It’s a well-known debate within businesses and companies: in order to improve and get an edge in the market, should you focus on your clients or your competitors?
We’ve written a blog on this before back in 2012 which concluded that a competitor-oriented strategy is what businesses should do to achieve profit and growth.
But it’s been nine years and a lot has changed since then. For one, social media has never been more powerful in amplifying the voices of your audience. What can make or break your business these days all boils down to customer experience and customer loyalty. Second, the pandemic has taught us what people value most.
In today’s blog we explore the ways a customer-oriented strategy can greatly benefit your business.
What is a client-oriented strategy?
Being client-focused means centering your business around enhancing client experience and strengthening client relationships. It involves in-depth understanding of how your business is currently interacting with your clients and using those insights to create better products, services, marketing campaigns, and experiences.
With your clients as your focus on building your business, you create a foundation for customer loyalty and retention.
How to build an effective client-oriented strategy
Use client feedback to improve
Allowing your customers or clients to give you feedback gives you insight into improving their experience. You can do this by asking them to answer a survey in an email or engaging with them on your website or social media posts.
It’s also important to make your clients feel heard when they’re talking to you about complaints and criticisms they have about their experience with your business. You can do this by taking note of their name and complaint and adding it to your data collection. Your clients won’t always be happy with your product or service but if they don’t have to keep repeating this information every time they have a complaint, it doesn’t make the process annoying and it proves to them your track record of taking their feedback seriously. As a result, their loyalty to your brand becomes stronger.
Identify gaps in the client journey
The client journey is how they interact with your brand when they’re trying to make a purchase, book a consultation, or download something off your website. When you map it out for yourself, you can easily find where you are lacking in terms of a convenient experience that will result in conversion. It also helps you anticipate their needs and concerns and provide a solution.
Things like how easy it is to navigate your website, how readily available important information is such as price, sizes, photos, download links, and more, all help your client get to where you want them to go whether that’s the checkout or booking page. If your website is confusing, laggy, or cluttered, your client will most likely end up leaving with no thought of coming back.
Be proactive
Never wait for your client to make a complaint before taking action. Always anticipate bumps in your service and be ready with solutions.
For example, if your client is to receive an order, make sure you track the status of it yourself so you’ll know if it arrived or not, instead of waiting for them to call you if it doesn’t.
Your clients have other things going on in their lives and they may forget about their orders until they realize they should have already received it. You can be of great service to them by providing updates on their order and letting them know of any shipping delays and how you’re trying to solve the problem.
Another way to be proactive is by making use of the data they provide you. It can tell you when they are ready to repurchase a product or things like birthdays can prepare you for giving them a special treat or discount.
Personalize their experience
Every one of your clients is unique with a different set of needs and preferences. Personalizing their experience with your brand provides them with a convenience that they can’t get from other brands, which in turn strengthens their loyalty to yours.
More than just adding their names to subject lines, personalization can mean giving recommendations based on previous purchases or allowing them to make a profile to make future transactions easier. It can mean setting up a one-on-one consultation to find out their particular needs and tailoring your service to them.
Act with empathy
When speaking to your clients, whether on the phone or online, you must remember that on the other side is an actual person with valid concerns who is just trying to go through life. Even if you’re speaking to them about something minor, making them feel that you understand what they’re going through goes a long way.
Hire for client success
Build a team that is dedicated to making your business successful in putting your clients first.
Remote Workmate forms and manages cost-effective, high-performing virtual teams. We do this by:
- Evaluating applicants via a gauntlet of exams.
- Endorsing to you the best ones.
You then interview the candidates and ultimately choose your Workmate.
So take your company’s first step to higher productivity and growth. Click the button below to schedule an obligation-free consultation with us.
