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Forward Bank is aiming to improve client interactions and to spend more time and effort in the advisory space with the launch of new automated capabilities. The $897 million bank seeks to increase customer engagement through its automated “geofencing,” process, which uses mobile location services granted through the bank’s app, radio frequency identification (RFID), Wi-Fi […]
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Brian Stone
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Now more than ever, this sentiment rings true: It’s ultimately the customer who will decide the fate of a company, especially with expectations at an all-time high and tighter budgets forecasted over the next year.
In 2022, we saw one overarching theme from brands that excel at customer experience: to treat people as humans, not as targets. Successful companies did this through authentic and personalized content, real-time feedback through tech tools like CRM and an emphasis on employee engagement. If you didn’t prioritize the customer experience last year, you probably felt the effects, but it’s not too late to start.
Businesses should continue to implement critical customer experience tactics in the year ahead to ensure they are evolving with the needs of their customers. Here are a few you can expect to see in 2023.
Related: Why Customer Experience is the Secret to Revenue Growth and Business Success
Today’s consumers are savvy and expect excellence from companies where they spend their money. Your competition — especially up-and-comers in your industry — could potentially lure away your loyal customers by offering the same services but providing a better experience. One way to ensure this doesn’t happen? Making customer service your No.1 priority. This means getting it right every time, whether the interaction happens online, over the phone or in person.
Don’t restrict “customer service” to a certain department or team member. Instead, ensure the entire company is customer service-focused and able to help. Utilizing your tech stack and aligning teams within the same platforms is a great way to do this because it allows for real-time insight into each customer across all departments and, therefore, can eliminate tone-deaf responses and outreach. With so much competition in nearly every industry, you need to step it up with your customer service to showcase your value and retain customers.
Whether or not a full-fledged recession will come to fruition is up for debate, but many companies are already pulling back spending and tightening budgets. Expect that your customers will be cautious with their money this year; the days of paying for extraneous features are gone. Customers will expect highly efficient and cost-effective solutions, so be sure your products meet their expectations. One way to do this? Offer packaged deals and discounts to meet their needs — when budgets are tight, nothing is more appreciated than knowing you are getting a good deal. Not to mention, offering a discount while your competitors aren’t might be what moves the needle on turning a potential customer into a new one.
Companies will need to go beyond personalization with current and prospective customers this year; ensuring timely responses and providing instant access to an expert is a baseline expectation and is no longer enough. To hyper-personalize your customer’s experience, you need to leverage real-time data — website behavior, purchase history, most active times online and previous interactions to develop a deeper understanding of who they are, what their habits are and how your company can better serve them. Once you have this information, put it to good use to improve their experience based on their wants and needs.
As more tech companies continue to offer subscription-based models, the days of one-off customer transactions continue to shrink. Now more than ever, what your business does post-sale is equally as important as the actual transaction itself in order to build loyalty. This brings us back to the point that personalization must go beyond the basics. A thank you email post-purchase, for example, is one of the easiest and simplest things you can do and may foster an ongoing dialogue. With so many communication technologies now available, doing nothing after a transaction is no longer an option.
Related: You Can’t Have a Thriving Business Without Happy Customers. Here’s How to Keep Them in Your Corner.
It’s no secret that AI has a multitude of benefits and, up until now, has been a nice-to-have for businesses — but this will change in 2023. Between the release of ChatGPT and AI’s impact on the customer experience, implementing it is now a must-have to keep pace with your competitors. Things like chatbots versus waiting on the phone for customer service and automated callbacks can go a long way toward customer satisfaction. Good AI technology can make your customer feel as though the experience was crafted just for them, which is the ultimate goal.
Making changes and additions to your customer experience strategies can have a huge impact on maintaining loyalty and trust with your existing customers and grow a larger fan base that will stay with you for many years. If there were ever a time when a focus on the customer should be your priority, make it 2023.
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Chip House
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With over 5 billion Internet users and $870.78 billion in online sales in 2021, storefront operations have struggled. They have had to raise the bar and the customer experience to survive. They can no longer get by with the same old, same old. There is some good news here, though. Even though the digital market is going to get bigger, baby boomers, Generation X and millennials are quite happy to participate in a shopping experience. You may even occasionally bump into a Generation Zer.
According to Morning Consult, more than 2 in 5 adults prefer shopping in-store versus online. There’s something to be said about feeling the experience whether we’re shopping with a friend or want to try something on. So, it’s time for retailers to step it up and compete with the online sales world.
As a corporate trainer, I’ve consulted with entrepreneurs through Fortune 100 companies, and I’ve found four commonalities in storefronts that increase traffic and revenues while dramatically improving the customers’ shopping experience. Here’s what you can do:
Related: The 6 Essential In-Store Experiences That Your Customers Want to See
Customer reviews can be abstract in their content, sometimes contrived to get a 5-star rating. If you can’t cite specifically what your employees are doing to get five stars, there’s no meaning in that review. There’s no way it can help you solidify or refine practices. It becomes about numbers.
To avoid this trap, add a few questions to your weekly agenda. First, “what can we do to attract more customers to our business?” It’s your employees’ collective creativity that will foster innovation. Adobe lives this mantra. Your employees are your front line. They hear what customers like, don’t like, what they want and what they need. These employees’ perceptions can lead you to do things differently. Then whether it’s showcasing a specific product, holding an event or advertising a new product launch, make it big. Create an experience customers want to attend with food, entertainment and free gifts — the bigger, the better.
Second, ask employees to identify customers who left happy and what specifically made them happy. All of these happy feelings tell you what you’re doing right. Similarly, ask your employees to share a customer experience where the customer left unhappy. Ask your employees to specifically identify what happened that left the customer feeling this way. This will enable you to assess processes that need to be changed, inventory requirements or training that needs to occur.
Instead of allowing employees to point customers to an aisle to find a product, have employees walk to the product area with the customer. During the walk, employees should ask customers two key questions: “How often do you shop with us?” and “What are your two predominant purchases?”
Inventory lists may tell you what the customer is buying, but your employees can tell you why the customer is buying. When we know why a customer is buying, we can stay ahead of the trend. If customers buy a specific hair conditioner because it has proven effects to withstand humidity, new product offerings may reflect these reasons. These questions may even enable you to change up your store layout so finding these products is easier for the customer.
Related: 3 Key Takeaways About the Future of Retail: Selling Online, In-Store and Both
Pay your employees well. If your employees contribute to a bigger customer wave and your storefront is thriving, your team should thrive. Offer bonuses, incentives, an employee of the month and other awards. Buy lunch for the team. Let them know you see their efforts and appreciate them.
Training is your secret weapon. There’s no more room for greeters, floor associates, cashiers or stocker jobs. Your employees are now salespeople and should be trained to do so. Most likely, they don’t consider themselves salespeople. This is where training becomes critical because the heart of selling is delivering high-level customer service. Selling is about caring, and you’re asking your people to do that. You’re asking them to care — to treat the customer as a friend. To relate, ask them questions and then provide solutions.
Recently, I called an airline to rebook a ticket. While the representative looked up the details, we conversed about the holidays. She shared a part of her life with me. It was a very positive experience, but unusual. Typically, customer service representatives are focused on the customer solely. But this time, she was connecting with me as a person. One of the most revolutionary topics noted in my book, Sell Like A Cockatoo, is that a relationship isn’t just about you getting to know the customer. The customer must also get to know you. There must be reciprocity in every relationship. That’s what a relationship is.
