Offering value to your customers is about more than providing them with products and customer service. It’s about helping your customers beyond the needs of their purchase, showing them you care, and demonstrating that you value them not just as sources of revenue, but as people.
Helping your customers helps your business. How? It’s all about loyalty. Here’s how to strengthen your relationship with your customers.
The competition for consumer dollars is fierce. You are competing not only against others in your vertical, but also against all the ways a person could spend money. Even something as basic as buying food, which we all do, is fraught with competition. A consumer could buy your groceries, shop with a competitor, or start subscribing to a prepared meal service. To stand out in this cluttered landscape, you need to do something others aren’t. You need to exceed customer expectations. The sad reality is that the majority of people are disappointed with the interactions they have with businesses. In hard numbers, 84% of customers say businesses aren’t meeting their expectations.
Exceeding expectations is unexpected. How do you discover what customers want and then give it to them? Start by learning more about them.
Ask your customers what they expect. Find out what makes them a happy shopper. Discover what, exactly, they expect from a business. Then do more.
Let’s say, for instance, that your business is grocery retail and your conversations with customers have shown that they want to make healthy food and lifestyle choices, but aren’t sure how. You can demonstrate that you care about people by offering food guidance to meet their goals. These goals could be weight loss, lowering cholesterol or lowering sugar intake, eating gluten-free, or how to make more nutritious food swaps.
Use your consumer-facing app to deliver content. The more personalized the content, the more you can exceed expectations. API integrations that safely and securely capture your customers’ health, lifestyle and behavioural data allow you to build better customer personas to build a scalable solution for providing relevant and timely content to each of your customers. It’s about delivering the right content, to the right person at the right time.
The result? You are showing that you care about your customers. You’re helping them, and in the process creating a relationship. And in doing so you are exceeding expectations of what traditionally a grocery store provides for its shoppers.
The result is increased loyalty and repeat business. Here’s another number: 81% of customers are more willing to give a company repeat business when they exceed expectations.
Actively listening to your customers will provide you with the sorts of insights you need to exceed their expectations. This includes questionnaires, cataloging complaints and comments given to front-line staff and monitoring online conversations and mentions of your brand.
This information, combined with insights gained through data captured via API integrations, reveals customer needs and expectations. For example, a running shoe company discovers their customers struggle with finding time to run and are unsure whether their efforts are actually producing results. By integrating consumer health, behaviour and lifestyle data into the app experience, customers can track their activities, see stats update in real time and be fed behaviour changing content.
As customers, we all want to feel that we’re more than just a wallet. By providing value to your customers you will be able to increase customer retention, improve return visit rates, and improve the overall loyalty among your customers.
To learn about how Sprout Open Health API™ enhances customer loyalty with access to scientifically tested and market-validated features, contact us today.
