Regardless of the industry that your business is operating in, if you don’t keep your customers happy, you are likely to endure failure. After all, keeping your customers satisfied is the key to running a successful company.
What is the best way to keep your customers happy? The answer is simple; you have to provide them with top-notch customer service on a consistent basis.
Customer service is comprised of many elements. Think about it. Your customers probably call you or contact you in some way on a daily basis for any number of reasons. Each time they contact you, you should be able to access customer data about them, which will make their communications with you more unique. It will also make it easier for you to keep your customers happy.
Your customer service department should not sit around waiting for customers to contact it. Your customer service representatives need to consistently follow up with your customers to make sure they are happy with the services and products that you are selling to them. Your company’s company’s goal should be to make the lives of your customers easier.
All in all, you have to find a way to segment your customers. This allows you to get to know them better, which allows you to better meet their wants and needs. And fortunately, there are five simple tips that you can follow to improve customer segmentation. Let’s take a quick look at each tip
Capture Their Interests and Preferences
When customers shop for products/services either in your brick-and-mortar store or through your online store, you need to take special note of their interests and preferences. A great way to do is this is by asking them to fill out a survey.Sure, you probably know that getting them to complete a survey would go a long way in helping you get to know them but, but the question is, “how do you ACTUALLY get them to take their time and fill out the surveys?” It’s simple; you give them a reward.
For example, whether it be in your store or online, you can inform the customer that if he or she completes the survey, then a 20 percent coupon will be issued that can be used immediately. Other types of rewards that you could offer include:
• Buy one get one free coupon
• Free shipping coupon
• $10 gift card
Use What You Already Have
Yes, there are many ways to gather data about your customers, and this is a good thing. But make sure that you’re using the data you already have as well. Customer segmentation becomes a lot simpler the better you know your customers, so use any and all data that you have. You should regularly access any existing data and assess the characteristics that you find. You’ll quickly be able to segment your customers according to the type of campaign you’re trying to carry out.
Noticing Your Repeat Customers
Another way that you should segment your customers is by pinpointing those who make repeat purchases. It’s these very customers that likely make up the most of your profits. Once you pinpoint these customers, you can then analyse any data that you have about them, such as what triggered them to make purchases. If you notice that most of your repeat customers make a purchase after receiving a promotional coupon via email, then you can conclude that these coupons really are drawing in lots of sales and that you should continue to send them.
Winning Back Inactive Customers
Just the same as you should segment your returning customers, you should also segment those who don’t do much business with you. What you must keep in mind, however, is that it is crucial to not smother these customers with ads and promotions. There is a reason that they don’t conduct business with your company very often, so don’t push them away for good when trying to win them back.
How exactly can you win them back? For starters, you can use the data that you have about them and determine the products and/or services that they purchased from you. Send them an email or direct mail survey asking them for feedback on their experience with your business. This might trigger them to leave a product/service review, and if you offer a reward for filling out the feedback form, you very well might draw them back into making another purchase.
Browsing Device Segmentation
It might seem a bit odd, but there are plenty of companies out there that are segmenting their customers based on browsing devices that are used to access their sites. You should be doing the same thing.
When you segment your customers according to the browsers that they are using, you are likely to categorize them by age and their willingness to spend money on your products/services.
For example, people accessing your site using an iPhone or Android product tend to be young, and younger generations usually don’t care to spend large amounts of money on products and services.
Those accessing your site on a Kindle are likely to be older and more cautious about what they spend their money on. Using this information to your advantage, you could offer Kindle users a special 10 percent coupon, which may trigger them to make a purchase from you.
The Take Away
As you can see, segmenting your customers is relatively easy when following the above mentioned tips. The important thing to do is gather as much data as you can about your customers, store it in a secure database, and then access the data on a regular basis, especially when carrying out marketing campaigns.
