Start potential customers off with a customer experience

I agree with you marketing to potential customers is a challenge. Your focus has been on creating a great product, having a solid marketing plan and providing responsive customer service. And now, you’re hearing that you also need to create a customer experience!

You’re not even sure what that means in your business. After all, you’re not a shopping mall attempting to entice potential customers in to buy, with psychological pleasing colors and lighting, wide aisles in a patterned layout and eye-popping product displays.

Why the sudden emphasis on providing a customer experience?

Markets and marketing never remains static. However, they’ve been escalating at a super charged rate with customer based technology, mobile marketing and large data analysis telling marketers more about customer behavior and intentions.

Those who benefit the most are those who are not looking at their business as it is today, but where their business needs to be. They are the ones following where customers are trending.

Three areas where customers are trending in new directions

1. While customer service is still important, customer experience is considered more significant.
2. Working from basic demographics is no longer sufficient, whereas pooled data tracks critical shifting customer preferences and mind sets.
3. Customer transactions have moved beyond being monetary to being relation based interactions.

So what does Customer Experience mean?

It’s basically an organizational definition. It describes the result of an interaction between a customer and an organization during the lifetime of their relationship.

However, that interaction is now perceived to have more relevance because it presents new marketing opportunities and optimized profits.

There are two key components to this new perspective on a customer experience.

First, both a customer’s conscious perceptions in relation to a brand (organization), as well as, their subconscious perceptions are considered during the life of the relationship.

Second, the organization’s aim is to enhance this relationship and customer’s perceptions by creating a personalized experience.

Granted, this may sound like something beyond the scope and ability of your average Internet marketer. But, not really.

The key thing is to start integrating some simple strategies into your marketing that begin to personalize your relationship with your potential customers from the start.

More about how to implement this in our next post.