Related: 4 Ways Brick-and-Mortar Stores Can Outsell Online Retailers
Training will also teach your employees how to upsell. It’s the difference between a customer being directed to an aisle to get a screw for a ceiling fan and the employee helping the customer find the screw while updating them on the latest ceiling fan models that have arrived. Customers can’t buy if they don’t know — and the more your employees care and share, the happier your customers will be and the happier you’ll be with your bottom line.
To keep your storefront going strong, maximize employee involvement. Today’s digital world offers so many choices that when a customer enters our storefront, it should feel like home.
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Gail Kasper
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In the subscription arena, and in the B2C environment in general, discounts seem to be the norm. The assumption is that discounts help incentivize purchases that wouldn’t typically happen, leading to new customers.
The reality is completely different. Discounts, when used incorrectly, can greatly hinder growth and decrease your chances of attracting long-term, brand loyalists. Here’s why:
Related: Don’t Offer Customers Discounts If You Want to Be Successful
One of the fundamental issues with using discounts is that they attract the wrong type of customers to your brand. Customers who join a subscription service due to a discount are often shopping for price instead of unique and exclusive brand offerings. They’ll leave the minute they find a better deal.
This lack of customer loyalty has far-reaching implications. Data shows that only 52% of consumers who sign up for a new retail subscription will actually keep it. Higher discounts have been linked to decreased willingness to pay renewal fees. Plus, data from QPilot found that the more discounts you offer, the more churn you’ll have.
Instead, engage customers in long-term commitment opportunities. Research from Attest found that customers see more value in a 12-month commitment with two months free than with a shorter commitment coupled with larger monetary savings.
The strength of the subscription-based model is in its ability to create belonging. As Jay Myers of Bold Commerce said at SubSummit, “People want to be a member of a brand, like a member of a sports team.”
Promo codes and discounts negate this approach. According to Nancy Harhut at HBT Marketing, coupon codes lead to distracted customers, with studies showing 27% of potential buyers abandoning their carts in search of coupon codes.
Coupon codes can also cause consumers to have post-purchase regret. When a customer pays full price for a product and later sees a promo code spot offering the same item or service for a discount, they begin to question the value of their previous purchase.
Discounts train a consumer to think they can get your product somewhere else for less money. This ultimately makes your product or service appear replaceable.
Instead, look to attract those who are shopping for experience and community. The strongest brands put an emphasis on the value they can provide in a customer’s journey.
Related: 6 Good Reasons to Ditch Offering Discounts
Offering a discount puts your name in the marketplace, but it doesn’t set you apart. In fact, the vast majority of subscription-based cancellations stem from voluntary churn, according to SUBTA’s State of Subscription Annual Report. Factors include price, perceived value and poor customer service.
That’s why the best brands focus on identifying what their target customer wants and delivering on that value. This involves shifting to a lifecycle journey, where brands consider the experiences a customer faces as they go through life. Then, they perfect a core offering that helps in that lifecycle.
This in-depth understanding of a customer allows you to stay engaged in a way no discount can. Rather than offering a promo code, brands with a central understanding of client value can identify value-add opportunities to engage their ideal customer on a regular basis, instigating belonging and inclusion.
Discounts are not the only way to gain customers or increase value. Rather, consider some of these tactics in the new year:
Get creative with product-sourcing partnerships: Look for ways to incorporate unique, boutique items from up-and-coming brands who want exposure.
Clearly communicate the value of your price point: Furniture subscription company, Fernish, does just this by comparing the actual price a customer will pay for a piece with the value of the subscription.
Embrace the cancellation: Haroon Mokhtarzada of RocketMoney (formerly Truebill) encourages making the cancellation process as easy as possible and then surveying those cancellations to impact customer loyalty. In fact, the likelihood of re-subscription has been found to go up when it’s easy to cancel.
Utilize Subscribe & Save options: If your brand is a replenishment business, utilize the subscribe and save feature to upsell for a longer-term commitment and an increase in perceived value. More than 60% of consumers report that Subscribe & Save programs make their lives easier.
Discounts downplay the power of your brand. Instead of jumping on the promo value bandwagon, look for ways to utilize customer data to drive meaningful subscriber experiences. Creating value add-ons that promote long-term commitment and a loyal customer base will ultimately impact your bottom line and make for a more confident brand.
Related: Reasons Why Heavy Discounting Cannot Lead to Sustainable Growth
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Chris George
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People across the country are paying closer attention to their finances as predictions for an upcoming recession persist. This economic uncertainty, coupled with lingering financial impacts from the pandemic and rising inflation, have made many uneasy about their financial fitness.
In fact, according to a recent intelliflo survey, conducted by The Harris Poll, less than half of Americans (48%) say they are comfortable with their current financial situation given the state of the U.S. economy.
Many Americans have established banking relationships that can help them with financial planning. After all, banks are best positioned to have access to deep customer data that can help identify key indicators warranting a wealth management discussion. For example, they have access to see when a customer opens new accounts, when someone maintains a high cash balance and frequent deposits, or when a younger individual starts accruing more wealth that simply sits in a low yield account.
However, these insights are meaningless unless the technology infrastructure and required data integration are in place to properly serve customers throughout the financial advisory lifecycle. Because so many financial institutions lack budget or the resources to deliver robust support, Americans are increasingly turning to nontraditional sources, like social media or fintechs, to meet their wealth management needs. This is a missed opportunity for both banks and customers: banks miss out on deeper relationships and additional revenue streams while customers miss out on personal service from an institution that already knows them.
To fill the gap and seize this opportunity, more advisors are looking to technology to help them efficiently offer comprehensive advisory services. The challenge is that the industry has traditionally been fraught with fragmentation, filled with a collection of bespoke software from multiple vendors with limited integration, which often leads to a disjointed, inefficient customer experience. However, recently more institutions have started looking for a single platform approach, one that relies on the cloud and open APIs to facilitate seamless integrations with third parties of choice and complement and support the front, middle and back office.
An all-in-one solution that provides a consistent, uninterrupted user journey will be a main priority as banks try to deliver advice in a way that is efficient, provides value to the customer, and will ultimately be profitable. However, building this type of infrastructure in house is extremely costly and time consuming; in response, many are looking to strategic technology partners that can offer this type of modern, end-to-end platform delivering on the promise of an elegant user experience.
Such technology also must meet the customer where they want to be met by providing a hybrid advice model, a strategic mix of human and digital elements that automate more surface-level interactions, enhancing efficiencies and freeing advisor time to grow their customer base. Offering self-service digital options can effectively engage customers who are often near the beginning of the financial advice cycle in a way that’s simple and doesn’t require additional resources in branch. This could be as simple yet engaging as providing a calculator embedded into a bank’s mobile app that helps users compute their financial fitness score. Or maybe it’s presenting straightforward options for investing a nominal sum of money, then adding reporting to help monitor performance. Such tools boost efficiencies and save advisor time for more high-touch, complex interactions.
There is a massive opportunity for institutions to deepen their relationships with customers and positively contribute to the bottom line through comprehensive financial advisory services. However, to do so effectively requires the right technology stack and a hybrid advice model that strategically leverages automation. Those that embrace the challenge will be well positioned to generate revenue, help customers improve their financial wellness and widen access to financial advice, a mission that has never been so critical.
Jennifer Valdez is president of the Americas for intelliflo, a leading cloud-based technology platform for financial advisors.
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Jennifer Valdez
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Communicating effectively with customers is essential for the success of any organization. And in today’s connected world, consumers expect seamless and consistent experiences across all channels, from email and SMS text to social media and live chat. Omnichannel communications enable businesses to meet these expectations by providing a unified and integrated experience for their customers. This not only enhances the customer journey but also helps to build brand loyalty and trust.
