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As you are reading this article, we are already a month into the New Year. You may find yourself still with a warm glow from celebrating a great 2014 or a little more motivated to recover from some disappointment. Now is the time to let the past go, focus on what you can control, and create an exceptional customer experience in 2015.
Before you head any further into the year, I think every business should give its marketing and processes a diagnostic checkup. If you bring your car in for service, they hook them up to the computer to find out what is working or what needs adjusting. Why not do the same things to improve the online customer experience? Here are a few ideas.
Pre-Checkup: Get An Outside Opinion
Hire a qualified advisor who can help audit or interpret what your current list of vendors is doing. Let them analyze your online sales process and where you can become more efficient.
Maybe invest in a marketing “coach” to help you hold your vendors and teams accountable. Many businesses have a lawyer or accountant on retainer; why not invest in an outside voice can clearly impact and help maximize spend and performance.
What you could do yourself? Here are some tips.
First Checkup: Your Website
You get so buried in your own business that you stop seeing website issues that may be right in front of you. Here is a quick way to see how easy it is to navigate your site: give a trusted friend a list of three or four items and ask them to go find them on your site.
Ask them about their own “customer experience”. Was it easy to find the items? Was there enough information about the items and was it useful? Were they compelled to contact you? Could they see your “why buy from me” message?
Then, give them similar items to go find on your competitor’s site and ask the same questions. Take these results and work with your marketing or website provider to help implement the changes needed to give your customers an easier shopping experience.
Second Checkup: Your Sales Process
When was the last time you inspected your sales process? How long does it take to get responses to your customers? Are there ways to cut that time down? Take time to inspect what you and your team are doing in committing to your sales process. Match up their execution of the sales process to what the sales process is supposed to be. See what you find. Is there a common place where all communication falls off? Are you missing out on opportunities? Is your team’s communication supporting your vision of service? All of these things can be fixed but you first need to get checked.
The goal of this customer experience checkup is to help improve your service in 2015. Customers are doing a lot of research online, and once they begin moving down the funnel and communicating with you or visiting you onsite, everything needs to work in unison to provide not only great customer service, but also an easy and fun experience.
I think if you begin to focus on these tips for 2015, you will be ahead of your competition when the time comes—and your customers will appreciate it.
Let me know your thoughts.
If you liked this article please share and if I can be of service please connect with me @glennpasch or on Linkedin.
Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a father of 2, husband, author and part of the National Speaker Association.