Nothing drives success like a happy client. After all, customers who enjoy doing business with you may tend to return to buy more products or services, while those who don’t may not. The good news is that providing an exceptional customer experience (CX) can be easy if you hire the right people, listen to your clients, and make a consistent effort to keep them satisfied.
Customer experience encompasses all the interactions a client has with your company throughout their journey with you—from their very first impressions via your marketing or visiting your website, through the sales process, to using your products and services. By fostering your brand’s CX, you can create satisfied customers, making them more likely to become repeat, loyal clients who help build your brand.
The user experience (UX) of your product or website figures prominently into your CX. If your product’s design is overly complicated or if your website is difficult to navigate, your CX will suffer and you may lose customers. One way to avoid this is by regularly testing and evaluating the look and functionality of your products and website. You could also provide customers with useful product manuals and demonstrations through platforms like blogs or YouTube.
Another powerful strategy for boosting your CX is to map your entire CX journey and identify spots where you can elevate it—if any step is subpar, customers’ relationship with your brand could suffer. John Formica, customer experience coach and author of the book Making the Customer Experience Magical Now!, points to the Walt Disney Company as a prime example of a business that expertly finesses its CX. For instance, at Walt Disney World, all cast members are trained to value guests’ happiness, so much so that if you stop to snap a photo with your family by the Cinderella Castle, one will gladly take it for you regardless of what they’re doing.
Once you have your CX journey mapped, focus on getting to know every aspect of it. Part of this should involve seeking outside perspectives, as others may be able to notice things you can’t. Regularly run your employees through the journey, asking them to pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses, and solicit customers’ opinions about it through surveys, social media, email, or in-person interactions. Then take what you learn to make improvements that will benefit your customers.
Your customer relationship management (CRM) system can be an extremely useful tool for augmenting your CX. For example, your sales professionals could use information collected via your lead generation tools to pursue new clients. A CRM would also enable you to analyze your customers’ purchase history to determine what additional products and services they may want to buy.
Formica stresses that CRM data is most beneficial when utilized throughout your clients’ entire journey with you, even after the sale. He uses his to send clients his Magic Minute newsletter, which he fills with free, helpful information, as a way to constantly stay in touch with them. “Many businesses put in a lot of time and effort trying to get the sale, and then they mess up the customer experience,” he notes.
A business’s culture can impact customers’ happiness as well. Look for ways to gauge your employees’ satisfaction, such as by making an anonymous suggestion box available or by asking them to participate in engagement surveys. Additionally, when taking on new staff, choose personnel who match your company’s personality and values. “Most businesses hire people and then try to mold them to fit the culture during the onboarding process,” Formica explains. “It’s like trying to put a square peg into a round hole—it doesn’t fit. You should hire for culture instead.”
For example, Disney emphasizes its extremely high customer-centric focus during its recruitment process, which actually leads some potential candidates to leave before even filling out an application. “If you want your company to be customer-experience oriented, you have to hire people who believe in that,” Formica says. Once you get the right employees, be sure to provide training that models the behavior you want from them and, as a result, produces the results you’re looking for.
Companies that have extremely dedicated fans—like Starbucks and Sephora—have customer-loyalty programs that treat them to discounts and perks for repeat business. That’s because such programs can make your customers feel recognized, add value to their experiences with your company, and distinguish you from your competition. Mull over how you can provide your customers with incentives for their loyalty—perhaps you can give them extra discounts, provide them with exclusive access to new events or products, or celebrate their birthdays with special perks. Just about anyone would appreciate being an “insider” with a brand or company they love and respect.
Even if you do everything you can to provide your customers with the best possible experiences, there will be times when they need assistance or want to voice a complaint. To make sure you’re prepared for such communication, you should prioritize building the most effective customer-support infrastructure you can and offer several ways for your customers to reach out, whether it’s by phone or through email or social media. And always willingly listen to your clients’ feedback, respond to their inquiries promptly, and take quick and active steps to remedy mistakes or dissatisfaction.
Fostering good CX requires diligence and will likely involve every department in your company. But if you put in the effort, you’ll be rewarded with satisfied clients who stay loyal to your brand for years to come.
