No longer does the customer relationship end with the swipe of a credit card.

But is it the best option for your company and customers? Let’s explore.

What Successful Subscription Businesses Have in Common

Companies like Netflix and Spotify are able to cultivate cohorts of customers who continue to submit additional payments over time for two interdependent reasons:

1. Customers frequently use the service,
2. The service is frequently updated.

If the service never improves, then usage declines, and the recurring revenue well dries up. This means that for subscription businesses, innovation is the key to ensuring customer loyalty, and thus, recurring revenue.

This differs from perpetual license businesses that depend on single transactions from their customers. In these perpetual license models, users pay a higher amount upfront to own the product regardless of how frequently they use it, and the product remains static until the next release a year or two down the line.

Following this line of thought, it’s also important to consider another benefit of subscriptions over perpetual licenses. With perpetual licenses, customer lifetime value is improved through maintenance/upgrade fees or selling additional units.

In the subscription world, lifetime value is improved with every successful renewal or billing event. Additionally, subscription businesses can increase lifetime values with a strategy for upselling customers to higher-tier plans and additional licenses for colleagues and family members.

Types of Subscription Pricing Models

So let’s assume you frequently push updates to your service, your customers frequently use the service and find those updates valuable, and you’re looking to subscriptions because they provide consistent and predictable revenue.

It’s important to understand that there are different types of subscription models. Choosing the best one for your business is not always obvious.

Time-based intervals

Subscriptions based on time intervals are common. Think about how many services you pay the same price for every month. The key to success with this type of model is whether the customer consistently submits payment. Usually, this means encouraging automatic renewals. Some companies decide to bill subscribers monthly, while others choose annual or even quarterly billing intervals.

Activity-based intervals

Your other option for billing customers in regular intervals is to measure value based on user activities. A usage-based pricing model — employed by companies such as Amazon EC2, Mixpanel and nearly all cell phone carriers — is a common example of this model. Activity-based intervals might not be as predictable source of revenue like time-based subscriptions, but their advantage is bringing in greater revenue than billing based on a flat fee, especially from your base of power users.

All in all, with a subscription business model, provided you focus heavily on customer experience and relationships, your business stands to gain a stream of recurring revenue, improved business planning and loyal customers.

Read our ebook for more insights into the benefits of a subscription business model.

Download “The Subscription Dilemma: Do Subscriptions Make Sense for Your Business?” today!

The post Do Subscriptions Make Sense for Your Business? appeared first on cleverbridge.

The team at cleverbridge developed the Five Fundamentals of World Class Customer Support. These five simple actions allow representatives to provide efficient and polite support that leave customers overwhelmingly satisfied. The Five Fundamentals also free customer support representatives from formally scripted interactions, which customers will spot from a mile away. As long as each of these Five Fundamentals is kept in mind, the representative can be assured their call will go over well.

Shirin Caiola, head Quality Analyst for cleverbridge Customer Support, points out that the Five Fundamentals not only improve quality for customers in one part of the world, but they translate beyond borders, ensuring that, “[we] can guarantee that we’re providing World Class service to our customers, whether we’re speaking to a British customer calling in Cologne or a Canadian customer calling us in Chicago.” We reviewed the Five Fundamentals, along with some comments from the cleverbridge Customer Support Team below.

First Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Be courteous and professional

This First Fundamental may seem like a no-brainer. Then again, think of your past interactions with customer service. It is certainly possible that one or more of your experiences was neither courteous nor professional. So the First Fundamental is to show courtesy to your customer and to be professional. The best way to show this is no mystery — say please and thank you.

Even the best support professional is no mind reader. Your support team cannot assist customers without their cooperation. Saying please when requesting relevant information shows respect to your customers, and saying thank you upon receipt of their information invites them into the process of resolving their difficulty. Your representatives can establish a base line of communication supporting a polite and courteous tone.

