As a business owner, I’m sure you have requested feedback from your current and even past customers. If you are like me, you sometimes dread being asked to complete yet another customer satisfaction survey, sometimes being asked to do so even before the product or service is even provided. Survey are intended, obviously, to determine what a business’ customers think about the products or services they have purchased from a business. Customer surveys can provide valuable customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction information for business owners in order for them to improve on what they are offering. But how genuine is the information being submitted by your customers? Customers will often just submit anything just to get through the survey so they can move on to other things. Consumers are often more motivated to submit a bad review when they have had a bad customer experience (as a way to vent) compared to submitting a great review when the experience has been good. How soon should you ask a customer to complete a survey? The idea time is, of course, right after the product or service has been provided and while the customer experience thoughts are fresh in the customer’s mind.
It is always encouraging when you receive great customer reviews but how does that translate into more business from your existing customers and new customers? A consumer can “like” what your business offers but the overall customer experience is what makes them refer your business to others. Is the product or service your business provides a necessary product or service or a discretionary one? Every transaction between your business and your customers should result in a highly recommendable customer experience. The most commonly used tool is the NPS (Net Promoter Score). The NPS is an easy way to determine to what level customer would recommend your business to others. A business can provide a product or service at a minimum level or they can go above and beyond just providing the product or service and create an exceptional customer experience. There are obviously numerous ways to go about enhancing the customer experience beyond the price of your goods and services. Factors such as returns policy, customer service, future purchase offers, discounts and direct interaction can all have a tremendous effect on your NPS score if you are requesting customers rate your business. NPS can be easy for customers to complete and are often preferred by customers because they are quick and easy to complete.
The goal for any business is not only to provide the best products, services and customer experience to their target audience but also for that target audience to regularly tell their family and friends about the service so they can have that same great customer experience. Think about all of the things that go into your providing your products and services to your customers. Have you thought about how customers find your business? Is it because of targeted advertising or the location of your business (if you are a brick and mortar) or is it because your customers are actively telling other customers about your business and recommending that they patronize your business? Is it because your current customers are great about telling others about your business? We know that more than ever, consumers are using social media, SMS and email to share information about things they care about. As mentioned throughout this blog, customer referrals are the most effective way to bring in more new customers into your business. So the “Call to Action” is really thinking through what really brings customers into your business and if your customers are completing surveys for your business, what are those survey results really saying about what you offer. There is always room for improvement when it comes to customer satisfaction and customers going out of their way to recommend your business to others.
The Dealium blog was created to engage small business owners where customer acquisition is a regular “must solve” problem and to discuss ways to potentially bring more customers into a small business. Customer Acquisition is the #2 pain point for small business owners in the U.S., only behind lack of cash flow. As a tech entrepreneur myself, I have found through customer discovery and customer interviews, that a easy and affordable app-based referral marketing platform for the small business community is desired and needed in order to engage small businesses more with the communities in which they serve. Launching in Q1 of 2022, Dealium.io is a SaaS B2B Referral Marketing & Social Commerce Platform that connects small businesses with new customers through referrals from their existing customers using our proprietary algorithm-based referral code sharing technology incorporated with their customer’s SMS, Email & Social Media. Dealium creates brand awareness, brand exposure & new customer acquisition opportunities for our business subscribers while allowing their customers to save time & money searching for reputable local small businesses.
As a small business owner, please checkout Dealium.io if customer acquisition is a pain point that must be solved for your business. Dealium promises to be a easy to use, intuitive and rewarding web & app-based solution for not only small business owners but also for the consumers and communities in which they serve.
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