Shopping For Better Customers

So exactly how do you go about “shopping” for better customers? Well, when you are making a purchase that is especially important do you do research on that purchase? Yes, of course you do. Getting new or better customers for your business is no different than buy any other important item.

Research!

Your customers are the reason your business exists. Gathering as much information as you can about them through customer research will help refine and grow your business. The type of business you have and the kind of information you need to gather will influence the customer research methods you choose. You can conduct customer research yourself or hire a consultant to do it.

You can gather information about the effectiveness of your advertising by gauging:

Your customers' likely responses to your marketing and promotional strategies through testing in a forum such as a focus group. The effectiveness of each of your past and planned promotional techniques through analysis of sales data.

You can work out how sensitive your customers are to price changes by using formulas that measure revenue - multiplying the number of items you sold by the price of each item. These tests allow you to calculate whether your total revenue increased or decreased after making price changes by:

Calculating changes in the quantities of products demanded by your customers alongside changes in product pricing.   Measure the impact of your product pricing on product demand.

Another way to measure customer feedback and your customer service is by monitoring your social media engagement and feedback. Social media (particularly Facebook) is becoming a common element of your marketing mix and increasingly used by your customers to provide feedback, share customer service experiences and make complaints.

Your Customer Service

Delivering a well differentiated customer experience is much of the same research, you have the right technologies, business processes, and empowered organizational structures to support your organization's customer service capabilities. When choosing customer service technologies, application development and delivery pros leading customer service projects should move away from a build-first mentality.

Instead, they should consider whether technologies they can leverage for customer service already exist within the enterprise. If not, they can look at outsourcing options, CRM suites, or specialty customer service point-solutions vendors. This report provides an overview of options to consider when sourcing customer service technologies.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk

600 West Ray Road

Suite D-3

Chandler Arizona 85225

602-235-0975

info@smartservicedesk.com

http://smartservicedesk.com

Do You Try To Find Better Customers?

Do you find new customers? Do you buy new customers? Do you attract the right new customers?

How do you think of customer attraction?

The practice is especially important for new business owners who tend to not only have more limited means, but also don't generally register a profit from a new customer until the fifth of sixth purchase. And without a stable of customers to tap for repeat purchases, being more careful about where you ply your limited resources can only serve you.

The Smart, Easy Ways to Find Better Customers

Landing referrals from networking or past business associations isn't just a cheap way to pick up new business. It's also a way to pick up customers with the highest retention rates. What's more, referral customers tend to purchase more over time and in turn become a source of additional referrals.

How do you find referrals? Beyond having a product or service that's in demand, your business must have a clear idea of who your “better,” "ideal" or “perfect” customer is.

That way, you can communicate to others in your network what type of customer you're looking for. You can also focus your own products or services to meet the needs, wants or desires of that very specific profile.

Great Referrals Don’t Happen By Accident
Teaming up. Another way to leverage available resources is through what's known as a "host-beneficiary" arrangement. In this arrangement, another business with the same target customer will use their database to promote your business. 

They might attach a gift voucher or other discount offer for your products at the end of one of a newsletter or mailing. Examples of this include: a high-end hair salon and a high-end car dealership or an attorney and an accountant.

To attract another business, offer to pay for the business owner's mailing or email expenses, or offer the business owner commission on any sales.

The 80/20 Rule
We're all tempted to waste our time trying to please all of our customers instead of the most lucrative ones. We are all conditioned to always respond to the stimulus around us. So if you obey the 80/20 rule, you are going always to feel as though you are ignoring something -- because you are.

It will be an irritating feeling at first. And it particularly gnaws at Americans because we are prone to trying to treat people equally. The phrase is clearly written our Declaration of Independence, that all people "are created equal." But all customers are not equal. Far from it. Some earn you an amazingly disproportionate amount of money, many make you a little bit of money, and some even waste your time. With the last group, you lose money selling anything to them at all.

Your goal should be to zero in on those 20 percent of customers who are essential for your business' prosperity.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

What Can SMART Service Desk Do For Your Business?

What can SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software do to fill your companies’ needs and wants?

Better customer service follow up?

Increased efficiency for internal communications and IT management?

Improved Social Media Outreach?

