Do you want to learn how to give people the best experience possible when they visit your site? If so, you’re in the right place!
If customers are unhappy with their purchase, they will look for a competitor that fills the gaps, which isn’t good for your reputation, profits, and churn rate. Developing a customer success strategy is a great way to tilt the odds in your favor and is crucial for consistent, long-term growth.
When used correctly, customer success programs help leaders and marketers generate more engagement, sales, and positive reviews. It makes sense; when you fulfill your customers’ needs and provide a top-notch experience, they are more likely to keep interacting with your brand.
You may be wondering, what exactly is a customer success strategy, and how can I implement it? We’re glad you asked!
Simply put, customer success means people are happy with your product and feel like they are getting what they paid for. They are promised value, and you deliver on that promise and exceed their expectations.
The best success strategies are multi-layered and touch all aspects of the user journey, from the first time they land on your website until long after they make their first purchase.
Today, we will explore several actionable ways you give people who visit your site a memorable, value-packed experience.
Let’s dive in!
Understand Customer Needs and Pain Points
The first thing you should do when creating a customer success strategy is take some time to understand your target audience’s needs, goals, and pain points.
If you don’t understand why someone might need your product or service, you will have a hard time building rapport and providing long-term value. The more you know about your audience’s goals, roadblocks, interests, and general demographics, the more opportunities you’ll have to help them find success.
Luckily, there are plenty of great ways to gather information and learn more about the people who frequently engage with your brand.
Here are a few strategies you can use to better understand your customers:
- Use targeted on-site surveys
- Review your website analytics
- Talk to your followers on social media
- Ask new customers to share feedback
- Host live Q&A events so your audience can ask direct questions
Once you have enough data, you can begin crafting your marketing campaigns, value proposition, and website around your customers’ needs. But remember, you should never stop gathering this information because peoples’ needs and visions of success change over time.
Highlight Your Value Proposition
Your social media ads, product landing pages, and other points of contact should highlight your value proposition and show customers how their lives will improve after they invest in your product or service.
Anchoring product features to pain points is key to showing users how they’ll benefit. For example, a lead generation SaaS could emphasize that they can help brand new business owners build their email list and show how their product can make it happen.
Because building an email list is a common pain point, visitors will have an easier time understanding how interacting with this brand can help them find success.
Another way to show value is to let current customers speak for you. Research shows that 88% of people trust customer reviews over traditional advertising. Showing benefit-driven reviews will help you connect with visitors who want to know what existing users think of your brand.
We like to highlight reviews on our checkout page, homepage, and other popular parts of our website.
Make it Easy to Place an Order
If you want to ensure prospects find success, make sure they can quickly and easily place an order on your website.
A properly optimized checkout page ensures prospects follow through your sales funnel and eventually place an order. If people don’t make it through this part of the process, you won’t have the opportunity to make sure they see continued success with your products.
You’ll be happy to know that improving your checkout flow is fairly straightforward.
The first thing you should do is make sure your pricing is as transparent as possible. Unexpected costs are the number one driving force behind cart abandonment. If a user spends time adding products to their cart with a specific price point in mind, and it then jumps up by 20 or even 40% due to taxes and fees, most people will leave without paying.
It’s also important to allow for a wide range of payment options. Visa and Mastercard are still popular, but so are Venmo, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Samsung Wallet. Allowing for multiple payment methods ensures your prospects don’t get leave at the very end of the process.
I also recommend explaining to users what will happen after they pay for their order. For instance, software companies should show customers how to download and install their new tool.
There are other small but meaningful ways to improve your checkout flow, like limiting form fields, removing distractions (like sidebar ads), and adding a progress bar so users can see how long it will take to finalize their order. Making a few changes can significantly boost conversions and overall customer satisfaction.
Offer Users Onboarding Options and Resources
Once someone places an order on your site, they will likely want some help getting comfortable with your product or service. Onboarding is all about guiding customers through the first steps of their journey with your brand, which will increase the odds that they have a smooth and successful transition.
Your onboarding strategy may vary based on your industry. For instance, a SaaS could benefit from building an onboarding program into its tool. The first time users open the software, they are greeted with an optional in-app tutorial explaining key features and functions.
A company that sells physical products, like computers, could create tutorials on its blog that show customers how to perform specific tasks, like first-time setup and customization.
Both groups should consider the benefits of creating an onboarding hub with plenty of resources, including written posts, videos, and checklists. Videos have proven especially helpful, with 94% of marketers claiming video content has helped their customers understand products and services.
By offering users a wide range of options, you equip them with the knowledge and resources they need to succeed.
Give People Multiple Options for Contacting Support
Customer support is something all businesses need if they hope to thrive in today’s digital market. Your onboarding programs will go a long way toward getting people comfortable, but it’s still not enough.
Giving users a wide range of support options will make it much easier to help your customers find success. Here’s the thing; every customer is different, and they may have a preferred way to contact your brand.
The most common support methods include:
- On-site chat
- Phone support
- Social media DMs and replies
If you have all four options available, people can reach out however they want when they have questions or concerns. Statistics show that live chat may be the most important support method in this group. We found that 63% of people are more likely to return to a website and engage with a brand if there’s a way to talk to a real person via live chat.
Social media is another vital support platform for growing businesses. Over 4.5 billion people use social sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you have a social media support team available to help users when they need it, there’s a much better chance they’ll have a positive experience with your brand.
Final Thoughts
We all want customers to have the best experience possible when they engage with our brand. The strategies outlined today will help you build a strong foundation for success. As your business grows, you’ll find plenty of new opportunities to streamline your processes and nurture visitors into customers and customers into brand advocates.