Second Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Use the customer’s name

Dale Carnegie‘s famous admonition to, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language,” remains as true today as when it was first published. This is why the Second Fundamental is so important. Caiola says, “[using the customer’s name] is a great way to build rapport with the customer throughout the call.” When added to the courtesy and professionalism displayed in the First Fundamental, using a customer’s name helps to build understanding between the representative and the caller on a personal level.

Using the customer’s name is also an excellent call control tactic. When a customer hears you use their name, it can grab their attention away from the frustration they might be experiencing. Unfortunately, most customers have had such negative customer service experiences, they often meet a customer support representative ready to speak to a robot or girded for an epic fight. When a live human representative uses a customer’s name, it helps them disengage from the fight they were expecting to have, and can often help to turn a contentious call into a successful one.

“The greeting should set the tone for the entire call and have the same impact as a firm handshake.” — Shirin Caiola

Third Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Have an energized tone

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Because of this reason, the greeting should set the tone for the entire call and have the same impact as a firm handshake.” says Caiola. If your representatives show an energized tone and start strong with a confident greeting, it is easier to get the customer’s relevant information and keep an upbeat tone no matter the disposition of your caller. Your representatives’ energized tone can be the difference between a good call and a World Class call.

Of course, the inverse is true as well. We have all been in a room where one person’s bad attitude can destroy the group’s otherwise positive energy. This can happen on a customer service phone call as well. The last thing a customer service representative should do is suck the life out of a caller, or compound an already negative tone with low energy or zero enthusiasm. Keeping an energized tone can actually be infectious, inspiring an upbeat attitude in your caller as well.

Fourth Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Restate the problem

Once the customer has described their problem to the representative, he or she should find a way to restate the problem back to the customer. Caiola emphasized this Fundamental builds rapport with customers by, “demonstrating active listening. The customer knows we understand the issue and are committed to resolving it.”

Representatives can ensure customers feel heard especially by using phrases like, “I heard you say you were looking for…, is that right?” or “I want to be sure I understand your challenge correctly…” and then detailing the issue the customer described. Besides building rapport with the customer, the other benefit of this fundamental is that the representative can ensure they truly understand what they need to do before moving further. If there is a misunderstanding, restating the problem allows the customer to clarify their inquiry before precious time is wasted tracking down the wrong task. Going back to the First Fundamental, representatives should remember to say ‘thank you’ after the customer has confirmed the nature of the challenge.

Fifth Fundamental of World Class Customer Support

Explain what you have done and any next steps

Shirin noted that, “By following this step, we are insuring the customer understands the resolution process for their request and what has been done so far.”

Once you have completed the task at hand, be sure to review what has been done. This way, if a customer has forgotten anything, you will have a chance to resolve it in the same call, keeping your contact to order ratio low. Reviewing the next steps for the customer helps them feel like they accomplished something, and they know how to move forward.

Do not skip this step. Even if there are no further actions that the customer must take, there’s nothing a customer likes to hear more than, “You don’t need to do anything else; it’s all taken care of.” Of course, this will also help to keep your contact rates down, as customers will not need to call back and check what they need to do next.

The Fifth Fundamental also helps your representatives control the call. By recapitulating what has been done, and explaining what, if any, steps remain for the customer, they are signaling that the call is concluding. The customer has a chance to ask questions and will not feel like they were rushed off the phone. If the customer is satisfied, they may take the pacing cue to end the call. In either case, the representative can easily pivot to meet the customer’s expectation.

Keystone

The Five Fundamentals of World Class Customer Support are more than guidelines for your support team. When employed consistently, their positive effects on customer satisfaction can be easily tracked. By using the Five Fundamentals, the cleverbridge support team regularly garners customer satisfaction ratings above 90 percent. In addition to increasing customer satisfaction and reducing costs, providing World Class Customer Support increases customer lifetime value by extending the lifetime of a customer’s relationship with your business.

Want to learn more? Download our Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials today.

The post Five Fundamentals of World Class Customer Support appeared first on cleverbridge.

