Customers Are Changing – Is Your Business Ready?

Within the fast-paced world of magnificence, Glamnetic remodeled a easy concept — higher eyelash extensions — right into a $50 million enterprise in 5 years. Their success stemmed not solely from an revolutionary product but in addition from their strategy to buyer engagement.

For 25 years, I’ve labored on and helped construct a few of the best-known B2C and B2B manufacturers – from LinkedIn to Yahoo!, Coca-Cola manufacturers, House Depot and now BILL. I’ve seen a constant pattern that Glamnetic co-founders Ann McFerran and Kevin Gould understood instinctively: prospects are changing.

A brand new era of consumers

Shifts in customer behavior have implications for companies of all sizes. Nonetheless, small and midsize companies (SMBs) which might be notably time — and resource-constrained can face distinctive challenges in understanding and responding to modifications in buyer expectations.

For B2B and B2C manufacturers, prospects are now not glad with being passive recipients of services and products. More and more, they search lively engagement with manufacturers and a constant expertise alongside their journey with a model. Advances in technology and AI are key drivers, heightening expectations for brand new improvements in e-commerce or self-service instruments. Additionally, with extra competitors, switching prices are decrease, making retention all of the extra essential. And with a extra agile, on-line and cell enterprise presence, prospects count on to see their suggestions shortly mirrored.

Listed below are 4 easy and efficient methods I’ve seen SMBs use to reply to these shifts in buyer conduct and leverage them for achievement.

1. Construct a seamless buyer journey

A buyer’s journey begins earlier than a sale. From the second they sign intent, you need to ship a coherent, holistic and seamless experience. Creating this expertise could be robust as a result of, sometimes, totally different groups take care of totally different elements of that buyer journey. This course of could cause friction or missed alternatives as prospects transfer by the shopper funnel.

Should you can align gross sales, advertising and marketing, buyer assist and product or engineering groups and level them in the direction of the identical north star of a ‘seamless buyer journey,’ you possibly can ship an important expertise at each touchpoint.

Some firms, like BILL, have introduced collectively GTM groups (gross sales and advertising and marketing) to drive larger alignment and focus from the start of the shopper journey. Creating round suggestions loops is essential to make sure buyer insights gained at any level can inform enterprise technique, product and engineering, advertising and marketing or assist.

Your management staff performs a central position in facilitating this cross-functional collaboration, however establishing a tradition of empowerment at each stage is the important thing to making sure all staff really feel possession of the shopper journey.

Associated: How to Nurture Your Leads and Create the Right Customer Journey

2. Talk with prospects

Nice manufacturers do not simply market to prospects — they open a two-way dialogue with them that’s focused to their wants and pursuits and genuine to firm values and voice. To do that, they begin by listening to prospects’ wants after which constructing a model and advertising and marketing technique round them.

An efficient two-way communication strategy meets prospects the place they’re — and within the modality they select. Give attention to how your communications can add worth to prospects’ lives. For instance, share instructional content material to assist prospects optimize your services or products. Constructing neighborhood between prospects is a implausible solution to deepen emotional connections along with your model.

Glamnetic did this exceptionally properly. They harnessed the power of Instagram, user-generated movies and real buyer interplay to develop a loyal “Glam Fam” neighborhood. They capitalized on the pattern of social media discovery.

By this, they recognized a rising demand for extra natural-looking lashes and press-on nails and expanded their product line. Glamnetic curated an area for genuine buyer interplay and harnessed this neighborhood to make sure each interplay was a chance to study and strengthen buyer relationships.

Associated: 5 Ways to Communicate More Effectively With Your Customers

3. Make know-how a aggressive benefit

Know-how is a game-changer for SMBs seeking to perceive higher and serve their prospects. As automation and AI turn out to be extra highly effective and ubiquitous, so too does the flexibility of SMBs to include know-how throughout each a part of the shopper journey.

For instance, monetary automation software program can assist you enhance operational effectivity and productiveness and guarantee groups can spend extra time with prospects and fewer time within the again workplace. Buyer relationship administration (CRM) instruments observe interactions and collect buyer insights to identify tendencies that may feed into each a part of your small business.

Analytics platforms assist you perceive buyer conduct in your web site or app so you possibly can higher goal your communications with prospects. And AI-powered chat can equip SMBs to supply 24/7 buyer assist.

Take Amy Liu, founder and CEO of Tower 28 Magnificence. Amy began her enterprise with a mission to promote clear magnificence and skincare merchandise. However she discovered herself spending time on handbook back-office duties. By upgrading their know-how and investing in monetary automation software program, Amy used the time she saved to give attention to increasing their retail footprint. Their merchandise are actually carried in Sephora shops throughout the U.S. and Canada. Automation additionally helped Amy keep targeted on the one which mattered most: prospects.

4. Dwell by your values to foster belief

In a aggressive panorama, belief is probably the most beneficial asset a SMB has. To construct belief, you first must ship in your services or products promise to prospects. You additionally want to ascertain emotional connections with prospects to translate that belief into long-term loyalty. Do they consider in your mission? Do they perceive your dedication to innovate for them? Can they really feel the empathy you will have for his or her wants?

Belief begins with an organization’s values and tradition. Values information who you rent, the merchandise you construct, the service you present and the way you talk. Values present certainty, safety and reassurance to prospects. If one thing goes mistaken, prospects must belief you may put their pursuits first and be accountable to them. It is also not sufficient to write down values on a wall or web site – you will need to infuse them at each stage of your group.

Associated: 4 Reasons Values Matter So Much in Business

At BILL, our 5 values (genuine, accountable, humble, passionate and enjoyable) inform our enterprise priorities and choices and information our engagement with prospects. We measure and reward worker efficiency towards our values. We reiterate them in each firm assembly and talk about them with prospects, buyers and companions.

Concentrating on agile, empathetic and customer-centric approaches can assist SMBs reap the advantages of an more and more engaged, tech-savvy and community-oriented buyer base. By instilling sturdy firm values, leveraging know-how, constructing a seamless buyer journey and fascinating in two-way communication, SMBs is not going to solely earn the loyalty and belief of consumers — they will additionally win.