The Skewed/Unbalanced Business Process
Far too often companies focus on bringing in new business. Most companies’ budgets are spent on sales and marketing channels, but seldom do companies spend time focusing on keeping what they already have.
Most noticeably, in startups and small businesses, we see companies prioritizing sales, creating a sales-oriented culture while sacrificing product, and customer satisfaction post-sale. But even among mid-size and mature companies, we see that they focus more on filling the pipeline while letting existing clients leave from the backend. It is obvious that if we shut the backdoor while keeping the pipeline healthy, it will result in a very strong foundation and growing business. Simply put, focusing on customer experience can make sure the business survives another pandemic, when it may be tougher to bring in sales and keep the heart of the business beating.
We often see companies focus more on
filling the pipeline while letting existing clients
leave from the backend.
Journey of a Customer
Improving customer experience starts with connecting the sales and marketing departments. Whether a one-man business or a multi-million-dollar operation, it's important the offers made while marketing and the promises made by the sales team are fulfilled during product fulfillment. Then there is post fulfillment or ongoing support which is also equally important. Therefore, the main goal is to create a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints to exceed the companies and the customers’ standards. By keeping an eye on the entire customer journey, a business can ensure that the promise of a positive experience is kept, and a superior service provided.
Happy Customer, Loyal Customer
Creating a memorable customer experience not only ensures that the customers will remain loyal, but also encourages them to bring more referrals, in turn generating strong natural growth for the business. It may also lead to repeat sales and increase in the average customer lifetime value.
Customers want the best value for their money. They expect brands to engage with them meaningfully in every interaction and enhance their experience during their journey. A positive experience enhances the bond between the company and its customer, improving trust, and turning them into brand advocates.
But how can we implement proper customer experience while minimizing additional costs?
By keeping an eye on the entire customer journey,
a business can ensure that the promise of a positive experience is kept,
and a superior service provided.
Process Mapping / Systems Thinking
Step one to implementing a good customer experience is to unify all touchpoints to ensure that the best possible experience is maintained. Unifying all channels of communication makes sure that too many contacts aren’t happening at once over several channels, repeat information is not being sent between multiple channels, and that there are no gaps in communication between customers and the company. In a day and age where hundreds of companies are contacting customers to win their business, it is important to make sure that systematic contact is occurring -- and when contact does establish, it is meaningful -- to ensure quality customer experience.
The best way to do this is leveraging a platform that offers unification on all channels of communication, integrated with a CRM. By bringing together a CRM with other useful business applications like live chat, customer service, marketing automation, business analytics, project management, and more within a single platform, one can now get a holistic view of how every customer interacts with the business.
An ideal customer experience platform solution enables businesses to successfully target their marketing campaigns, drive sales engagement by analyzing visitor website behavior, indicate the best time to contact a lead based on metrics, integrate with a system that tracks fulfilment/delivery, organize support tickets, and provide a 360-degree customer view.
The best way to do this is leveraging a platform
that offers unification on all channels of communication,
integrated with a CRM.
Zoho CRM Plus: The Most Versatile and Integrated Customer Experience Platform
The ideal platform that we recommend as capable of serving businesses of all types is Zoho CRM Plus. Zoho CRM Plus is a platform that enables omnichannel communication and makes it easy to integrate a company’s all internal team efforts while simultaneously delivering a unified experience to all its customers.
However, there are several risks associated with migrating a business to another platform. If a company already has an established clientele, then it needs to make sure that the daily processes are running smoothly, while it is upgrading its customer experience platform. And that’s where an implementation process comes in.
Keeping the Back Door Shut
Here at Sliver, we leverage Zoho to have the lowest implementation time in the business, at 50% shorter than the industry average. Whether a small business, an enterprise or something in between, that needs onboarding assistance, our full-service consulting and professional services will help map out its unique implementation requirements. By implementing software that improves customer experience efficiently, a company can make sure that it is unifying sales, marketing, and product departments under one platform. It can set up its business to scale faster and farther while having happier customers – that is, it can keep the back door shut.
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For more information on how Sliver can implement an integrated Customer Experience platform and reinforce the business foundation for next wave of growth, email us at info@sliverusa.com.
For a free 14-day trial of Zoho CRM Plus, the most versatile and integrated customer experience platform, use the link Zoho CRM Plus. Once you sign up, email us and we will double your trial period.