The key to building a strong customer relationship is to view your marketing through the lens of the customer lifecycle. Every message is a touchpoint in building a strong relationship. Just like a relationship with a friend, establishing, building and maintaining that relationship takes time and attention. And just like a real friendship, communications will be different in different circumstances. Customers moving through the acquisition stage, the retention stage and the building stage respond to different types of interactions. Making the investment in your customer relationships can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.

Below are ten simple, but important tips for all stages of customer lifecycle campaigns, beginning with the best ways to leverage email marketing for new customer acquisition.

Customer Acquisition

Tip one: List signups on your website

Don’t wait for a customer to complete a purchase before adding them to your database. Email signup should be as easy as possible for visitors when they arrive at your site. Add a link or signup form on the right hand side or bottom of every page. If possible, enable a popup to trigger after landing on your page with a form for the potential customer to quickly enter their email address.

Tip two: Newsletters

Use your monthly newsletter to promote new products, capabilities and features. Be sure to include a link directly to a shopping cart or signup page. In the ecommerce platform, create a coupon code specific for the newsletter. This enables accurate tracking of conversions attributable to your monthly communications.

Tip three: Trial campaigns

When a potential customer downloads the trial version of your product, require them to enter their email address to receive the download link. You can then initiate a free trial campaign with several email cadences. In the first email immediately after download, note product benefits the subscriber will receive during the trial period. Throughout the life of a drip campaign, increase the urgency of your messages. Combine your email campaign with revenue tracking parameters to see which email cadence coverts the best among your new customers.

Tip four: Cart abandonment campaigns

When a customer begins a checkout, but does not complete it, it might seem like a total loss. But since the subscriber started filling out the shopping cart, you can capture and use this information to create a truly dynamic email for that potential customer. Tailor the message from the product they selected in the cart and send one or two emails with a level of urgency or coupon code to facilitate the sale.

Download our complimentary e-book, Attracting & Acquiring New Subscribers

Customer Retention

Once a customer is acquired, you only have a short window of time to impress and retain them. Customer retention begins with a positive product experience. Below are some steps you can take to turn new buyers into loyal customers who continue to repurchase your product.

Tip five: Welcome emails

Immediately after a customer purchases your software, send a triggered email thanking them for their order. Include product information, activation instructions and links to technical support should they encounter issues. While often overlooked, a welcome email series is an opportune time to establish a relationship with your new customer so they stick around.

Tip six: More newsletters

Tip two notes that newsletters are great way to notify potential customers of new product offerings and capabilities. But don’t leave your current customers out of the loop. Share these updates with them as an opportunity to continue nurturing your relationship. Be sure to create a coupon code to accurately track sales stemming from your newsletters.

Tip seven: Renewal emails

As a customer approaches their product renewal date, send personalized emails reminding them of their subscription expiration. Include pertinent order information and, if possible, how much they’ve used the software and how the program will continue to assist them in the future. If one email isn’t enough, build a drip campaign with product benefits ending with a coupon code to retain the customer.

Learn more in our e-book, Retaining Subscribers and Optimizing the Renewal Process

Build the Relationship

Never rest on your laurels. Just because a customer sticks around for now doesn’t mean the work of nurturing the customer relationship is over. More seasoned customers require a different tone in their messaging — one that’s more collaborative. In fact, these customers can provide important feedback that only those who truly know your brand can offer. With a longer track record and more data in tow, your company also knows these customers better, and can send them more highly targeted and relevant offers.

Tip eight: Product surveys

Send surveys to your customers asking for their input on your product and how you can help to improve their experience. Listening to feedback from your most loyal customers will support a long-standing relationship. Mention the customer feedback and product updates in your newsletters to let your subscribers know you’ve heard their suggestions.

Tip nine: Brand loyalty

Subscribers who have positive experiences with your company become loyal to your brand. Those who are faithful to your brand are more likely to be repeat customers. They’re also more likely to recommend your products to other potential customers who either do not know about you yet or have not had positive experiences in the past. Customer testimonials in trial emails may provide some insight, but genuine online or word-of-mouth reviews have a greater impact.