Reaching the customer on the right channel with just the right message at just the right time is key to improving customer satisfaction. My company’s recent survey found that more than two-thirds (68%) of leaders of small and medium-sized businesses surveyed said access to an omnichannel platform was vital to their business’ success in the next 12 months.
Using an omnichannel platform allows a brand to capture all interactions with a customer and transition an exchange started on one platform to another. For example, a customer might reach out to a company’s support team on Twitter with a question about their account. The support team can respond to the customer’s tweet and provide them with the information they need immediately. If the customer needs further assistance, the support team can ask for the customer’s email address or phone number and continue the conversation through one of those channels. This allows the customer to choose the communication method that is most convenient for them, and it also allows the support team to provide a consistent, seamless experience across all channels.
For businesses, using an omnichannel platform that captures all communications with a customer, regardless of the platform used, can provide a single source of truth that makes it easy to access the information they need and receive timely and personalized responses to their queries — and customer satisfaction is a leading factor in customer engagement. By using a variety of channels, businesses can reach out to customers in the way they prefer and encourage them to engage with the brand.
Once you have the right technologies in place, however, how can you ensure that your content is resonating with customers? Here are five guidelines to keep in mind when creating content.
Related: 13 Ways to Grow Omnichannel Customer Engagement
As a rule, when communicating with anyone — whether a colleague, client, prospect or customer — it’s important to use clear and concise language. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that might be confusing or difficult to understand. Instead, use simple, straightforward language that can be easily understood by everyone. In other words, don’t call it “a meaningful statistical downturn,” call it what it is: a recession.
Again, this is an essential skill for any communication, but for customer-facing brands, it is of utmost importance. Active listeners pay attention to what the other person is saying, asking questions to clarify their points and providing feedback to demonstrate that they are listening.
For brands, active listening can facilitate customer engagement and can potentially stave off a poor experience. Airlines and other travel brands are noted for their ability to address customer issues via social media. The use of social platforms, text and communication apps like SMS text and WhatsApp have become so prevalent in the industry that some have discontinued traditional phone support.
Regular communication is key to ensuring that your customers are engaged and up to speed on the latest products, services or special offers. Especially during busy or hectic periods — such as the run-up to the holidays for retailers or the summer travel season for the hospitality industry — it’s important to communicate freely to prevent misunderstandings, keep everyone informed and maintain customer satisfaction.
Related: 6 Pitfalls of Common Customer Communication Tactics
As we stated earlier, choosing the right communication channels is also important for effective customer communications. In today’s digital world, there are many options to choose from — email, instant messaging, video conferencing, social media, SMS text — so it’s important to leverage the channels preferred by your customers and that are the most appropriate for the situation and information you are relaying.
Transparency is also crucial for effective customer communication. When communicating with customers — especially when sharing potentially negative news — it’s important to be open and transparent about what you are doing, why you are doing it and what the expected outcomes are. This can help build trust and foster loyalty.
Keeping the lines of communication open has never been more important for brands looking to maintain customer engagement and satisfaction. It also has never been easier. Customers and brands have a wide array of platforms on which to engage, depending on the situation and type of interaction. Regardless of the platform used, brands that communicate with customers clearly and frequently will reap the rewards through repeat business from loyal customers.
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Sean Whitley
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Recessions typically mean reduced consumer spending. And by many accounts, we’re heading into a recession this year. So, companies need to start gearing up.
The first reaction many companies have is to start cutting back on costs. While in many cases that makes sense, it can backfire if you cut investments in areas crucial to your bottom line. One area worth investing more in during an economic downturn is customer loyalty.
As we all know, customer retention costs far less than customer acquisition. When it comes to cutting costs, you can only save so much. But there’s no limit to how much you can earn. So, if past recessions are any indication, the smartest strategy is to focus on your most loyal customers and super-serve them with personalized offers, experiences and rewards.
Done right, existing loyal customers will deliver the consistent sales needed to weather the storm. The question isn’t so much should you have a loyalty program, but rather how to implement the best one. Here are a few tips:
Related: Steal These 4 Proven Customer-Retention Strategies
Brands that reward loyal customers are the brands that customers will return to first. It’s the brand they’ll refer friends and family to. So, focus your efforts on the experience of rewarding, listening and recognizing every action your customers take. Create an emotional bond that transcends price, before price becomes the deciding factor.
Give customers a choice in how they redeem loyalty rewards. Let them decide whether to convert rewards into cash, account credits or redeem them at the point of purchase. If you have multiple brands under your umbrella, allow customers to transfer rewards between them as they prefer. And don’t forget to check in and ask for feedback along the way — as well as look for trends across your database — then respond. Ultimately, it’s about rewarding customers first and making them feel heard.
Don’t be restrained by convention. Explore new ways to reward and incentivize customers and build loyalty. Perhaps focus on product returns, and offer an incentive for customers to exchange items rather than ask for a refund. Or focus on the cart abandonment problem by offering incentives to return to the sale. Look for the frictions that exist in the customer experience, and develop loyalty systems in response. It’s not just about points-for-purchase.
Try personalizing loyalty program benefits to the customer based on their history with your products and their responses to the questions you’ve asked them. Remember, loyalty programs shouldn’t focus only on monetary exchanges. It can include gamification for referrals, reviews, sweepstakes and more. Using these tactics to make loyalty programs more individually relevant will not only make each customer feel seen and valued, but it will increase the effectiveness of the loyalty campaign.
Related: 5 Types of Customer Loyalty Programs that Pay Off
Loyalty programs, like any marketing program, shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. Sales and marketing must work together to be in lockstep when reviewing the markets, industries and opportunities with the highest success rate. Discipline, speed and experience are all key to reaching agreement on the ideal customer experience and advancing opportunities together.
If you’re going to ask a customer for information, react to it immediately. Don’t just store it in a database for some unknown future use. Provide a discount or a product recommendation. Demonstrate that you’re not just building a profile of data on them, but that you’re actually listening and actively looking for ways to provide value.
It’s not enough to just throw more money at a loyalty program. It’s important to know where to aim, and that means constantly monitoring the effectiveness of your efforts and adjusting as needed. Not all customers are the same. While some may respond well to receiving more emails, others may be put off. Determine which is which, and make sure to use a system capable of accommodating both at scale.
Related: 3 Secret Reasons Why Your Brand Needs a Rewards Program
The worst mistake you can make is failing to deliver the goods once customers engage with your site. So, be sure your house is in order before you start inviting people in. Eliminate any bottleneck in your website to ensure every customer who visits has their needs met. Make sure your recommendation engine can recognize previous visitors so you’re not offering them products they’ve already bought. For those not ready to buy, offer wishlists that you can offer promotions on in the future. Getting people in the door is only the first step.
What do these tips have in common? They’re all focused on the customer’s needs and their unique interactions with your company. After all, loyalty works both ways. The best loyalty programs don’t just provide customers a way to stay loyal to your brand. It gives you a way to demonstrate your loyalty to your customers.
Remember, the goal of a loyalty program isn’t about generating more sales. It’s about building trust. It’s showing your most valuable customers that you value them in return. When you do so, you’ll create an emotional connection with your customers that will last far longer than any period of economic unrest or uncertainty. It’ll last a lifetime.
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Michelena Howl
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When someone mentions the term user experience (UX) design to you, do you immediately think of screens and interfaces? Well, that’s part of it, but the subject matter goes way deeper than that. Implemented in the right way, it can even be mission-critical for your business.
