Start, STOP Continue… is a series of guest blogs written by Yorkshire based experts sharing 3 key tips on what to Start, Stop & Continue to develop in this area.
Sharing their expertise in this issue is Nigel Greenwood from Simply Customer.
Nigel has 20 years experience in mapping customer journeys to deliver improved sales, customer retention and customer satisfaction.
Working with B2B and B2C clients, he has helped SMEs:
- Improve lead to sale conversion by up to 100%
- Improve customer retention by up to 80% for a B2B mobile/broadband broker.
- Increase cross sales by 90% for a CRM provider.
Nigel has run customer experience and journey mapping workshops in the UK and abroad, with 3 books on customer experience published.
Nigel, when it comes to creating an amazing customer experience what is the one thing we should start doing right now?
Actually, in this case we need to deal with a
STOP first, You need to stop looking at your business through your own eyes. Let me explain why
As an example, look at your homepage on the website.
Are the words all about you, your company and what you do? Why would a potential customer be interested in that?
Prospective customers want to immediately see that they are in the right place to get help with whatever it is they want to do, so you need to make it obvious to them.
Stop looking at your processes from a business efficiency point of view and look at them to make sure they do what the customer wants!
On the flip side, what should we START doing?
Start asking your customers for feedback. This isn’t about looking for a 5 star review, it’s about learning from them and starting to improve and grow your business.
Ask customers these 4 questions every 6 months (don’t forget to ask prospective customers for feedback if they decide not to do business with you as well!).
1. What do we do well (so you can do more of it!)
2. What could we do better?
3. What else could we do to help you?
4. Would you be happy to recommend us?
Use their answers to make changes to your business. Don’t forget to tell customers about the changes you have made due to their feedback – that shows you are listening to them.
Only 5% of UK businesses do this so it’s a simple way to get ahead of your competitors!
Finally, what’s a valuable activity that we should continue doing or do more of?
The most valuable thing to continue doing is to change. Many businesses find it hard, but making small, simple changes to your business regularly is the best way to continue to grow.
Carve out time in your diary each month to look critically at parts of your business and ask yourself “how could this be better?”
It might be something simple such as adding your phone number to your homepage so customers find it easier to contact you, or scheduling in a quarterly call to existing customers to see how they are.
It could be something more complex such as changing the structure of your proposals to see if it improves your conversion rate. Either way, get the habit of making one change a month and monitoring the results. You will be surprised at the results!
Thank you, Nigel, some great advice.
If you would like to find out more about Nigel and his work you can contact him at nigel@simplycustomer.co.uk.
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