Tip ten: Special offers

Send an email campaign specifically for your repeat customers. Provide a dynamic coupon code in a special promotional campaign for your subscribers who opened your last six newsletters or have been returning customers for the last three years. If they don’t immediately act on this offer, send reminder emails noting their importance as a customer, and prompt them to complete their purchase.

Keystone — Relationships Drive Revenue

Put simply, supporting the customer lifecycle means nurturing strong customer relationships. Make it easy for customers to sign up. Work to keep their business. Be sure to solicit feedback from your customers and communicate back to them the value of their comments. Use positive customer experiences to strengthen your brand. Finally, reward your loyal customers with special offers and discounts. Taking these simple steps can enhance your relationship with your customers, leading to greater customer lifetime value and increased recurring revenue.

Understand essential subscription KPIs in our e-book, Mapping & Measuring the Subscriber Journey

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Everyone understands that customer support is a crucial aspect to any business. Nevertheless, we are sometimes lulled into a false sense of security and think that our customer service efforts are good enough for the time being.

In actuality, a customer may be struggling at this very moment with installation instructions or billing information. If only customer support resources were more accessible this customer could have used your product successfully at the time they needed it. Instead, the customer is growing more frustrated and ever closer to initiating a refund request.

As important as preventing refunds is, you also find yourself in the position of having failed a paying customer, and your brand’s reputation takes a hit because you did not offer clear guidance.

To improve your customer support offering, review and optimize how you help your customers immediately after the transaction occurs. It is best to start by looking at the order confirmation page/email and reevaluating the information you share with customers. This is the best way to learn from your least experienced customers.

Consider Your Customers’ Needs

Asking questions is a great way to make sure you are offering superior support to your customers. Consider the following questions and how their answers can improve your communication to customers:

• Are you sharing information that can help to avoid situations that might result in a refund?
• Are you avoiding the resulting dissatisfaction that can lead to negative brand perception?
• As your products evolve, are your instructions and support resources keeping pace?
• Are you looking at the information in your confirmation pages from the point of view of the least experienced user or the most experienced user?

Remember, what seems obvious to the seasoned user (how to purchase, install and activate your software) may not be so clear to the inexperienced user who reaches out to you for support. Providing clear instructions right in the confirmation page helps retain revenue that may otherwise be refunded because the customer got frustrated with challenges that are easily resolved.
Review the information your confirmation page currently offers in these areas:

•  What was purchased
•  Installation and activation details
•  Download links
•  Payment/transaction information
•  Support options
•  Links to additional help resources

As you review this information, make sure you are considering your customers’ needs. Also, keep in mind the insights you have acquired from tracking your refund data (the reasons stated for cancelling the purchase). This is a crucial step in thinking proactively about scenarios that influence a customer to contact a support department, and help your company think of ways to eliminate these challenges.

Screen and email real estate is valuable and your goal should be to find the right balance of information to present without losing customers. Keep in mind that your communication efforts don’t have to contain everything and the kitchen sink. This is where clearly noted links to additional self-service options can come in handy.

Phone Support Supplemented by Self-Service Resources

Quite a few customers will seek phone support options and may need more “hand holding” through the support process. A benefit of providing coordinated and easy-to-access resources is that these options not only provide self-help opportunities but also can serve as great tools for those customers that reach out to customer service representatives (CSRs) by phone.

Consider that a primary objective of most call centers is to cut down average handle time (AHT) without sacrificing service. For a CSR to be able to direct customers to an easy to use and well-organized support resource is a dream come true for both parties. It also serves as a great framework for the CSR to follow when guiding a customer through solutions to their needs when remote access is not an option.

Self-service resources translate into email support perfectly as links can easily be copied into responses to customers. Having these resources for social media exchanges or live chat sessions can improve a CSRs ability to solve challenges successfully and provide a more fulfilling experience for the customer.

