How to Delight your customers and build trust

How to Delight your customers and build trust

When it comes to your customers, who do they trust?

One of the most important campaigns to drive is customer reviews – because WHO DO YOUR CUSTOMERS TRUST?

I want you to stop what you are doing and take a second to think about this, WHO DO YOUR CUSTOMERS TRUST ABOVE ALL ELSE? It’s not your business .. it’s not your message or your amazing advert.

The thing customers trust more than anything else, is OTHER CUSTOMERS

Customers want to look at your reviews, what kinds of experiences did other customers have with you and were they good or bad. If it’s all bad reviews then your business has a bigger problem. If they see multiple good reviews, chances are they will reach out to you. A few bad reviews is also not the end of the world as long as you have responded to those reviews in an attempt to resolve or explain the issue. This actually gets you more points with the potential new customer

Trust and perception is everything. You want to make sure that the message you put out to your customers at all times accurately reflects your business, or at least the kind of business you strive to be.

You need to portray the same message across all your marketing platforms. Be helpful, be relevant, always strive to offer service beyond what is expected of you and you will have a happy customer sharing their great experience with your business with all of their friends and anyone who will listen.

“Always strive to offer service beyond what is expected of you“

Delight Your Customers

Let’s talk about the old Sales Funnel. There are many versions but here is a basic explanation. Some of you may be familiar with this. The sales funnel, if you can imagine a funnel, wide at the top, narrowest at the bottom, like an upside down triangle. The funnel represents your customer journey.

First – the awareness phase ( this is your advertising, social media, flyers,  radio ads, whatever you choose to create awareness

Second – the consideration phase (the customer is doing his research, comparing prices, etc)

Third (but not last) – you have the conversion (a conversion is whatever you deem it to be ie. a sale, a lead, a phone call, etc)

But wait, that shouldn’t be the end of the journey

Final – the delight phase – this is where we talk about striving to go beyond the sale to give your customer an amazing customer experience

“Build a great customer experience, your customer should leave there wanting to spread the word”

The “delight phase” can be many things for example:

  • a happy cashier smiling and being friendly  ensuring your customer walks out smiling
  • a manager helping the customer carry their goods to the car
  • say thank you to the customer for using your service and give them 10% off their next order
  • a phone call to say thank you or a follow up to make sure everything is still in order
  • a restaurant owner going table to table and genuinely showing interest in each customer
  • a free gift
  • a personalised experience

Up until recently this has been the standard, most companies spend their time and budget on the first “awareness phase”. But what if you focused on the “final” phase? What if you put emphasis and invested more time and money on delighting your customer before they even made a purchase?

This has proven to make a BIG difference in separating you from the competition. It helps create a good perception of your brand, makes customers think of you first, it gets people talking about your brand and there is no more powerful marketing than word of mouth – because – Customers trust other customers!

 

How can you work on your “Delight” phase?

  • Allocate more time and budget to delighting your customer
  • Use good reviews to build trust – add your reviews to your website
  • Get involved in your local community, a little good goes a long way
  • Offer free advice on public forums
  • Go beyond the norm when helping customers, this will drive good reviews
  • Offer discounts at checkout for posting a review
  • Use competitions on social media to grow your following while creating good will for your company

Written by Jason Rinquest – DIrector at Deep Thought Media

Boosting Your Business with Media Buying and Social Media

Boosting Your Business with Media Buying and Social Media

Social Media Agency Cape Town Welcome to the digital age, where social media has become an inseparable part of our daily routine. It's the magic wand that has revolutionized the way we connect, communicate and consume information. For any business that aspires to stay...

read more