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3 WAYS TO DELIVER AN AWESOME CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

5 July, 2021 By Katrina McCarter Leave a Comment

According to the latest CommBank Retail Insights report, 83% believe ‘customer experience’ is very important to their business strategy, yet only 30% rate their customer service as being greater than 9/10.

A great customer experience can turn a client into a raving fan who actively advocates for your business.

Here are three ways you can deliver an awesome customer experience:

1. ENGAGEMENT MATTERS

Your customers want to interact with you. Some more than others. Provide opportunities for this to happen through social media channels, a chat line on your website and blog comments.

I believe that all Small Business owners should be investing regular time every week, if not daily, interacting with their customers or clients on social media and other channels. It not only drives engagement but it allows you to develop a relationship and gather great insights into your target market.

Engagement is critically important for businesses who target women as their decision making process differs from men. They take more time to make a decision, they want to understand you and your business, and what it values, before transacting with you.

By being engaged, you can assist your prospective client on the path to purchase. This is also of importance post purchase as you want to keep them engaged so they can either recommend your business to someone else and come back and purchase from you again.

2. BE RESPONSIVE

We all know that problems can crop up within a business. Mistakes happen. It makes us real. It is how we deal with these business mistakes that can differentiate us from competitors. Customers want to see you take the lead and proactively manage issues which arise. They want to be kept informed and updated on a regular basis.

Most problems can be solved easily and without damage to a relationship by admitting the error and taking immediate steps to resolve it. Your job is to ensure you have a process to support this.

I always recommend leaving a negative comment on a Facebook page rather than deleting it. This provides an excellent opportunity for your prospective clients to see how you handle issues. It gives a more balanced assessment of your business and, arguably, makes your positive reviews and feedback stand out even more.

3. EXCEED EXPECTATIONS

The fastest way to build your army of raving fans is to be extraordinary and exceed your customer’s expectations. Go the extra mile and it will pay back in droves. Mums in particular demand a high level of customer service as they are time poor, juggling multiple commitments and well researched.

They understand what’s available in the market and at what price. Delight mum by exceeding her expectations and you have a powerful competitive advantage.

Early on in my entrepreneurial journey, I made an awful decision and represented a client who didn’t share my business ethics. My customers started complaining immediately. I immediately took the extraordinary action of admitting my error of judgement, apologising to my customers and issuing a refund to all 120 customers within 48 hours.

My proactive approach was rewarded. My customers understood that mistakes can happen but immediately owning it and refunding their transactions was unexpected, particularly for those who had not complained.

It told them that I understood and heard their concerns and they knew that I had their best interests at heart. It actually turned a disaster into a PR success story simply by doing the unexpected.

Sometimes the unexpected is simply a handwritten note inside each of your orders, a card sent out to your top clients letting them know how much you enjoy working with them or a bonus service offering.

What extraordinary measure can you take in your business to delight your customers?

Support the above three tips with processes to deliver a consistent, awesome customer experience and you are likely to create an army of fans who will act as your most cost-effective marketing tool.

WHY EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS A TESTIMONIAL STRATEGY IN 2021

5 July, 2021 By Katrina McCarter Leave a Comment

In 2021, every business who wishes to attract mothers needs to have a well thought out testimonial strategy.

Why? Mothers are increasingly rejecting corporate sales messages in favour of third-party endorsements. As they seek the perfect solution to their problem they use testimonials to refine their search and minimise the chance of making the wrong purchase decision.

WHAT AUSTRALIAN MOTHERS SAY

In our Marketing to Mums research in 2016 and again in 2019, we found testimonials to have the greatest influence in mothers’ making a purchase – they even outperform a mum-to-mum recommendation. The sentiments from mothers in our research included:

Testimonials are big for me, especially when the content isn’t edited, with the good and perhaps not-so-good included. I would happily spend more on an item if I can read an honest review.’