Keystone

Strive to better leverage your communication opportunities to provide superior support to a customer after their purchase. Begin by adopting a strategy of observing what you share with your customers and thinking about the least experienced purchaser to make sure your resources are as helpful and clearly aligned as possible with anticipated needs.

Bernie Aguirre is Customer Service Quality Assurance Analyst at cleverbridge.

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This trend will only continue as digital natives become the core consumer group. While 16 percent of customers will voice dissatisfaction with a company online through product review pages or social media, among 16 to 34-year-olds that number jumps to 53 percent.

Valuing Customer Realtionships

The companies that value their customer relationships are busy providing world class customer support. Companies with a bad reputation need to find those areas where they can improve, or they risk significant consequences from the market.

Providing inferior customer experiences means being left behind in the world of subscriptions. Since your company must maintain a positive relationship with customers over time, ensuring continued renewals and recurring revenue, neglecting excellent customer support will result in lower customer lifetime values and increased churn.

In addition to the negative impact on your company’s revenue, there’s an added incentive to keep customers happy: Their voices are getting louder. Because of social media, any negative feedback a customer wants to provide, either to your or with their network, is amplified and remains online forever. If the interaction is negative enough, it could even go viral, like this infamous Comcast customer support call. If your poor customer support is becoming a meme, your company is losing the battle for positive customer voices.

Check out the full infographic below.

Supporting customers means understanding their subscriber journey. Download our complimentary guide today.

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Leverage Social Media — Choose the Right Channels

Source: GIPHY

The social media landscape is volatile and changes quickly. Just look at the scattered wreckage of Myspace or Friendster. Some commentators were even sounding the death knell for Facebook in the last few years. But as social networks have matured, they have established their individual spaces in the marketplace. Determining which networks to target and how to target them deserves consideration. Which channels have the highest potential for online sales? Who is actually using these networks?

According to Drew Hendricks of Inc.com, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have proven to be high converting channels of social media selling. But not every channel connects with every audience. They each have their own character and each demand a tailored approach. With over a billion active monthly users, Facebook is the largest social media network. If you want to get in front of the largest social media audience, Facebook is your destination. Twitter is great for learning about consumers’ likes, interests and online activity. So to educate the market about your brand and to learn more about your own customers, establish a Twitter presence. Whereas LinkedIn attracts people engaged in business and thought leaders from different industries. Target LinkedIn to reach B2B prospects.

Leverage Social Media — Generate a Quality Following

Creating accounts on these networks is only the first step. Now begins the hard work of building a quality following on each platform. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut if you want your following to be truly engaged (i.e. valuable). By interacting with consumers and joining the online discussions happening in your industry, you can build up your social media credibility and contribute to the 17 percent of users who feel more connected to brands they see on social networking sites.

According to Frank Brogie at Resply, you can engage your audience by:

• Interacting with consumers by liking and commenting on posts
• Following and sharing posts from thought leaders in your industry
• Searching for trending industry-specific hashtags

Although building an engaged audience is a gradual process, once you have found your niche in these online communities, a whole wealth of knowledge about consumers’ demographics and buying patterns becomes available.

Leverage Social Media — Use a Posting Strategy

You’ve found your channels, and you’ve begun to build a following. But don’t simply post ad after ad. Social media is a virtual gathering. Just like a real gathering, if someone at the party is only talking about themselves or trying to sell something, they won’t be so popular. The same holds true for your social media accounts.

Posts should be diverse in content. A good rule of thumb is to follow the social media 4-1-1 rule:

4 — Share four pieces of new, relevant content from influencers in the market.

1 — Re-share one piece of content from someone in your existing audience.

1 — Share one post that is self-promotional and action-oriented.

It takes discipline to stick to this rule. Maintaining a monthly promotional calendar can help you develop your 4-1-1 practice, while also ensuring you don’t repeat content. A promotional or social-editorial calendar also helps coordinate any seasonal discounts or promotions you plan to offer. We know what you’re asking, “If 4-1-1 is so much work, and limits how much I can promote my own content, why should I use it?”