In this potentially shaky economy, growth shouldn’t be your only mission. Consumer-driven value and the underlying goal to solve deep-rooted and complex user problems are what will stick. It will become necessary to identify the users’ needs before stepping into the market — which is where UX design comes in.
Whether you are selling digital products, physical products, services, platforms or anything else, ruthlessly focusing on your users (customers and potential customers) is not optional — it’s a necessity. It is the ultimate de-risker of failure and ensures you thrive even in tough times.
Related: How Much Should Entrepreneurs Care About User Experience?
Before understanding how UX design can supercharge your business, let’s set the stage on terminology. The term UX design refers to the practice of designing products, services, websites, apps and systems that are easy and enjoyable to use, but also bring measurable value to users and businesses.
Prior to actually pushing pixels or getting down to brass tacks, there’s an incredibly important research and analysis stage that should never be missed. Often referred to as UX research, this discipline involves studying and understanding the needs, behaviors and motivations of the people who will use the product, in order to inform and improve the design process.
Similar to the interplay between strategy and execution, UX research and its big brother UX design are becoming increasingly important for small businesses, as they can help you create products that better meet the needs of customers, leading to increased satisfaction, loyalty, retention and even bottom-line revenue growth.
Below are four ways how you can include UX in your business.
Related: User Experience Is the Most Important Metric You Aren’t Measuring
By now, you should know that the demographics of your customers are surface-level characterizations. Surveys also can be misleading, biased and shallow. It’s like a multiple-choice test, but you’re not including three extra choices which actually contain the right answer.
Instead, you want to use psychographics to help gain a deeper understanding of customers’ needs, preferences, motivations and pain points. This can predictably inform what you’re building and whether it will be successfully adopted.
Some of the most commonly used methods are interviews, contextual inquiries and diary studies. A decade ago, these may have been foreign in the world of entrepreneurship, but with the ubiquitous nature of tools available today, the effort to run these has significantly decreased, while still being extremely valuable.
If the creation of your entire business is based on anecdotes or personal plights you dealt with, rest assured you have not done enough homework on your users to be confident enough that you are solving the right problem in the first place.
A/B testing has its place when you want to test one variable across hundreds or thousands of users. It will give some great directional guidance — but you still won’t know why someone was stuck on a particular page and/or what they were expecting.
Instead, try running user tests (sometimes called usability tests). This will better inform possible edits and changes you should make on your website because it is qualitative in nature and focuses on user goals and task success.
If you’ve never run a user test before, here’s what it can do for you:
Ideally, you would want to continuously run user tests from the earliest concept all the way to your finished product, as well as anytime you are going to have major changes or updates.
Related: Why User Experience Is Vital for Quality SEO
If you’re using the net promoter score (NPS), don’t fret. They are a decent directional barometer, but don’t make it the only thing you measure. Just like the survey, it lacks context and remains at a surface level of true customer intentions. Some even consider it a vanity metric that only serves to give you a false sense of confidence, when in reality the needs of your users are barely being met.
It is better to pair NPS with other metrics such as the customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and customer effort score (CES). With CSAT, you want to ask questions about how satisfied the customer was with the product/service or how they would rate their experience with a certain tool, person or department. With CES, you measure a product or service’s ease of use to customers. It reflects the amount of effort a customer had to exert to use a product or service, find the information they needed or get an issue resolved.
When used all together, these metrics provide a 360-degree view of your customer’s experience so you can have a better gauge of the health of your business.
At a high level, a journey map is the sequential steps that a user takes before, during and after their interactions with your brand. Unfortunately, most journey maps today are too focused on the interactions of someone solely with your business. This is important to include, but it’s only a subset of a user’s full experience when solving a problem.
By looking at the superset of their experience, you can better understand what their underlying motivations are. This arms you with better language to use when attracting them into your funnel, website or ad. You will also get a clearer understanding of your exact positioning in the market and how you can create a niche space with untapped potential.
Related: The 5 Critical Components of a Great Customer Journey Map
The foundations of user experience and business strategy are tied at the hip, and for good reason. They can help businesses create products that are more intuitive, engaging and profitable. By using these practices, entrepreneurs can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which can ultimately lead to greater success. Incorporating these best practices into your workflow will help meet your customers’ expectations so well that the design is virtually invisible — and highly effective.
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Rajeev Subramanian
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Customer loyalty is the holy grail of a high return on your investment. However, many people tend to think and invest more in customer acquisition and marketing than they do in cultivating loyalty. The evidence is clear; customer loyalty translates to steady revenue, lower marketing costs and more effective word-of-mouth advertising.
Implementing many customer loyalty programs offers a marketing advantage that can improve customer acquisition. Customer loyalty and engagement can be the tiny edge that propels you over the competition, even in the face of an inferior product or service.
To successfully implement an efficient customer loyalty program, I’ve outlined four important considerations.
Related: A Checklist to Get Your Customer-Loyalty Program Off the Ground
Incentives are a powerful force that motivates individual economic decision-making. Tapping into the personal motivations of customers and why they purchase your products is essential in understanding how to reward them and encourage them to take that action again.
Depending on the nature of your business, there may be several underlying incentivizes driving customers to your brand, including:
In some ways, understanding what motivates people to your brand is knowing what your brand offers that your competitors don’t.
However, to understand more about customers and their thinking, consider the following strategies:
Once you understand what motivates your customers, you can create a loyalty program that rewards them. For example, customers motivated by financial incentives will benefit from BOGO deals and discounts, while customers motivated by exclusivity will be motivated by exclusive branded gifts and merchandise.
One tip to really keep in mind is to make rewards unique and exceptional. Don’t just settle on branded stickers and pens; go the extra mile with branded tote bags, t-shirts, hats and anything else that people will see in public. I particularly love branded merchandise because it provides ancillary marketing benefits that can be more impactful than traditional advertising.
I would also suggest going above and beyond regarding financial rewards, whether it’s giving away free monthly trials or purchases. You can even work with other companies like Amazon or retailers to help transfer rewards points or incentives for a discount on purchases they already make.
Once you have a set of rewards, you can even tier your program to encourage additional engagement. Ideally, the greater the engagement by the customer, the higher the reward. Those customers that reach the top tier will feel special as you give them the best financial rewards.
Related: How Brands Can Turn Rewards Programs Into Long-Term Loyalty
Customer satisfaction is when expectations meet reality. A core component of your customer loyalty program must focus on creating positive and consistent customer interaction via your products, marketing and customer service. Ensure all brick-and-mortar locations and online assets follow a consistent branding pattern and a set of branding guidelines.
To create a consistent digital experience, you need to invest in multi-channel customer service. This strategy could include utilizing chatbots on your website, responding to users over social media and email or even implementing a digital HR help desk for people to communicate with customer representatives directly.
I also recommend creating a consistent experience across your sales funnel to build a positive first impression of your brand through the following strategies:
Finally, create above-and-beyond customer service by offering omnichannel support and investing in AI that allows for personalized and automated responses.
Great customer service also starts with hiring the right staff and implementing the right procedures. Train staff to practice active listening and empathy to achieve better customer interactions and offer solutions that resolve customer problems meaningfully.
In fact, bad customer experiences offer brands the opportunity to fix their mistakes, which often leads to higher positivity than if the customer just had a fairly normal experience.
Related: 15 Tips for Improving Customer Loyalty
Today’s younger generations are often motivated to shop with brands that conform to their social values.
A survey from Sprout Social found that 70% of customers felt it was necessary for brands to take a stand on social and political issues. The key here is to use your community values and inclusivity as an asset to cultivate greater loyalty.
