints and concerns. Make sure whichever approach you follow, you always add value to the customer whichever path you take.
4. Create Awareness
Sometimes, especially when the product or service is complex or new to the market, it helps increase awareness. For example, you can offer a course or a webinar educating the customers about the offering. The focus of the discussion should be to show them the value and how it will benefit them.
That way, you can get a considerable market’s attention towards your brand. Then align that with expert customer service, and you can drive some robust sales from there.
5. Tracking
Make sure your efforts don’t end when a customer leaves your counter. You need to keep them engaged and coming for more.
Keep checking the user engagement measures daily, weekly, and monthly. You can also come up with targets and ensure you meet them.
Also, check for tickets raised, onboarding steps completed, and other metrics to see how well you are doing with the customer success.
Check into the customer retention rate, repeat purchase rate, and customer lifetime value as well.
Find the patterns and trends and adjust your services according to these findings. Your goal should be to remove all obstacles making the customer experience smooth. This way, it should be easy for them to achieve success.
It is an ongoing process. If you want your customer base to stick, you must keep them interested. Your product or service should offer value they won't get from competitors.
6. Personalize
Knowing a bit about the person you are dealing with, calling them by their name, and showing empathy always hits the heart. Customers are more likely to turn to brands that listen to and remember them.
It’s a feeling of being valued by the brand that takes the time to know about the customer. So, you can also come up with relevant offers and recommendations based on the customer’s past purchases and interests.
This practice saves time and keeps the customer's trust in your brand.
7. Communicate
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Communication is a two-way street. Make sure you listen and then talk and talk with the customer. Get down to the same tone and level and speak to the customer.
Make sure nothing is simply left understood or left out deliberately. For example, try to avoid using jargon or difficult terms. Instead, your language should be simple, courteous, and efficient to boost sales.
Keep the communication channels open throughout their journey. For example, you can look into setting up appropriate check-in points, where you can ask them how they are doing and if they need any help.
Add in tips or short video clips to help them make a smooth journey to the purchase. You can even call them one-on-one or send emails just to keep a check on how things are going and help wherever they need.
8. Follow Up
As we said, it’s not over when the customer leaves your counter. Call them, get in touch, and ask about their valuable experience with the product or service. Be open to taking in constructive criticism and complaints as well.
Check-in on unresolved complaints, get their reviews, and show that you will not abandon them even after the purchase. This is one of the most effective customer success strategies for customer retention.
9. Review the Feedback
Whatever you get from the customers as feedback, make sure you put it to use. Review it and make the necessary changes. Once the customers see that their words haven't been wasted and the company has made some good changes, they will feel empowered and valued.
Moreover, you can even give credit where it's due and publicly declare that a particular change or addition has been made based on the (customer’s name) recommendation.
These delighted customers will likely attract more customers and stay loyal to your brand.
10. Minimize the Churn Rate
Like customer engagement, the churn rate is an essential aspect of growth. Check if the rate is stable or increasing every month. If the rate is rising, reach out to the lost customers.
Ask them why they have left your brand. Maybe even offer them something of value to win them back. However, showing concern and empathy at this point will add to the customer experience and may even lead to customer success.
11. Review the Lost Customers
When you are facing losses, customers are turning away. So you need to analyze the results of your churn feedback. You may be able to find common points.
Maybe there’s some problem with your product or service. Look it up and see if it can be fixed.
Again time is of the essence here. The earlier you detect the issue, the sooner you’ll be able to fix it and save your customers. Sometimes it may be a simple improvement to the existing product or a shift in your target audience could make all the difference to your sales.
Look it up and analyze your findings and try to find a fix where you can without wasting any time.
12. Encourage Referrals
Your existing customers are your biggest strength in getting you new customers. So create a referral program to encourage them to bring in new clients. This way, even though they will promote your company based on experience, they will be further motivated to do it even more.
You can offer a simple benefit like a free subscription month or a discount on their future purchase as well as an incentive.
13. Use Technology
Make use of digitization and technology where you can. Customer experience starting from attracting them to your business, all the way to serving and retaining them, is a lot of work. Plus, you need specific tools for collecting and analyzing your collected data.
So buy good software with all the tools you need specifically for your business to make the analysis and store the data. This way, there will be less chance of missing out on opportunities to improve your processes and serve your customers better.
Plus, some software also has alerts for likely churn-outs and can consolidate your suggestions and feedback. So, use these where you can and make your processes smooth and streamlined with software support.
14. Offer Self-Service Training
Customers need to know how to navigate your website, app, and social media handles. So offer them online support as well as self-training courses. These courses should offer a combination of academics and practical skills to get the most value out of the experience.
The courses can rely on different avenues like videos, handouts or written material, and interactive projects to make them interesting and knowledgeable for the customers.
15. Master Customer Journey Mapping
Another crucial strategy, in fact, a step to customer success is customer journey mapping. Mapping requires you to view each part of the customer journey with your brand in isolation.
Then, when you attach a specific team or people with it, you can keep the customer moving till the end.
As a result, there are fewer chances of abandonment, and the customers are more likely to be pleased whenever their concerns are met promptly.
In addition, since the customers move from one team serving them to the next, they are better managed and get a better experience with your brand. So, always ensure you have the customer journey map ready for your team to help the customers succeed.
16. Offer Customized Services
Since each customer is unique, they all have different interests and goals. So, to ensure customer success, you need to cater to each as well. It’s not the customer who has to adapt to your service map; it is you.
Train your team to handle each customer uniquely, making their overall experience remarkable. Make sure you offer flexibility to meet the customer's unique requirements and provide great support advice and packages, building value for the customer.
17. Take a Holistic Approach to Customer Success
Whether you are a solopreneur or are running a big organization, customer success should be your primary concern. Once that becomes your primary goal, you can devise other goals and strategies around it.
This way, the customers will get the best experience with your brand and help you with your bottom line. But, of course, get your team on board with the concept too.
Once everyone is on the same page regarding customer success and its importance for business, they will work holistically towards the goal.
18. Put Your Customers’ Needs First
Remember that it's not the product or service you should discuss but what it can do for the customer. The customer needs to know the benefit and value they’ll derive from it. Only then would they spend on the offering.
Make sure you put yourself in their shoes and then explain how your product or service is beneficial. For example, you can offer them a solution to a problem, lifestyle improvement, or any other benefit.
Depending on the product or service, you need to tell them what it can do for them. Only then your efforts to ensure customer success will pay off.
19. Work on Consistent Improvements
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Data analysis can help you find the points where you need improvement. Don’t wait long; make the improvements or changes before your customers leave. Keep a periodic track of all the matrices and constantly work on improving the customer experience with your brand.
There’s no stopping there. It’s a highly competitive market, and it won't be long before your competitors catch up with you. So be proactive with your solutions, constantly think about improving the user experience, and provide more and more value to them to make them stick.
20. Offer Perks to Existing Customers
Your existing customers are a solid base for your business. Make sure to let them know they are important. In fact, what better way to do so than to offer them a perk or personal attention?
You can add perks to their account like discounts, subscriptions, information about new offerings, etc., and get in touch with them. Set up a time for a personalized call to take their suggestions about product improvement or solving problems.
Many times the customers may not respond or set up the call. However, it always is considered a nice, concerning gesture to make them feel important.
Final Word
To keep your customers’ attention, you must go the extra mile. Use not one but a mix of these customer success strategies to reach out to them and encourage them to spread the good word about your brand.
Whether it’s your store, website, app, or other social media platform, wherever you meet your customer, they will have a unique experience with your service. It will become the basis of their relationship with you.
Implement these customer success strategies and ensure they get consistent support and quality service whenever they come to you.