TAKE ACTION:
Map your CX to identify its strengths and weaknesses.
As any user will tell you, social media is chock-full of ads. This is a strategic attempt on behalf of businesses to not only grab your attention but also hold it long enough to pique your curiosity and send you looking for more information. The more often a brand can get in front of its target audience, the better its chances are of turning that audience into paying customers.
Digital marketing and ad spend is expected to reach over $1.5 trillion by 2030, which means that if you want your business to be part of the conversation, you need to narrow your focus.
Converting leads into customers is the main goal, and getting more eyes on your content is an effective means to that end—these tips can help you do just that.
Before you can think about how to bring new leads to your website, you need to have a clear picture of who your audience is and what places they frequent online.
Analyze your client database, then ask yourself the following:
These questions can help you determine the types of clients you work best with and who you’d want to attract. You should also monitor how your target audience behaves online by noting the times they are most active, what kinds of content they are most likely to interact with, and what information they are willing to give you.
One way to do this is by looking at the analytics on your most recent email or post. Review information like the time it was sent or posted, how many people viewed it, and who engaged with it and how (e.g., Did they click through? Leave a comment? Save the post?). If the engagement on it aligns with your target audience, then you’ll know you’re on the right path; if not, you’ll want to pivot and test sharing content at different times and on different platforms until your engagement analytics are more satisfactory.
Once you know your audience, the kind of content they respond to, and when they’re most active, you can begin thinking through and improving your content strategy. The ideas that follow are some of the most efficient and cost-effective.
Social media ads
Many businesses have found success through targeted social media ads. This should be a tactic in every business’s marketing plan, but not many people are aware of how to streamline the process. There are three types of ads I recommend every business runs:
Platforms like Facebook allow you to narrow the target audience of your ads by factors such as location, age, and interests to make them even more effective. These ads are also inexpensive (costing less than a cup of coffee a day in some cases), and you can manage the cost by manipulating the frequency and reach of your ads.
Landing pages and lead magnets
Landing pages are designed to be lead-converting machines, encouraging visitors to buy something directly from your website or to give their information in exchange for an item of value (lead magnet). When designed well with a clear call to action, they are a highly effective way to gather information from qualified leads that are already looking for what you have to offer.
Think about what kind of information your audience needs, and then give them just enough of it to trust your authority and want to learn more. Be sure to input any contact info from those who clicked on and downloaded it into your database for retargeting.
Other forms of content marketing
In addition to ads and lead magnets, sharing relevant content is guaranteed to help you stay top of mind with your audience and encourage visitors to spend more time on your website and social media pages. There are a variety of approaches you can take, including blogging about topics important to your industry, posting videos of client testimonials, and sharing industry updates. For any strategy you use, the most important thing is consistency. Posting content on an irregular basis will not drive the results you want.
At its core, content marketing presents you as the authority, promotes trust, and draws more attention to your business. And the more people see others engaging with and enjoying your content, the likelier it is that they will do the same.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Luke Acree is an authority on leadership, a lead-generation specialist, and a referral expert who has helped more than 100,000 entrepreneurs and small businesses grow their companies. He hosts Stay Paid, a sales and marketing podcast, and has been featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Foundr.com.
TAKE ACTION:
Make sure to add every new lead to your database with as much information as possible, including their name and email address.
As the so-called metaverse expands, this lifelike, computer-generated reality has become the new frontier for connecting professionals with their networks. Enter Hyperspace, a 3D-immersive digital hosting platform that’s surprisingly intuitive. Danny Stefanic, the company’s CEO, invited me into his virtual venue to converse via full-body 3D avatars, or digital likenesses of ourselves. There, we discussed his vision for Hyperspace, how professional hosting has changed, and why the metaverse is the next great media type.
How do business owners primarily use Hyperspace?