For example, there are several strategies for cultivating greater community loyalty among your customers, including:
Sometimes your products and actions can also speak for themselves. For example, my digital marketing company became the first to purchase NFL tickets with Bitcoin, helping to build strong relationships with sports fans and tech enthusiasts among our customer base.
In many ways, inspiring brand loyalty involves following many of the best practices I recommend for any new business.
Once you understand what motivates your customers and put the proper infrastructure in place, cultivating brand loyalty is all about executing your promises and being there when they need you most.
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Matt Bertram
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Tumultuous times have a way of altering our approach to many things — especially the decision-making process. Organizations with decades of internal processes built around how to make critical decisions were challenged to change radically during the global health crisis, as the norm has seemed to change nearly every month. And if those decisions involve purchases, it just complicates matters further.
As economic and societal uncertainty continues to loom, some businesses are asking realistically, how much money could be allocated to any investment at this time. Is any investment a wise appropriation of funds? Small businesses can certainly attest to this fear, with an UpCity survey finding that 57% cut their spending during the global health and economic crisis. Those that left their spending intact opted for budget reallocation, choosing to devote more funds to salary increases (34%), marketing (28%) or operations management (27%).
In the past, businesses set approval thresholds to authorize spending up to certain dollar amounts. The decision for larger capital expenditures would naturally be reserved for higher levels in the organization. Certainly, leadership would gather feedback to provide more context on the purchase, but the ultimate decision would be left in the C-suite’s hands.
However, there has been a shift. It is no longer possible to gather input in the same ways, as remote and hybrid work has become common. A meeting for larger expenditures would need to be scheduled, though doing so can add months to the process. These roadblocks have led some companies to abandon processes that were set in stone for years.
Related: 6 Fatal B2B Sales Mistakes You Must Avoid
Firms working with these businesses have been quick to respond, evolving to meet the new many-to-many relationship that has surfaced. An increasing number of people within the supplier have found themselves communicating simultaneously with an increasing number of people at the customer — often across multiple locations and mediums. In many cases, this only adds to the strain on the firm’s internal operations. It takes more time and energy to synchronize with a customer to ensure the quality and consistency of messages, especially because B2B buyers are now going in different directions.
With the evolution of the multistep decision process, suppliers have had to be prepared to support asynchronous communication. This method of contact has created a new B2B customer experience trend, with buyers requesting information but not consistently. It is up to suppliers to meet them where they are with up-to-date information. All of this is driving significant change to suppliers’ internal operations.
Internal systems have had to change to address this new style of remote decision-making as well. Video calling, video chat systems and so on are instrumental in getting internal teams on the same page to facilitate consistent communication with buyers. Process-based decision tools are also being rapidly adopted. Slack’s acquisition by Salesforce and Workfront’s acquisition by Adobe illustrate how critical communication and decision-making across distributed individuals has become central to maintaining B2B customer engagement across the B2B buying journey.
Related: 5 Tips for Developing Your B2B Sales
B2B customer engagement strategies have changed. There’s no denying that fact. However, you must still resolve B2B pain points to maintain customer relationships and remain in the good graces of your customer base. There are aspects of operations that might require a tweak or two to keep pace with what’s ahead. Here’s what you can do to be prepared:
If you’re not on the same page with your team, you won’t be able to provide relevant strategies for customers. Getting everyone on the same page sounds simple enough, but Salesforce found that 86% of business executives believe ineffective collaboration and communication are the two major causes of failure in business.
Don’t just focus on the tools and systems that facilitate collaboration and communication. Those should already be there. Look at the processes involved. Like B2B pain points, are there obstacles to more effective communication? If there are, now is the time to find ways to internally streamline them.
The sequencing of communications with your customers shouldn’t be something you take for granted. Just ask the 82% of decision-makers who believe sales reps are unprepared for meetings, according to SiriusDecisions. A Forrester survey backs up this sentiment, with 78% of executives reporting that sales reps lack essential information. Another 77% believe these reps don’t understand their company issues or the purpose of the product.
To mitigate these shortcomings, ensure your team members understand where customers are in their B2B buying journey. If a customer is still in the design phase and has yet to establish the requirements, pushing the company to make a decision only sours the relationship. Capture accurate data and clarify your B2B buyer insights to ensure you’re consistently meeting customers where they are.
Related: Sharing Winning B2B Customer Stories: How to Showcase an Effective Case Study
By now, you no doubt know that many change efforts fail due to internal resistance and a lack of managerial support. As such, you need to strengthen your internal competency around change management to ensure you can constantly adjust to customer demands and an ever-evolving marketplace.
The B2B buying journey has forever changed, and it will likely change again in the very near future. Social and economic turmoil has accelerated the adoption of digital solutions and ushered in continual improvements in the way businesses connect. Getting specific aspects of the B2B buying journey right can ensure your team is better positioned to handle whatever the future holds.
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Scott Webb
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As we close out 2022, sales and marketing teams everywhere are evaluating the year’s performance. They’re looking at what lies ahead and crafting new strategies to appeal to buyers and boost revenue. In a time where customer behaviors and expectations evolve faster than ever, these strategies often hinge on a business’s agility, flexibility and willingness to adapt to industry shifts.
Two such shifts that arose from the pandemic’s disruption were an emphasis on personalization and customer experience. Moving into the new year, organizations can expect these trends to continue and undergo further refining as hybrid buying and selling solidify as the new normal. Tools and tactics that can better leverage customer data and create a greater sense of relevancy with consumers will be the key to a competitive edge.
As you prepare, here are five trends to watch and incorporate into your strategies.
Internal fragmentation of the sales process has long been a source of friction in the buyer’s journey. It can have a detrimental effect on the seamless customer experience consumers are hoping for. Businesses need to unite their internal sales process to mirror what their customers prefer and expect. One of the ways they can do this is through revenue operations. This business model knocks down silos and gets everyone working toward the same goal: revenue. And since revenue is tied closely to customer purchases, it often translates into uniting behind the customer experience.
Processes and tactics that focus on shared data, agreed-upon procedures and clear communication will be vital to creating the seamless experience that so many customers now expect. Successful implementation of a RevOps model can see a 10-20% increase in internal customer satisfaction.
Related: Are You Reducing Friction For Your Sales Team? If Not, Here’s Why.
In the age of digital selling, content is one of the most potent tools businesses have at their disposal. In B2B especially, there is an elevated reliance on content during the decision-making process. As the buyer’s journey becomes increasingly self-led, the best way to attract customers’ attention is by providing relevant information throughout the sales cycle. With the amount of data marketing and sales teams now have about their prospects and opportunities, it’s possible to leverage content further than the broad one-to-many messages that have taken dominance.
By carefully looking through previous customer actions, along with communication from marketing, sales teams can see what content a lead has seen. They can then use the historical data to make informed decisions about other content that would be most valuable for the lead as it progresses through the funnel. Not only does this provide the lead with relevant content, but it also demonstrates that you are listening to them and understanding their problem, which can go a long way to building trust.
Related: How Content Creation and Content Curation Should Work Together
Automation may sound counter-intuitive to a personalized customer experience, but the truth is that automation makes personalization at scale possible. There are two main functions of automation in sales and marketing: removing repetitive, rote tasks from human workers and analyzing large amounts of information. Automating repetitive tasks frees employees to focus on higher-level priorities and reduces the chances of an overlooked task, such as email follow-ups. With scale becoming such an issue, customers can get lost in the details of the daily grind. This is the last thing you need in an experience that is supposed to make them feel noticed and understood by your business. Automation can also assist with data analysis and provide team members with actionable insights.
