4 Ways Your Business Can Be More Helpful to the Customer

The typical consumer is highly motivated by quality products. As a business owner, you can capitalize on this fact by ensuring your products are better than similar goods on the market. But no matter how exceptional your wares are, they can’t negate the effects of a poor customer experience. Shoppers will undoubtedly choose your competitors if they feel like you don’t care about them or value their business.

To continue attracting shoppers, your focus should be on making sure consumers have exceptional interactions with your business. One great way to do this is by being as helpful as possible to the consumer without becoming annoying. Here are four ways your business can be more helpful to the customer.

1. Help Them Find What They’re Looking For

Most shoppers do at least some of their purchasing online. For many, this is the most convenient way to get what they want from the comfort of their own homes. However, it can be challenging to find what you’re looking for when there are millions of websites out there. That’s why people rely on search engines to help guide them in the right direction. As a business owner, your job is to help interested consumers find your website as quickly as possible.

There are a few ways you can help consumers easily find your products. You can invest in paid advertisements, which help position your website near the top of related search engine results. But paid ads can be notoriously expensive. That’s why many businesses opt to improve their search engine rank organically through search engine optimization. This is a multi-pronged approach that targets unpaid (or organic) traffic.

A good SEO strategy always involves exceptional content that utilizes relevant keywords. If you sell custom pet dishes, for example, you might include keywords like “custom dog bowl,” or “stainless steel cat dish” in your content. Doing so will help customers find you more easily when they search for those terms online. To help you gain credibility and show off your expertise on the subject, you should also develop content clusters. These are groups of related posts and pages that revolve around your topic of expertise and illustrate your subject-matter prowess.  

2. Provide Omnichannel Support

Some people like to talk on the phone while others prefer to text. Similarly, consumers have various communication preferences. The way you respond to customers with questions, concerns, or complaints is extremely important. If they feel like they can’t get their queries resolved quickly and satisfactorily, they’ll take their business somewhere else. Providing omnichannel support gives them greater freedom over how they communicate with your business.

Some of the most popular types of omnichannel support include live chats, email responses, social media interactions, and telephone support. Include a variety of these so that consumers can select the channel they prefer.

Many businesses also offer chatbot support. This is a great way to provide immediate assistance to consumers without hiring a large team of live representatives. That said, make sure you test your chatbots before launching them to ensure they’re equipped to meet your customers’ needs.

3. Offer Free Trials

Depending on the type of business you run, you may have the option of offering a free trial to consumers. This gives them a risk-free way to experience your product or service without committing to buying it.

At the end of the trial period, the customer gets to decide whether they want to invest in the product. This process empowers people to make the best purchasing decisions for their needs. As long as your product adds value to the consumer’s life, there’s a good chance they’ll choose to buy it when the trial is over.  

Free trials remove the pressure prospective customers commonly feel when shopping for products or services. They also help generate greater confidence in your brand. After all, you likely wouldn’t offer a free trial if you weren’t a firm believer in the value of your product.

4. Welcome Feedback

Meeting customer needs at all times can be challenging, but it should be one of your main goals. Happy customers are the foundation of most successful businesses. But it’s not always easy to tell whether shoppers are happy or dissatisfied. Often, consumers will simply leave and never return if they have an unpleasant experience. You may never even know when or why you lost their business.

That’s why asking for feedback is so crucial to your ongoing success. If you’re proactive about soliciting feedback, you can reduce your customer turnover rate. You may wish to provide feedback cards near checkout stands or throughout your store.

If you mainly conduct business online, consider periodically sending surveys to your subscriber email lists. Keep in mind that asking for feedback is only one part of the process. You must respond to the advice you receive by making positive changes. This will help customers see that you’re serious about meeting their needs.

Attracting new customers is a monumental task for many businesses. Keeping their attention and loyalty can be even harder. The key to earning repeat business is to be as helpful as you can to each consumer. Use these tips to ensure shoppers have a good experience with you and continue to choose you over competitors.