Find out how SMART Service Desk can help you improve relationships with your customers. The answer may not be as obvious as it is overlooked: what customers really want. No matter how great your product is or how talented your staff is, one of the things that customers are most likely to remember is the direct interaction they have with your company.

Bottom line, your customer service team is the most important face of your company, and customers’ experiences will be defined by the skill and quality of the support they receive.

A strong company will already have great customer relationships. But a smart company will always be asking “What is good customer service?” If you are not constantly on the lookout for opportunities to improve your customer service, then your relationships will stagnate. Here are a few customer service tips for identifying ways to better serve customers.

First, it’s important to make sure that your customer service team has the right tools and skills for your managing customers’ needs. The right CRM software can compensate for shortcomings in this area. But what skills should you be looking for in a customer service representative?

Customers appreciate a professional employee who will see their problem through to its resolution. At the same time, you must have good time management skills and not spend too much time handling one customer while others are waiting. Stay focused on your goals to achieve the right balance.

Ultimately your customers rely on you for their knowledge of your product. Stay informed enough to respond to most inquiries and know where to turn if the questions become too detailed or technical for you to answer. But don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” either. Customers will appreciate the honesty and your efforts to find the right answer.

As we have mentioned the customer isn’t always right… right? The ability to interact with the customer to solve the real problem no matter the cause. Whether your team works directly with customers or looking for feedback on social media, they’ve got to keep the customer’s happiness in mind.

Is your company looking for customer service solutions to help you deal with customer interaction? SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Data-Driven Marketing Focuses On Your Customers

The role of technology in marketing is dramatically changing. It began with interdependent tools that solved one issue. Now we’re seeing a fundamental shift in investment to software that helps companies illustrate, measure and quantify the overall impact of marketing expenditures on their business.

If the advertising industry focused on the needs of marketers, they would empower them to leverage the current assets they have, in terms of technology and data. But more often than not, their solution has to meet their own model’s parameters. What’s needed is a more open ecosystem that focuses on building industry standards and meeting the objectives of all marketers, not just current clients.

Business leaders have realized that "getting closer to the customer" is crucial to growth. Both business buyers and consumers have more choices than ever before, empowered by online and mobile channels that provide more ways to buy, give and get recommendations, and talk back to companies. Today's customer won't hesitate to walk away from an established company relationship that doesn't meet their purchase needs. This holds true for nearly all industries today, and is no longer limited to those serving consumers.

Today, the customer is truly king. And new buying behavior demands engaging, customer-centered experiences sustained by properly aligned sales and support channels. Discover how social media, mobile apps and digital marketing can build next-generation sales. Create multi-channel brand messaging strategies in order to balance marketing goals and customer demand. Discover how behavioral economics can influence your customer experience strategy now, and over the long-term, by putting the consumer first.

Sales effectiveness requires consistency of product, content and data. When it comes to influencing customer decision-making, the B2B online channel has risen to match the strategic value of the direct sales force. Stay ahead of market peers. Organize your sales functions, channel compliance and people to better meet customer demand. Use technology such as Service Management Software, big data, automation, digital commerce and social media to support sales goals. Learn to align your cost of selling to your business model and take better control of the resulting profit margins.

How are using these consumer focused ideas to advance your companies marketing?

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Customers Are The Solution Not The Problem

"Ask your customers to be part of the solution, and never view them as part of the problem."
~ Alan Weiss

Do you approach your business from the point of view of a Satisfied Customer? Remember, customers may forget what you say to them but they'll never forget how you make them feel.

You must first give in order to receive. What does your brand, product or service do for your customers? 

When you conduct consumer research for larger brands, research can be harder to implement in the world of startups, when both time and budget are already stretched. However, there’s nothing like hearing from the customers you’re trying to reach, and there are, many ways to do it.

In the early stages, this could mean pulling together a few focus groups with people who match your target audience (or at least come close) to learn a bit more about what they care about. Of course you shouldn’t make major business decisions this way. But you might discover that what you thought was your product’s primary benefit is actually not as relevant as a different point you could emphasize. Or maybe there’s a must-have feature that hadn’t occurred to you.

If you’ve already built up an audience, send out a simple, multiple-choice survey. Learn what motivated them to become users, what they perceive as your benefits, even just who they are—all of this data helps inform future customer acquisition. You can also understand more about your current offering—what’s working, areas to improve, features to eliminate.