Quality over quantity is vital in terms of leads. You can show your ads to a hundred people, but if they are the wrong audience, they won’t produce any sales. The scattershot, blanket method of marketing that pushes views and clicks over engagement and interest is no longer in fashion. Today’s customers are inundated with ads and companies. They’ve learned to tune out the noise unless it’s something that actually interests them.
Account-based marketing takes this concept and digs deeper. It’s getting to know specific accounts and their details to craft a message that meets their specific and individual needs. It works alongside RevOps and aligns sales and marketing to take information from both teams to identify the best and most likely accounts to win.
A rising number of consumers, especially from younger generations, prefer to conduct their buyers’ journey independently, without interaction from sales or marketing teams. 81% of customers want to see more self-service options. This poses a complex problem to businesses that have relied for decades on human assets to push products. Instead, companies must now place focus on product experience and allow interactions with the product itself to drive consumers further down the sales funnel. For example, in software, self-service demonstrations will be vital in driving more independent customers. Once they have had their own self-activated experience with a product, they will be more inclined to seek assistance from high-end sales activities because they can curate their own questions from experience.
Related: Customer Experience Will Determine the Success of Your Company
The customer experience has always been a vital element of business success. As we become an increasingly digital society, a larger part of that customer experience will be defined online and through the screen. Just like the sales and marketing tactics of the past, businesses will have to work to differentiate themselves from the competition. But, they need to do it according to the expectations and preferences of digital behavior.
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Margaret Wise
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Text messaging has become more and more pervasive in business, not just for marketing, but for all types of communications. Text Request, the business text messaging platform, recently released their 2023 State of Business Texting Report, which studies how consumers want to interact with businesses, how businesses are meeting those demands, and how to bridge gaps that may exist. Here are five key takeaways for business leaders to consider. Disclaimer: I work for Text Request and was part of this study, but that is as promotional as this article gets.
Appointments are the lifeblood of many businesses, and it’s clear that texting can help you set and keep more of them. Texting may also help you save time and overhead. Consumers are not answering phone calls, and they’re not listening to voicemails. However, 70% say that texting is the fastest way to reach them.
Instead of calling customers to confirm appointments, send a text. You can send one at a time manually to each person, send a mass message for each day’s or each week’s appointments or connect texting to your existing systems to automate notifications. In any case, texting is more effective and more efficient than individually calling about each appointment. This will also help you keep more appointments on the books since the leading reason people miss appointments is that they forget.
To set more appointments, and make more money by extension, text customers who are due for their next appointment or service. Text around annual renewals, for seasonal check-ins or whichever period makes sense for you. For example, the dealership where I got my last vehicle texts me every three months about an oil change and tune-up since that’s about how long it takes to drive 3,000 miles.
Related: 5 Ways to Use Texting to Grow Your Sales and Marketing
Fifty-two percent of survey respondents said they want to receive texts for promotions and discounts, yet only 29% said their businesses are currently sending these texts. There’s a big opportunity here, and it’s important to think of promotions outside the realm of retail. The report lists several examples, including:
Prompting customers to schedule appointments or services
Telling customers about new services or other offers
Fundraising for nonprofits and schools
Sharing important reminders
Providing discounts or incentives
These can each be used to drive revenue for your business while creating great customer experiences.
The report notes that texting is sometimes thought of as a great channel for business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses, but not so great for businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B). However, business buyers are still consumers everywhere else they go.
Eighty percent of people have texted with a business before, and as people have these experiences with consumer services, they begin to expect them from business services, too. Easy applications of texting for B2B businesses include:
Touching base during the sales process
Finding a few minutes to chat on the phone
Appointment scheduling and reminders
Customer service and support
Promotions about new products and services
Texting helps you grab people’s attention and get responses. That can have a big impact, no matter who you serve.
Related: 5 Steps Every 1-Person Sales and Marketing Team Should Follow
This is perhaps the biggest gap the report found between consumers and businesses. It’s also the area that’s expected to see the highest increase in traction over the next year. Sixty-nine percent of people want to receive texts for payment reminders, and 45% want to pay their bills directly through text, yet only 30% of businesses are texting for anything related to payments.
This is important because taking in revenue is a critical function. If you can’t collect revenue — especially revenue you’re already owed — your business will struggle. Even small delays in collecting payments or having to spend more money to collect those payments can have a noticeable negative impact.
This is an easy need to solve for, though, because PDF invoices and payment links can be shared through text messages. If nothing else, businesses can begin texting payment reminders to any client with an outstanding balance and include invoices as needed.
Eighty percent of people have texted with a business before, and 58% text with a business at least monthly. Meanwhile, 90% of consumers say they want to text with businesses and other organizations. People are comfortable texting for business purposes, and they’re beginning to expect these kinds of experiences. That poses both a challenge and an opportunity.
In order to meet customers where they are in 2023, businesses are going to have to add texting into their communications mix. The report notes it will be important to enable text conversations, not just one-way automations because customers want to use texting to reach a business on their terms. In fact, 77% say they want to text a business for customer service and support.
For many businesses, adding texting as a customer communications channel will be a new effort. However, those who do not take advantage of it to meet customer demand risk losing out to competitors who do.
Related: 5 Steps to Create Successful Marketing Campaigns
There are several clear opportunities for businesses to increase revenue, save on costs and improve customer experiences through text messaging. As with anything in business, the sooner you take action, the sooner you’ll be able to see the fruits of those efforts. But you do not need to run out and overhaul your entire strategy all at once.
Pick one thing that’s a relatively low lift, that you’ll be able to commit to, and implement it — like replacing appointment confirmation phone calls with text messages. As you and your team get comfortable with that change and can track any improvements, then look for the next opportunity, and repeat.
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Kenneth Burke
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The discrepancy between the quality of digital experiences customers report and what businesses believe they are delivering online is proving to be more significant than previously thought.
Only 10% of global customers agree that brands provide a good digital experience, while 82% of marketers believe they are meeting customer experience (CX) expectations. This abysmal statistic serves as a call to action for businesses everywhere — they must prioritize and optimize their online customer experience to meet customer expectations or risk revenue losses and a damaged reputation.
Anticipating what customers want out of their digital experience through rigorous analysis can have a significant impact on a brand’s success. By adopting best practices, strategies and tooling, businesses across industries can close the gap between what they think they are delivering and what customers report experiencing.
Related: What Customers Expect Out of Their Digital Experience
The digital experience is essential to a company’s profitability and longevity, yet customers feel as though their expectations are not being met on digital platforms. A total of 54% of U.S. customers say the user experience (UX) of brand websites needs improvement. Brands must listen to customers and understand all issues within digital experiences, taking swift steps to address points of friction.
Responding to problems as they arise is crucial, but it is just as important to be proactive when developing digital experiences. Brands must work to anticipate customer needs and design platforms with evolving customer preferences in mind.
Every company has blind spots — business leaders do not understand customers’ wants and needs, so they invest in the wrong areas. Knowing exactly where customers are experiencing pain points instead of guessing is key to delivering a better CX. Executives must take steps to investigate and close this “digital experience gap.”
Using tools to surface hidden problem areas provides an opportunity to rectify them — giving customers a reason to come back and stay loyal to one’s brand and website. A recent Emplfi study broke down several key areas where customers experience the biggest pain points:
All it takes is one wrong move for a customer to abandon goodwill toward a brand. Companies are increasingly relying on modern digital tools to help identify sources of customer frustrations and mitigate site abandonment.