‘I find reviews the most helpful when researching a product or service for our baby. Hearing the pros and cons from people in the same position as me is a big influence for us. Incorporating reviews into each individual product you have on your site would absolutely increase the likelihood of me making a purchase.’

‘Provide all feedback from previous buyers, not just positive five-star reviews; that way I don’t have to search Google for hours to feel comfortable with the information. More often than not I will still purchase the product, and won’t be surprised by the item having flaws. Not everything is perfect.’

‘Mothers understand that not everything is perfect all the time. They spend their days problem solving. And a bad review provides a great opportunity for brands to demonstrate how they handle a problem. Mums watch closely when this occurs. Use a less than glowing review to amplify your superior customer service.’

THE POWER OF A SINGLE TESTIMONIAL

I’ve experienced the power of testimonials firsthand. A woman who owns a party supplies business read my first book Marketing to Mums: How to sell more to Australia’s most powerful consumer and posted this review in a closed Facebook group for mothers in business:

‘I finished reading this book this weekend and highly recommend it for businesses targeting Aussie Mums. Really great ideas and I’ve written myself a list of about 40 things to action from it!

Side note- I read the book on my plane trip from Canberra to Brisbane which caught the attention of the passenger next to me and he excitedly told me his daughter ran her own jewellery business! We chatted a bit more and I couldn’t believe the coincidence that I’d been seated next to Trinket Poppy- Clare’s dad!!! Such a small world!’

The post attracted a lot of attention about the practical steps I provided for small business owners. Within 48 hours my book had gone to number one on Booktopia’s Business Bestseller list. It remained in the top 10 for the next four weeks. This started a chain reaction of events with an urgent call received from my distributor seeking more copies of my books to keep up with the growing demand across bookshops across Australia. This book is now in its fifth reprint.

TIPS IN CREATING YOUR TESTIMONIAL STRATEGY

Here are five things to consider in creating your testimonial strategy:

Turn on Recommendations on your business Facebook page.
Regularly encourage your community to share their experience working with you. Make sure you take the time to thank those who have invested their time in writing a review for you.
Set up a system so that you automatically ask for feedback or a review after delivery of the product or service (once it is part of your customer process it becomes easier to ask). Remember to thank them for sharing their feedback.
If you run events consider filming testimonials from participants straight after each event. These can be candid and done on your phone.
Show that you value testimonials in your business. Make sure you promote all third party endorsements including awards, testimonials, reviews by including them on all your marketing materials including website, social media, brochures and posters.

I have enjoyed great success for my clients by including testimonials as part of a wider market research project to identify their most profitable segment of the mum market. It generally yields at least one hundred testimonials for them enabling them to amplify two testimonials a week for two years without repeating one.

Testimonials are definitely powerful when wanting to influence mothers. It’s critical that your business invests in developing an effective testimonial strategy.

This strategy will make it easy for mothers to source third-party endorsements to ensure your product or service features in their consideration set.

The Power of Mum: 3 trends you need to know to grow your business in 2016

6 August, 2016 By Katrina McCarter Leave a Comment

Canadean reports that mums in Australia are responsible for $132 billion in spending every year. Mums are a diverse, sophisticated and experienced consumer group who are responsible for buying everything from clothing, holidays, healthcare, insurance, cars and accounting services. With 6,227,200 mums in Australia and a further 140,000 woman becoming mums each year this is a powerful consumer group which you cannot afford to misunderstand, undervalue, or ignore. Having said this, recent data from Marketing to Mums reports that 63% of Australian mums believe advertisers don’t understand them.
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Women in business : 5 ways to tap into this emerging superpower

13 May, 2016 By Katrina McCarter Leave a Comment

Women are emerging as the new superpower in small business. ABS data reports that the number of women led businesses has increased 46% in the past decade almost twice the rate of men. Whilst Women’s Network Australia identifies that there are more than 660,000 women led businesses accounting for one third of all small businesses in Australia. Are you neglecting this growing, powerful market?

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