For a long time, customer satisfaction has been the buzzword in the online retail market. It has been proven over and over again that keeping your customers happy is of paramount importance for your online retail business. Research shows that customer satisfaction is directly related to customer retention, or the ability to hold on to customers. Satisfied customers are more likely to return to you. Customer satisfaction is also the best way to create loyalty around your brand and service, which means that satisfied customers are also more likely to recommend you to their friends. This can, therefore, be seen as a chain reaction – every loyal customer begets more.
The problem is that with thousands of sellers, big and small, to compete with, sometimes you need to not just satisfy, but to wow your customer. The beauty of online retail is that the only human connection that you have with your customer is during delivery. A product delivery can be a moment of anticipation for the customer. It might be a new phone that they saved up to buy or a new dress that they can’t wait to wear and go out – opening the box can be a special moment for the customer. As a seller, you have to realise that in one way or another, you are making or breaking somebody’s day. Here are some ways with which you can delight your consumers are improve your sales in the process.
How can you take advantage of customer satisfaction?
1. Optimising User Experience
Receiving the package might be the big moment for the customer, but your work actually starts long before that. Understanding user experience is not as difficult as we might think. The first thing to do is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Go online and look for something to buy. Try browsing for products on your website. Do you notice things that are annoying or even mildly frustrating?
For example, having trouble finding the search bar, or an irritating popup, or difficulty in reading due to the colour scheme? Seemingly small things like these tend to show massive reflections in numbers. Bad design is one of the most common reasons for cart abandonment. An interesting example in this context is the IKEA Store. The Swedish furniture company started the trend of modelling the interiors of their showrooms to resemble actual living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms. By making their stores look less like stores and more like tastefully decorated homes, the company managed to make the customers feel comfortable. This is the key to good user experience.
2. Catalogue Management
It is extremely annoying as a customer to encounter the same products in different categories on the same website. This is not a design problem, rather it is to do with how you catalogue and categorise your products. Displaying bad images, lack of images and information about a product or trying to sell an out of stock product is one of the worst things that you can do for sales. Providing honest and impeccable information about your product is the best way of managing your customer’s expectations. This can be a tough job since you might be listing thousands of products on various online retail stores. Therefore, it is advisable to use a multi-channel inventory management service like Browntape, which gives you the power to easily manage product listings on various channels
3. Customer Interaction
You will need to interact with your customers on a daily basis, through email, phone or social media platforms. The way in which you interact with customers will really make a difference in terms of customer satisfaction. This can be quite difficult because the most common reasons for a customer to have to contact you would either be grievances or concerns. Moreover, brand presence on social media has given rise to the trend of calling the company out on social media platforms. In such cases, you are directly under the public eye, and an altercation can be quite damaging to your market presence. The important thing to remember in this scenario is to respond in a courteous and polite manner, to move the conversation on a private forum and to be as helpful as possible.
4. Packaging and Delivery
This is where you can really outshine your competition, by adding a personal touch through packaging. A good rule to remember is that the although the customer has bought the product, the packaging can be a gift. Just by using simple design tactics to make your packaging sturdy and easy to unpack, you can really impress your customers. This is more important than you might think – unboxing has become a Youtube phenomenon, where customers upload videos of unboxing creatively packed products. Adding a creative touch to your packaging is a great way to incite the customer to promote it on social media.
5. Have Fun with Your Brand
The one thing that successful brands have in common with each other is that they have personalities, which means that they are someone you can be friends with. This is the key difference between having a satisfied customer and a delighted customer. You might be satisfied with your doctor, but chances are that you might not be delighted by the idea of meeting them. Online retail is not very different from social media, in the sense that it is still a space where people interact with each other. With initiatives like Facebook for Business, etc. these differences are already blurring. There is nothing better than online word-of-mouth in such situations, and the only way to do so is to give your brand a personality.
This is what we have on delighting your customers to improve sales. To know more, get in touch with Browntape. We are India’s leading ecommerce experts, and we are always happy to help!
