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If you’re working on a business plan<\/a> and getting ready to start a business<\/a>, you’ve thought about why people might prefer your products or services over those offered by competitors.<\/p>\n But if your go-to-market plan focuses primarily on features, you’ll struggle to grow your business.<\/p>\n Experienced business owners and entrepreneurs know that focusing solely on selling a product or service to a customer doesn’t cut it anymore.<\/p>\n To succeed, your business must consider customers’ long-term investments instead of one-off sales.<\/p>\n Mark Bonchek, Founder and CEO of Shift Thinking, and Vivek Bapat, SVP and Head of Marketing and Communications Strategy at SAP, call<\/a> these two types of companies “purchase brands” and “usage brands.”<\/p>\n “Purchase (or business as usual) brands” are motivated to make the sale. “Usage brands” are driven to prioritize their customer’s experience after<\/em> the sale.<\/p>\n Bonchek and Bapat explain<\/a>,<\/p>\n Where traditional brands focus on positioning their brands in the minds of their customers, digital brands focus on positioning their brands in the lives of their customers.<\/strong> Furthermore, they engage customers more as users than as buyers, shifting their investments from pre-purchase promotion and sales to post-purchase renewal and advocacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ready to position your brand in your customers’ lives?<\/p>\n Look beyond the sales funnel.<\/p>\n Building a long-term relationship with customers and prospects relies on creating a worthwhile experience for them, not tricking them into giving you their money.<\/p>\n Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Putting the customer experience first has clear benefits for the customer.<\/p>\n But does it benefit your business?<\/p>\n Research shows that investing in existing customers is more cost-effective than constantly acquiring new ones. According to RJMetrics<\/a>:<\/p>\n While only 32% of first purchases will make a second purchase, 53% of customers that make a second purchase will make a third. And with each successive purchase, the likelihood of them coming back increases.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Those numbers are compelling. Existing and return customers bring profit and stability to a business.<\/p>\n By shifting your business’s mindset toward positioning your service or product<\/a> in consumers’ lives, you stand to tap into a vast source of reliable revenue.<\/p>\n And, focusing on existing or repeat customers is less expensive than concentrating most of your time trying to find new customers, as we pointed out previously<\/a>:<\/p>\n It\u2019s\u00a05-25 times less expensive<\/a>\u00a0to maintain relationships with current customers than to acquire new customers.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean that you should stop seeking new customers.<\/p>\n But, it does mean that you should evaluate how much time your business spends trying to get new customers vs. building stronger relationships with the ones it already has.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Maintaining relationships with existing customers helps you offset the higher cost of new customer acquisition<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bapat and Bonchek’s research shows<\/a> that there are additional benefits to creating a great experience for existing customers:<\/p>\n The benefits of shifting from purchase to usage are reinforced by our research. Survey respondents show more loyalty to usage brands. They had stronger advocacy in the form of spontaneous recommendations to others. And they showed a higher preference for usage brands over competitors, not just in making the purchase but in a willingness to pay a premium in price.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No matter how you look at it, prioritizing existing customers is a win. And the best way to maintain positive relationships with existing customers is to improve their experience.<\/p>\n Your number one priority should be to deliver a quality product or service.<\/strong><\/p>\n An inferior product or service experience will ultimately undermine your efforts to build long-term customer relationships<\/a>.<\/p>\n No one wants to spend money on bad products or services. And they won’t do it twice.<\/p>\n So make sure your product or service delivers an excellent user experience.<\/p>\n Here are essential questions to help you start assessing your product or service:<\/p>\n The answer to these questions should be a resounding “YES!”<\/p>\n If not, then it’s time to fix what isn’t working.<\/p>\n But remember that the customer experience doesn’t end when a customer buys a product or service.<\/p>\n Your service or product sits in the middle of a web of other peripherals that make up the complete user experience.<\/p>\n The shipping or scheduling process, the product packaging<\/a>, the demeanor of the service technician at your door or support representative on the phone, the refund policy, return shipping… All of these and more make up the complete user experience.<\/p>\n If you genuinely want to embed your brand into your customers’ lives, you need to do a friction check on all of these processes.<\/p>\n Every aspect of the user experience should be as effortless as possible and a pleasure to experience.<\/p>\n Ensure you have a memorable visual identity for your business, including a professionally designed custom logo<\/a>, not a generic template used by thousands of other companies.<\/p>\n Create a visually attractive and easy-to-use business website<\/a> with a clean user interface and easy navigation.<\/p>\n Make placing an order or scheduling a service<\/a> even more effortless.<\/p>\n Prominently display contact information for your customer support team.<\/p>\n Make shipping and returns free.<\/p>\n Accept multiple forms of payment. And allow customers to store their payment info on your site so they don’t need to re-enter it whenever they want to make a purchase.<\/p>\n Think through every customer touch-point and make it as pleasant as possible. Removing peripheral friction removes the motivation to look elsewhere for a better product or service.<\/p>\n Maintaining long-term clients or customers requires commitment and constant work.<\/p>\n Boredom is the enemy.<\/p>\n Now, it’s true that your brand should remain reliable and consistent. But there’s plenty of room to play within your brand’s guidelines to keep your customer interactions fresh and exciting.<\/p>\n Small business champion and professional coach Deborah Shane explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n It\u2019s all about the experience we create and have with people and companies we interact with. Make sure you are refreshing your sites, visuals, marketing materials and presentation. We all love things that are new, but putting a different spin on something we already do can stimulate people too. Make things easy to follow, entertaining and culturally relevant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Update your blog content regularly to provide a constant stream of useful content.<\/p>\n Host sales, share stories, and engage in charitable endeavors on social media to build and strengthen customer relationships.<\/p>\n Introduce fresh new marketing content<\/a> to keep customers engaged and interested.<\/p>\n And do it all with your brand voice.<\/p>\n Serving up new content and visuals throughout your marketing platforms will prevent customers from getting bored- all while reinforcing the brand identity<\/a> they’ve come to know and love.<\/p>\n If you’re invested in positioning your brand in your customers’ lives, look for opportunities to keep your product or service experience fresh.<\/p>\n You may also want to consider offering an upgrade to long-term customers.<\/p>\nHere are four ways your small business or startup can build a great customer experience, create loyal customers, and accelerate growth.<\/h2>\n
1. Look beyond the sales funnel<\/h3>\n
Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n2. Optimize your product or service to deliver a great overall experience<\/h3>\n
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3. Keep the user experience fresh and interesting<\/h3>\n
Time for an upgrade?<\/h4>\n
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