Related: 5 Ways to Show Your Customers You Understand Them in a Digital-First World
A total of 86% of customers say that they are ready to pay more for a better customer experience, making digital experience improvements a revenue-driving opportunity. Implementing technology that can help businesses anticipate customer needs and respond to user issues in real time can lead to increased conversions and enhanced efficiency. Proven strategies include:
Businesses cannot close the digital experience gap and meet their customers’ expectations if they do not have a thorough understanding of how customers are navigating their digital platforms. To achieve that understanding, they can integrate analytics solutions such as a Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) platform to capture and analyze 100% of customer interactions across channels.
As a DXI platform serves as a single source of truth, the analyses can be used by various teams, helping businesses prioritize and quickly make data-driven decisions about customer experience improvements. Teams are immediately alerted to technical issues on a brand’s website or mobile app so they can be solved before significantly impacting revenue or the customer experience, ensuring a frictionless journey.
Related: 3 Tips for Using Consumer Data to Create More Personalized Experiences
It has never been more important to close the digital experience gap. The customer journey is invaluable; maintaining an exceptional digital experience requires teams to work diligently behind the scenes to tackle any possible issues before they escalate.
Implementing strategies that prioritize anticipating and meeting customer needs ensures long-term brand success. Through best practices, businesses across industries will soon deliver the quality experience customers say has been missing from their digital journeys.
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Asim Zaheer
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As we head into the home stretch of the 2022 fiscal year, sales teams everywhere are looking to close as many deals as possible. Deloitte expects 2022 holiday retail sales to increase by 4% to 6% from the previous year.
Given inflation, the firm also expects consumers to shop early and take their time finding the best prices. According to GE Capital Retail Finance, consumers spend an average of 76 days researching major purchases, meaning there might be just enough time left in the year for a sales push.
Knowing when and how to contact consumers with an offer or deal is a fine art. Having the right content at the right time and delivered on the customer’s preferred channel is key, especially in the later stages of the customer journey — this is where an omnichannel communication platform comes in handy.
Omnichannel communications — a strategy that uses a combination of websites, apps, social media, phone calls and other ways to reach an audience — have become a necessity for businesses looking to deliver the best experience along the entirety of the customer journey. Leveraging additional platforms such as chat and messaging apps on top of the standard web, social media and app channels provides frequent opportunities to get in front of potential buyers at the right point in their journey.
Related: Redefining Omnichannel: How To Be Where Your Customers Are
For busy consumers juggling a ton of priorities, email is not always the best option for communication. On the other hand, chat apps or texts are quick and literally in their face instantly.
Compared to email, the more personal nature of SMS is one of the leading reasons these messages have an incredible 98% open rate in the U.S., with 60% of those messages being viewed within the first five minutes they are received. Meanwhile, chat apps like Discord, Line, Telegram, Viber, WeChat and WhatsApp are especially popular in countries like Brazil, China, India and Nigeria, where more than 80% of consumers reported using chat apps to interact with brands.
Buyers want a tailored experience as they progress from first hearing about a service or product all the way through to their purchase. Understanding the needs and expectations of busy consumers and communicating solutions to those needs in a time-efficient and effective way can convince them to buy. Chat apps and SMS provide more opportunities to personalize communications with a specific buyer and require less effort on their part to reply than returning an email or visiting a website.
Related: 5 Ways to Use Texting to Grow Your Sales and Marketing
To be clear, a chat app/SMS strategy for engaging your audience should be brought in methodically, and it should never be used to reach out to a net new buyer.
An unsolicited chat or text message can be seen as “spammy” and risks the consumer feeling ambushed on their personal device, ending any potential relationship then and there. Deeper into the customer journey, however, these messages can work wonders once relationships have been established in other ways.
Take the case of a typical consumer sales process. The GE Capital Retail Finance survey found that consumers start researching a product or service online more than 60% of the time, and they visit two to three online sources and a comparable number of physical stores before deciding to buy.
Capturing customer information from website visits or app downloads can provide marketers with a window into their preferred channels. Providing follow-up information, offers or other communications based on their previous activity personalizes the interaction between brand and consumer.
Related: Here’s Why SMS Marketing Is Literally the Best Idea Ever
For many, SMS is the most powerful engagement tool during the buyer’s journey. According to my company’s research, marketers cited SMS’s primary benefits as real-time delivery, high open rates and global reach/ubiquity of mobile devices. Additionally, marketing professionals plan to use digital communications to support their customer engagement efforts, including forging meaningful connections with consumers, improving accessibility and improving omnichannel communications.
And it works. The same survey showed that 80% of B2C marketers reported SMS performed much better than any other channel, especially for advertising and brand awareness. Additionally, more than three-quarters of marketers who send promotions or offers through SMS reported revenue growth in 2020-21, a time when connecting with consumers was challenging due to the pandemic. SMS might just be the future of marketing — our research showed that two-thirds of Gen Z favor text messages over email when interacting with a brand.
This makes sense. When we want to get a quick note off to a friend or family member, we don’t log into our email and compose a long note — we text them. It is no different for brand engagement. Meeting your customer in the moment with a message that resonates on the device that rarely leaves their side is the most effective way to move the sales forward.
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Sean Whitley
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Trusted family-owned paint and decorating retailer opens its first Baltimore-area store.
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Aug 18, 2022
ANNAPOLIS, Md., August 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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One of the highest customer-rated independent paint and decorating retailers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is pleased to introduce its superior products, personalized service, and comfortable, “neighborhood store” experience to Catonsville.
Regal Paint Centers, an independently owned Benjamin Moore retailer specializing in premium residential, commercial and industrial coatings, has opened a brand new, 3600-square-foot store and showroom off the Baltimore Beltway on Route 40.
“We’re excited to open our first store in the Baltimore County area,” says President Patrick Smith. “Catonsville is a beautiful, thriving community and we’re looking forward to helping local residents bring home the Regal Difference.”
Smith got his start in the family-owned and operated business while still a freshman in high school. His father, a paint contractor, and his business partner bought their first store in 1986. Ever since, the company has expanded to 11 locations but remains true to its core values of commitment, quality, integrity, and community.
“The paint business is a people business, and nothing is more important to us than the relationships we build with our customers,” Smith says. “We take the time to truly listen to their individual needs and provide them with a higher level of service and support. Whether the person who walks in our door is a design professional, a contractor, or a DIY homeowner, it’s our mission to become the go-to place for all their paint and decorating needs.”
In addition to offering top-quality service and products, Regal Paint Centers guarantees top-quality information too. “Because our customers come to us for advice they can count on, we only give them reliable advice that we genuinely believe in,” says Smith.
In recent years, that trusted advice has extended beyond the paint counter to the showroom. In-store design consultants can guide customers through the entire color and design journey, from creating a vision that reflects their personal style, to choosing the right paint, wallcoverings, and window treatments that bring together the desired look and feel of the space.
Regal Paint Centers has also won fans across the National Capital Region with its precise color matching, and Smith assures that despite customers’ toughest challenges, they still haven’t met their match.
“We’ve seen it all, including one lady who came in and wanted us to match some paint to her dog because she liked the color of its fur,” he laughs. “I guess that shows there’s nothing that we won’t do for our customers.”
Now open! Regal Paint Centers’ new Catonsville store is located at 6600 Baltimore National Pike.
For more information, contact:
Ann Pailthorp, Retail Sales Manager
ann.pailthorp@regalpaintcenters.com
c. 410-703-9724
Source: Regal Paint Centers
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The Daniel Group cloud-based platform, Experience Connect, now includes customizable, in-depth customer feedback analytics embedded through Microsoft Power BI.
