If you want to see better customer service results, you need to build a strategy designed specifically to serve your niche customers – rather than a generic strategy meant to serve anyone and everyone.
Why is it so important to focus on a particular target demographic? And what steps can you take to use this strategy successfully?
Why Defining a Niche Market Is So Valuable
As an entrepreneur can tell you, it’s important to build your business with at least one niche market in mind. Identifying and targeting this audience can help you in several ways:
- Better products and services. Better understanding your target audience means you’ll be able to serve them better with improved products and services. You can design not only customer service platforms, but customer service experience is around what your customers actually want to see.
- Higher relevance and appeal. You can also construct your messaging and provide solutions that have higher relevance and appeal to your target demographics. With a generic, universal customer service strategy in place, many of your customers might roll their eyes or dismiss your offered services. With a more focused, conscientious strategy, you can instantly connect with your customers.
- Brand loyalty and customer retention. Better overall customer service experiences mean your customers will be much more loyal to your brand, and your organization will be much more likely to see higher rates of customer retention. That means greater profitability, higher revenue consistency, and a slew of other benefits.
- Less competition. Focusing on a target market is also important for reducing competition. If you serve one demographic extremely well, and this demographic is neglected by other competitors, you’ll have a significant competitive advantage.
How to Focus Your Customer Service Strategy on Your Target Audience
So, what steps can you take to focus your customer service strategy on your target audience specifically?
- Do your research. Every customer service strategy should start with market research. You won’t be able to construct an appropriately targeted customer service strategy unless you know who your customers are and know how they think. Identify your target demographics and get to know them inside and out, focusing on their values, beliefs, and preferences. What kinds of customer service best appeal to them? What modes of communication do they prefer?
- Study your competition. It’s also a good idea to study your competition. Do you have competitors targeting the same demographics as you? If so, you can learn from their existing customer service strategies. Are your competitors serving different demographics? If so, you can find strategies that contrast with theirs.
- Use the right mediums. One of the best ways to reach a target audience is using the right medium. Different customer segments are going to prefer different modes of customer service; some customers prefer calling and speaking to a human agent, while others prefer to serve themselves with a knowledge base. Still others may prefer social media, or interactive tutorials.
- Give customers what they want. It sounds simple, right? Find out what your customers want and give it to them. Do they prefer short, concise interactions with straightforward messaging and fast resolutions? Or do they prefer more human, organic relationships that unfold overtime? What types of solutions to common problems do they prefer? If you or your team is caught dealing with and irate customer, what are the best strategies to deescalate the situation? You’ll need a combination of research and real experience to come up with the best answers.
- Build a knowledge base from the ground up. Different types of customers are going to have different levels of knowledge and experience when they come to you with customer service needs. Accordingly, you should build a knowledge base from the ground up, offering information at all levels of understanding that are relevant for your customers. For example, you can include knowledge base sections for total laypeople as well as seasoned veterans – assuming both are in your target demographic pool.
- Rely on surveys for feedback. If you want to improve your customer-centric strategy even further, start conducting surveys and asking for feedback from people who have received customer service from your organization. Were you able to resolve their problems or concerns successfully? Was this knowledge base article comprehensive and understandable? Be ready to act on feedback as you receive it.
With a more focused, better targeted customer service strategy in place, your business will be much better positioned. You’ll have an edge over your competition, you’ll have a route to securing higher customer retention and loyalty, and your customers will be measurably happier. You may not be able to transform your customer service strategy overnight, but every step forward in this area is a step in the right direction.