Why 4-1-1 works

By showcasing articles written by trusted thought leaders in the industry, you can position yourself as a thought leader as well and gain credibility in the social media space. The authority of the sources you promote is transferred to you in the eyes of your readers, so choose content that’s in line with the type of authoritative voice you want to cultivate.

Re-sharing content from people in your existing network helps deepen engagement with them. Valuable followers are active followers. Additionally, you help them by sharing their content with your network. In the future, those people in your network whose content you have shared will be more likely to share your content in return. After promoting thought leaders and other members of your network, you can share a self-promotional item with confidence that your audience will receive it well.

In terms of the self-promotional content, include information about products such as features and benefits they bring to your target market. What are the problems they face and how does your product or service solve those problems? Offering infographics about the product, demos and free trials are also proven techniques to attract more customers.

The call-to-action posts should vary in delivery by using the following selling tactics demonstrated by Shopify’s Mark Macdonald:

• Scarcity – A one day only discount, announcing a discount that will occur at a later point in time, and providing a promo code only for social media users
• Reciprocity – Including a free gift with a purchase
• Social proof – Posting testimonials about your affiliate website and the products you’re promoting

Keystone

Building a solid presence on social media is a gradual process. You must select the appropriate channels and build a genuine following there. And you must stick to a disciplined posting strategy that deepens your influence as you promote your products or services. To gauge your progress, use tracking parameters to determine which social media selling tactics work best for you. Through a steady and disciplined approach and being responsive to metrics, you will establish a foothold that will burnish your brand online, leading to a more loyal following and more commissions.

Learn more about Managed Affiliate Services at cleverbridge

The post Performance Marketing — Three Ways to Leverage Social Media appeared first on cleverbridge.

Take today’s inforgraphic from BargainFox. Though they use the language of transaction-centered ecommerce, these lessons apply equally to a subscription business. Many of the facts presented below have a direct impact on subscribers. Since in a subscriber model, building positive experiences for a long-term customer relationship is key, consumer psychology has an even deeper impact on a subscription business than it does in a purely transactional business model.

Consumer Psychology & Your Site

In the areas of website design, video displays, site usability and loading speed, we find that 93 percent of consumers consider visual appearance to be the key deciding factor in whether or not to make a purchase. Further, 76 percent of people say the most important characteristic of a website is ease of use. Having a well designed site that is easy to use is just as important to subscription consumer psychology as it is in ecommerce. Here your company is building trust for many future transactions, not just this one.

Consumer Psychology & Your Customers

No matter the nature of a customer’s relationship with a brand, monetizing that relationship depends on a customer’s ability to make payment easily and in a trustworthy way. Providing a payment experience that bolsters customer trust is essential no matter what the customer is purchasing. In fact, 61 percent of online shoppers decide not to complete a purchase because the site did not have a trust seal on their cart. Customers will abandon a cart that doesn’t appear trustworthy, and customers abandoned nearly $4 trillion worth of merchandise in online shopping carts in 2014.

Consumer Psychology & Your Brand

Another important factor in consumer psychology has to do with how customers perceive your brand. Being mobile friendly, providing meaningful customer loyalty programs, having a presence on social media and promoting your company’s social responsibility all contribute to a positive brand image in the mind of customers. Doing so not only deepens the customer relationship, it increases the perceived value of your brand. 66 percent of global respondents were willing to pay more for products and services from companies dedicated to social and environmental change.

Explore the rest of these 65 proven statistics about ecommerce consumer psychology in the infographic below.

Want to dive deeper into consumer psychology? Download Attracting & Acquiring New Subscribers today

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Subscriptions and Ecommerce Consumer Psychology appeared first on cleverbridge.

Getting Customer Loyalty Programs Wrong Is Damaging

Setting up a customer loyalty program might seem simple, but getting it right is important. Starbucks recently changed the way customers can earn points in their loyalty program, which caused some ire in their customer base. Unlike in days of yore, customers can now take to social media to voice their complaints, which magnifies whatever dissatisfaction Starbucks generated with their change.

