Creating a great customer experience (CX) is one of the most effective business objectives you can set for your small or medium-sized business (SMB). Having your customer in mind at all times means that you can focus your attention on what adds value to their lives and what makes the buyer’s journey more seamless.
However, there’s a limit to the type of customer experience you can build without technology. Yes, the copy, tone, and brand identity you curate can be nurtured through smart design and interaction—but the right technology will allow you to create a superior CX that will, in the long run, be your brand’s differentiator.
So, let’s look at how SMBs can polish their CX by incorporating new tech.
A robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or web analytics tool will help generate insightful data about your customer base. Digging deeper and getting to know your customers’ behavior can lead to more personalized customer journeys and segmentation. A CRM lets you streamline your customer service offering in one place and analyze interactions.
Big data doesn’t just have to be for big brands. You can collect customer intelligence about how and when a user views content, interacts with a CRM, how much they engage with campaigns on various platforms—it all depends on your preference. Start to craft data-driven customer personas so you can tailor your marketing and content strategy more tightly towards them.
You can look at purchase history too—past purchases, customer interactions, discount usage, abandoned cart, etc. This can help you to build in familiarized and personalized CX based on past behaviors, e.g. sending a discounted offer to someone who abandons their cart frequently.
Without a large investment, you can create a CX tailored to your customers’ interests and purchasing habits.
The central theme that runs throughout a good CX is good customer service. If you can cut down on response time, deliver comprehensive responses, and boost interaction with your customers, then you’re well on the way to providing stellar customer service.
As an SMB, using social channels to boost your customer service credentials is really useful, but maintaining a social presence can be difficult for businesses with limited resources. Today, there are a number of social monitoring platforms that allow you to manage all of your accounts from one centralized dashboard. These tools allow you to schedule posts to keep an active social presence, but also provide helpful listening functionalities so you can stay apprised of what people are saying about your company and respond accordingly.
Automating marketing efforts, like email campaigns, is one of the best ways to instantly improve your CX. Email is an important touchpoint for reaching your audience to nurture them through the buying funnel, build relationships, and spread awareness. However, manually managing your email list can be difficult and means you have to overlook elements of personalization and segmentation. With marketing automation software, SMBs can deliver unique, personalized content at various points throughout the buyers’ journey.
Chatbots are also a valuable way to enhance your communication efforts. A messenger chatbot can operate 24/7 and answer simple queries and FAQs. Customers will appreciate the ability to get an immediate response to their question or be pointed in the right direction of where they can find more information.
It may seem difficult for SMBs to compete against corporate giants, but today’s technology helps even the playing field. With the right tech, SMBs are empowered to provide an unrivaled CX that differentiates their brand and creates loyal, lifetime customers.
Originally published by Bryan Kramer at Oracle’s SmarterCX