Hyperspace was initially established as a virtual platform for educational and training events, but we soon began hosting business meetings as well. This led to some companies adopting the platform as a year-round, virtual headquarters. They create private, 3D virtual worlds, or metaverses, that allow their staff to seamlessly perform a wide range of tasks: sales kickoffs, meetings, customer journeys, customer support, and more. Clients can reach out to us and describe their intended use for the platform. Once we have an idea of their goals, our team will onboard them, offering as much help as they need to feel comfortable creating their metaverses.
How does your platform work for new attendees?
After a host creates their metaverse, they receive a link they can share with their invite list. Attendees click that link, create an avatar, and then arrive in a 3D space. They also get an introduction from an AI chatbot with its own avatar, which walks them through how to navigate the environment, answers any initial questions, and helps them get comfortable with the technology.
From there, attendees may navigate the 3D venue on their own and take in the sights. They can approach other avatars, shake hands, share messages, and even interact with their surroundings. For example, there are lounge areas where avatars can sit and talk. It’s a very easy platform to use, even for people who have no metaverse experience.
What makes Hyperspace so simple?
Our secret sauce is the ability to run on any device, including smartphones, tablets, computers, and virtual reality/augmented reality headsets. And you can access the platform without installing or downloading any applications. It’s essentially a very immersive 3D web page. Another helpful aspect is the presence of virtual guides throughout the space. You can click on any of the AI chatbots to ask questions or get support.
How beneficial is your platform for companies that face difficulties meeting in person?
We’ve seen so much growth in terms of postpandemic remote work. Companies have sensed that employees are not bonding or feeling a sense of belonging. I call it “un-remote” working: encouraging your people to feel less remote or isolated. As companies realize the value of corporate culture and being part of teams, they utilize platforms like ours to achieve these goals.
What’s one event you’re particularly proud of?
Shell hosted an event where over 10,000 attendees joined in from across the globe. It was amazing to see and experience, and the event was a real success. I can’t think of another way you could provide that level of accessibility to so many people. It would be hideously expensive, not to mention inconvenient, for Shell to get every employee into one live space. We actually helped them build a virtual twin of one of their facilities to replicate a real-world gathering.
So clients can customize their events?
Planned events are infinitely customizable—more so than a live event. Our platform is a suite that clients can use to design anything. But to avoid the rigors of starting with a blank canvas, it comes packed with existing content: a catalog of worlds like gardens, auditoriums, and wellness retreats. We also have a studio that can capture real-world environments so clients can invite guests into a familiar space.
Additionally, we offer a 3D search engine full of trade show booths, furniture, decorations, and more. But Hyperspace is built on open standards, which means that you can bring content from elsewhere into our web page, whether it’s PNGs, PDFs, links to your website, logos, contact forms, or music via MP3 files. It’s been incredibly exciting to open up the possibilities on the platform and witness what clients do with these opportunities.
How do you think the metaverse will impact the business world?
While Hyperspace is a valuable component of the industry, it’s only an adjunct to live hosting, not a replacement. But on the spectrum of bonding with others, our platform is akin to what you experience in real life—in fact, it’s just short of reality.
I’m extremely excited about virtual reality and 3D as a media type. Before the internet, we already had images, audio, video, and words. These were our main media types. Then the internet came along, and we digitized this media, moved it into another realm.
But there’s another media type that is really quite young: 3D. It’s being used in gaming, architecture, and all sorts of industries, and it’s only becoming more pervasive. With our platform, we can now offer 3D capabilities in any web browser and provide a metaverse experience on any device.
We really are on the foothills of the next major media type, a new way to communicate and share experiences. This is a pivotal point in history, in which we’re making a new technology readily available—the sort of thing that future generations will take for granted. It doesn’t matter where you are in this industry. Anyone who partakes in 3D technology or one of our platforms is a part of human history, the blossoming of a new communication medium.
For more info, visit hyperspace.mv
TAKE ACTION:
Consider innovative solutions to your clients’ needs. How can new technology uncover opportunities or results?
Any business owner or entrepreneur knows that a brand cannot succeed without marketing, but it often requires a lot of time, energy, and money to get your product or service in front of people. However, social media has changed the game, becoming a valuable tool for business. One highly effective online strategy is affiliate marketing, through which companies allow content creators—the affiliates—to push their products to their online followers.
