Now that you know just what CX is and why it’s important for your business, it’s time to understand how to actually do it.
“It’s not just about selling products or services; it’s about building relationships and leaving a lasting impression. ” – Tanya Dreyer, Founder & CEO
For small businesses, fostering a positive customer experience can be a game-changer. Here, we’ll explore actionable strategies that SMEs can implement to enhance their customer experience and their bottom line.
Know Your Customer
Otherwise known as KYC, understanding your customer should form the basis of any great CX strategy. KYC means understanding your customer’s preferences like when they prefer to shop, how they prefer to be contacted and what their favourite products are.
If you are an existing business, most of this information already exists and you most likely just need a convenient way to collate and reflect this information. That’s where a Customer Relationship Management Tool or CRM becomes invaluable. Cloud-based tools like Zoho CRM will do the trick and come with a host of features at an affordable price.
If you’re a startup you might not have an existing customer base so you will most likely need to do some market research. However, you would’ve likely done this as part of your business plan so all you need to do now is use this information to start targeting your ideal customer. A CRM is also a great tool for this. By integrating your digital campaigns into the CRM you’ll be able to create customer bases that you can segment based on characteristics and use this to create more personalised/targeted campaigns.
Regardless of your business stage, KYC is an invaluable asset and should be prioritised because understanding your customer’s needs today, allows you to better forecast for the future, which is the most valuable insight of all!
Focus on the 1%
Also known as the “Aggregation of marginal gains” coined by Sir Dave Brailsford, this continuous improvement framework highlights why smaller, focussed improvements over time produce greater results.
When it comes to CX, continuous improvement is a critical enabler for better decision making. Therefore if you make slightly better business decisions every day, over time these decisions aggregate into a huge competitive advantage.
For SMEs it’s useful to think about this as eating the elephant one piece at a time. By making slightly better decisions everyday across your sales team, marketing, back office, logistics or customer service departments can result in aggregated gains that would be difficult to achieve if you decided to try to fix/improve all of your processes overnight.
A focus on gradual gains, is also easier for your team to digest as the changes are small and manageable. A continuous improvement mindset also means that team members can be actively involved in findings solutions to your business challenges (as they are the ones dealing with it everyday). This allows team members to take ownership and increases buy-in for any planned changed.
Stay Agile
For SMEs this is your number 1 advantage. Embrace your size! SMEs have the advantage of agility in terms of being able to make decisions quickly and implementing changes rapidly.
When it comes to CX, Having the right product in the right place at the right time, is the difference between a sale to you or to your competitor.
implementing methods to capture customer feedback and then acting on that feedback quickly, is what separates good companies from great companies in today’s on-demand world.
In conclusion, small businesses have a unique opportunity to excel in customer experience by leveraging their agility, personalized approach, and commitment to excellence. By understanding their customers, personalizing interactions, providing seamless omnichannel experiences, listening to feedback, engaging employees, rewarding loyalty, embracing technology, and continually improving, small businesses can build lasting relationships and thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
Remember, in the end, it’s not just about making a sale; it’s about creating memorable experiences that keep customers coming back for more.