Today’s infographic from Experian takes a detailed look at launching a customer loyalty program, beginning by asking if a loyalty program is right for your business. They conclude that a loyalty program is good for any company that seeks repeat business from customers over time. Though a bad fit for the construction industry or appliance repair, customer loyalty programs are perfect for restaurants, airlines, pharmacies and businesses that rely on repeat customers. The same applies to online businesses that wish to build and deepen their brands’ relationships with customers.

Getting Customer Loyalty Programs Right Means Enormous Benefits

The infographic notes that, “You can’t just call something a loyalty program, set it in motion and expect it to work … Careful planning, research, and preparation are necessary, and if done right, your business could reap enormous benefits.”

Experian lists four enormous benefits of running a successful loyalty program:

• Inspire customer loyalty
• Strengthen customer retention
• Deepen customer engagement
• Gather essential customer data

Launching and Maintaining Customer Loyalty Programs

If you have established that customer loyalty programs are right for you, and you have a plan that ensures a return on your investment in terms of both increased customer loyalty and increased revenue, then you’re ready to launch your program. Here’s where you work to get the word out about your program. Remember, communicating the value to customers is not only essential to the success of your program, it’s also yet another touchpoint to continue to grow the customer relationship.

Maintaining your program once it’s launched takes attention too. Don’t miss the very end of the infographic for tips on keeping your program fresh and exciting so customers stay engaged.

Download our complimentary guide on Retaining Subscribers and Optimizing the Renewal Process today

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Launching Customer Loyalty Programs [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

Every touch point counts. No matter what your product or service is, your customer support team should be treated like another essential feature. Afterall, whether a customer is interacting with your website, your product or a support representative, they are constantly assessing the overall experience with your company. The best product ever created will fail if customers feel disrespected or left out in the cold.

World class customer service is intuitively a good idea and its value is borne out by the numbers.

Customer Service by the Numbers

This infographic from KissMetrics explores where companies fall short when it comes to customer service and how customers actually respond to what they consider good or bad service. Their numbers prove the value of excellent customer service — and the pitfalls of getting it wrong:

• 50 percent of consumers give a brand only one week to respond to an inquiry before they stop doing business with them.
• 26 percent of consumers with a negative customer service experience will post about it on social media.
• But when a brand responds to their complaint, 51 percent of customers had a positive response.
• Bad customer service costs businesses an estimated $338 Billion world wide.
• 70 percent of consumers are willing to spend an average of 13 percent more with companies that provide excellent customer service.

Check out the infographic to learn how your company can create memorable experiences to keep customers happy and coming back.

Learn more about nurturing customer relationships in our complimentary guide, Retaining Subscribers & Optimizing the Renewal Process. 

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — Why Do Companies With Great Customer Service Succeed? [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

That means you have to include proof elements in your marketing. Proof elements are little marketing gems that give consumers real evidence that your product works, which is extremely persuasive.

Don’t bore potential customers with uninspiring platitudes; they are not falling for it. Don’t just say your product is the best, prove it! There are no sales without trust, and proof builds trust.

Today’s Ecommerce Eye Candy comes from Marketing Results and shows a checklist of 42 distinct proof elements you can use to make your marketing messages more convincing. They are even separated into “left brain” (logical) techniques and “right brain” (emotional) techniques. No matter what kind of customer you’re speaking to, one or more of these proof elements will resonate with them.

Say you have a prospect who is a stickler for the numbers. Be sure to target him with real test data from your company or industry analysts. Perhaps a collection of case studies, or before and after testimonials are best for him. A more qualitative prospect might want to see a celebrity endorsement, a team photo or a compelling company origin story.

Just like customers, proof elements come in many shapes and forms. Explore this “Monster List of Marketing Proof Elements” for ideas on how you can get the greatest return for your marketing investment as possible.

Download one of our complimentary resources today.

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