William J. Tobin, known as the world’s first internet marketer, is credited with starting affiliate marketing in 1989. Tobin created an e-commerce site for his business, PC Flowers and Gifts, and launched the Prodigy Network, a marketing model that allowed those in the network to receive a small portion of every sale generated through it. By 1995, there were 2,500 affiliates in the Prodigy Network that were generating around $6 million annually for Tobin’s business.
A year later, Tobin applied for the patent for his marketing strategy, but other businesses had already started using the model—one being Amazon, whose Associates Program had launched that same year. Amazon was the first major company to utilize affiliate marketing; its program allowed people anywhere to promote its products, which at the time were just books, movies, and music. Affiliates could share links to these products on their own websites and receive a kickback from any sales made through those links.
Amazon’s public marketing model brought affiliate marketing into the mainstream and paved the way for the creation of more affiliate marketing programs and, soon after, affiliate networks. These are sites where small businesses pay a fee to join and have their products advertised to affiliates, who then advertise them to potential customers.
Affiliate marketing has since become a key part of business—and to a higher degree than even Tobin could have imagined. Today, more than 80 percent of brands have an affiliate marketing program to help generate leads and increase sales numbers.
At its most basic, affiliate marketing follows this process: A business allows affiliates to promote its products or services online to their followers via personalized links, which potential consumers can then use to purchase those products or services. When a sale is made through an affiliate’s unique link, they receive a commission, typically a fixed percentage of the final sale. This means that businesses aren’t paying partners until after they have made a sale for them. It’s a win for both since they’re each making money from the process without much up-front cost.
Affiliates are responsible for getting a business’s product or service in front of potential customers. They do this by increasing traffic to it and spreading brand awareness through various online platforms. “As an affiliate, you’re like the liaison between the product and the consumer,” says Jess Zion, an affiliate for six companies who now educates her more than 180,000 TikTok (@makemoneywith_jess) and Instagram (@themarketingmama02) followers on the marketing strategy.
However, not just anyone can become an affiliate for any business. Some companies hand select their affiliates, often via online applications, based on who they think fits best with their brand and vision. On the positive side, there’s really no cap on how many affiliates a business can have at one time. “You can have as many people as you want putting your product in front of your target audience,” says Zion. Similarly, affiliates can promote however many companies and products they are approved for.
There are three main types of affiliate marketing: unattached, involved, and related. Unattached affiliate marketing utilizes affiliates who haven’t used the product or service before, meaning they can’t make claims about the quality. Conversely, with involved affiliate marketing, the affiliate has a history of using the product or service and is now recommending that other consumers use it as well. Related affiliate marketing falls somewhere in the middle: the affiliate may not have previously used the product or service, but they have a connection to its niche or audience, allowing them to use their expertise to promote it. Businesses and affiliates can choose the route that works best for their specific purposes, tailoring the strategy to the brand’s products or services.
Ultimately, affiliate marketing has the potential to generate more leads for businesses, which, in turn, can increase sales. Affiliates can work from any social platform, enabling brands to be seen by a relatively large network of potential customers. “With social media having the presence it does these days, and considering the sheer number of hours people spend scrolling on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest, companies can have numerous people promoting their products directly in front of a high volume of their target consumer,” Zion explains.
Given this, the affiliate marketing model often offers a greater potential for sales than more traditional routes. For example, content may go viral, which can translate to more sales for businesses. If an affiliate has a video that gets thousands of views, the number of possible sales rises exponentially. “Let’s just say, if your affiliate is making content that converts, that’s a lot of product sales for your business,” says Zion.
As an industry, affiliate marketing reached a worth of $17 billion this year, exceeding the previously expected amount of $12 billion. There’s virtually no limit to the potential sales increases that businesses could see when they develop an affiliate program that attracts content creators who can then attract more consumers to the brand. “Affiliate marketing is the future of digital marketing,” Zion states. “It’s just the world we live in, and all businesses should be taking full advantage.”
TAKE ACTION:
Examine the success of your current marketing strategies, and determine if your business could benefit from starting an affiliate program or joining an affiliate network.