If your business is online and you are launching something potentially complicated, invite people over and watch them use it. The lessons you learn will surprise you.

Yes, there are obviously selfish reasons for going to work every day. Success certainly leads to financial and emotional rewards, even more pronounced when you own the business. But the surest way to achieve this success is by rewarding others first. So remember your lessons from your favorite motivational book, practice generosity, and just like the Grinch’s heart, watch your business grow.

Customers come first! Ignore that axiom at your own risk!

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk Asks: What About Customer Focus Marketing?

What do we mean by Customer focused marketing? Customer focused marketing is the process of determining customer needs and wants in order to drive the working force behind the company's products or services. Managers in the company must determine key factors about its customers in order to steer its marketing approach.

In customer focused marketing it is the customer that drives the entire working force behind the product. Customer focused marketing mangers must know exactly who their customers are and what segments of the market that they fit into. Customer focused marketing mangers need to know the demographics of their customers and information like, how much information do your customers need before making a purchase? Do they buy the latest and the greatest products available or do they stick with what they know?

The challenge is largest when it comes to customer focused marketing. With so many specifics to appeal to the process of doing so can be quite draining. As a customer focused marketing company you must send a unique and powerful marketing message that is focused for and to all of your different consumer groups. Or you can somehow create one marketing plan that will appeal to all customer groups in which you are interested?

As is the case with most business matters, there are technical ways to look at the process of customer focused marketing. The rationale behind needing to look at relationships with customers technically is that there is no use is spending precious time and money on projects and products meant to guide a customer to buy, if ultimately the result is not an increase in cash flow.

In our digital landscape, customers have infinite choices available to them. Brands must make sure they have strong presence and deliver consistent value messages, so that their customers can make educated decisions about what they're purchasing, when and where they want to purchase.

Technology has brought us the incredible ability to provide personalized context and content to customers as they make their way through the purchase cycle. So, you must be sure you're making yourself present in that decision set when and where customers are trying to do their pre-shop research or when they're ready to engage.

For many marketers, the key has been in realizing there are multiple ways to personalize content for customers. Traditionally, transactional history has been a go-to to anticipate the needs and future purchases of customers. However, with the emergence of social becoming a much more inherent behavior of the connected consumer, myriad data sources can help customize the experience.

What does your company do to track and manage your interactions with your customers?

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Focus on Your Customers, Not Your Products

Of course you are proud of the products you sell or the services you offer. But your focus should always be on how satisfied your customers are. Does that sound backwards to you?

No matter what you think of your offerings, it is your customer’s satisfaction that matters most.

The first step in this process is that you need to accept that you don’t always know best. Ask your customers for their feedback.  Overall how well do they like what your brand offers.

When Kleenex tissues were first introduced, they were intended to be used with cold cream as a makeup remover. But before long, Kimberly-Clark realized that customers instead were using the product as a disposable handkerchief. Within a few years, that’s exactly how the company was marketing its tissue.

Consumers are smart. So, pay attention to what they have to say about your business -- and be careful not to squeeze yourself into a box so small there’s no room to grow. You never want to risk being so focused on your original vision that you don’t realize when a better opportunity comes along.

Keep in mind that the people who buy your product are also the best positioned to sell it. Give them plenty of reasons to do so.

Making your company, product or brand ripe for evangelism is all about the extras. If you give people more than they expect, they’ll be far more likely to talk you up and encourage others to give you a try. But the trouble is, some startups grab on to the notion of “extras” without understanding exactly how that notion works.

You need to make people want to spend time with your business. That’s true whether you’re a restaurateur, a subscription service or a gadget maker. Today’s consumers want to be engaged with their brand’s identity, and may I say they want to have fun doing it.

Never forget the three Es of the sales business… Education, Entertainment, and Engagement.

Marketing as a practice continues to evolve and it’s important for marketers to evolve with the times and embrace the available technologies. The old way of throwing tons of money into an advertising program to create awareness or to move the needle with regards to sales is quickly becoming antiquated. More and more people are turning to online communities for information. Delivering content that appeals to them is a fantastic and economical way of finding new prospects and building a rapport with them.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com