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Apr 12, 2022
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 12, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Customer Feedback Advanced Insights, Embedded gives The Daniel Group clients access to a suite of customizable dashboards and deep analytics directly from its cloud-based platform, ExperienceConnect. This new option provides a seamless experience by managing and analyzing all customer feedback data through one platform.
The Daniel Group engages directly with its clients to design and create custom insights and analytics dashboards accessible on its platform. This enhancement gives clients powerful, easy-to-use, highly visual dashboards without needing their own data analyst. Power BI by Microsoft powers the Advanced Insights option. Microsoft PowerBI is currently in its 14th straight year as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant of Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms.
In connection with this new offering, The Daniel Group announces Ed Park as the new Customer Insights Manager. For the past three years, Ed has led the insights practice culminating in Advanced Insights, Embedded, serving in the role of Customer Insights Analyst. Ed will continue to lead the insights practice, including the rollout of Advanced Insights, Embedded to new and existing clients.
The Daniel Group looks forward to continuing work to make customer feedback insights increasingly easy to use and engaging, to help clients make the improvements their customers most want to see.
The Daniel Group’s cloud-based platform, ExperienceConnect, stores and delivers all customer feedback to its clients in real-time via the web. ExperienceConnect is a secure, robust, cloud-based customer experience management system. It provides clients with a complete 360-degree view of their customer experience status and progress, incorporating both Customer Feedback and Employee Feedback.
The Daniel Group, formed in 1989, serves approximately 75% of all Caterpillar dealers in North America and Navistar (IC Bus), AGCO, and Blue Bird Corp., and other heavy equipment dealers and manufacturers with their customer experience feedback programs. Their array of B2B services includes customer feedback, employee feedback, strategic planning, and market research.
For more information, contact Lynn Daniel at 704-549-5018
Source: The Daniel Group
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As customers move to online shopping, one thing is clear: Retail Robotics is the next technology company to watch in 2022.
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Apr 5, 2022
NEW YORK, April 5, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Retail Robotics, one of the top-rated companies in innovative tech solutions for retailers and logistic services providers, shares new insights on robotic innovations, which can solve problems of so-called “last-mile” and revolutionize global delivery infrastructure for e-commerce and e-grocery. It addresses big challenges the market is currently facing.
The market is booming and the forecasts show the growth to $7.385 trillion of global e-commerce sales by 2025. While demand for online deals could grow without limits, the current infrastructure cannot handle the increased volumes. Everything indicates that robotic pick-up points will become one of the key answers to the expectations of online retailers and consumers.
“Classic solutions have low capacity and occupy large space. Whereas home delivery causes higher traffic in cities and generates air pollution. With today’s rapid growth of online shopping, many retailers still lack the efficient delivery options in terms of costs, footprint, capacity, and consumer experience,” explained CEO and Founder at Retail Robotics, Łukasz Nowiński. With the multichannel technology from Retail Robotics, retailers can reduce costs and boost their sales, ultimately contributing to the sustainable development of cities. “Today’s consumers have high expectations for more convenient options allowing them to collect their orders 24/7, safe, fast, easy and for free,” Nowiński added.
For e-grocery retailers, the company provides Arctan technology, the most efficient click-and-collect robotic solution that increases profitability and customer experience, and at the same time offers the lowest footprint. In fact, one Arctan (capacity 202 logistic bins and 28 freezer lockers) replaces 14 classic refrigerated lockers. Arctan Drive version for e-grocery curbside pickup has a high capacity of 896 logistic bins or more (capacity of 56 classic lockers), can fit eight standard parking spots and serve seven customers at a time. It can be integrated with Micro Fulfillment Center for remote loading, enabling a very efficient process.
In the parcel delivery market, Retail Robotics enables logistics providers to reduce costs by up to 90% with its other flagship innovation PickupHero, a robotic parcel locker. It fits 90% of local stores and gives a top customer experience without the involvement of a salesperson. The additional advantage for local shops is a 70% pick-up to purchase ratio.
PickupHero allows rapid expansion in agglomerations such as NY, Paris or London – just by allowing the use of large local store networks like 7-Eleven, without interfering with the city’s architecture. After the successful debut at NRF 2022 Innovation Lab, the company announced plans to implement them on several European markets in 2022.
This kind of transition from home delivery to robotic solutions remains crucial to continued success in the retail landscape ahead. “Retail Robotics carved its path by staying ahead of the competition. I am proud to begin talks with the world’s biggest players to change traditional logistics to robotized parcel lockers, automated machines for e-grocery and click-and-collect pickup points, that will drastically reduce the number of home deliveries, congestion and pollution in cities and increase the efficiency of retail. We all need to be on board to make a significant impact,” announced Łukasz Nowiński.
About Retail Robotics
Retail Robotics is a leading company that creates robotic solutions for retailers and providers of logistic services. Its convenient delivery and collection technologies unleash the full potential of retail, reduce the costs and remove the bottleneck of last-mile delivery.
For more information visit: www.rrobotics.co or www.linkedin.com/company/retail-robotics/.
Media Inquiries:
Anna Dostatnia: anna.dostatnia@rrobotics.co
Aleksandra Wach: aleksandra.wach@rrobotics.co
Source: Retail Robotics
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Program brings together more than 100 global experts to promote excellence practices in federal government entities
Press Release
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updated: Mar 29, 2021
TORONTO and DUBAI, United Emirates, March 29, 2021 (Newswire.com)
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Ryelle Strategy Group, an industry-leading excellence assessment and strategy execution firm, has announced a strategic partnership with the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program of the federal government of the United Arab Emirates to deliver its first-ever virtual government excellence program.
Ryelle will recruit and deliver more than 100 subject matter experts from around the world with expertise in strategy, innovation, education, finance, infrastructure, energy, climate, healthcare, among other disciplines, to deliver this mandate. This group will assess the operations of more than 30 government entities to establish excellence standards, promote knowledge sharing and capacity building and integrate industry-leading best practices with the ultimate objective of helping the government improve their efficiency and shape the future of their entities.
“It is an honour to have been chosen as the partner by the federal government of the UAE in moving this established government excellence platform to a digital context,” said Carol Kotacka, Managing Director of Ryelle Strategy Group. “Running the program virtually for the first time ever allows us to maximize all facets of international best practices and take full advantage of a global network of subject matter experts like never before. We will be drawing on our extensive network to add to our globally recognized team of experts to ensure that we will be able to choose from the best and brightest from around the world.”
About Ryelle Strategy Group
Ryelle Strategy Group is a boutique consulting firm that specializes in excellence assessment and strategy execution across private, public and non-profit sectors both in the field and via virtual platforms. From client/patient/customer experience mapping, knowledge mobilization and market intelligence to stakeholder engagement, brand management and the creation of new platforms, Ryelle Strategy Group’s mission is to enable connection, collaboration and co-creation within organizations to achieve outcomes. Learn more at www.ryellegroup.com
About the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program
Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program aims to develop excellence practices of the federal government through the adoption of the modern fundamentals and principles of excellence and raise awareness about excellence in government work, guiding and developing government entities capabilities through sharing of knowledge and best practices that encourage disruptive innovation and consolidate quality concepts and leadership excellence. Learn more at https://www.skgep.gov.ae/en/programme
Contact
Carol Kotacka, Managing Partner
International Recruitment
Ryelle Strategy Group
contractor@ryellegroup.com
Source: Ryelle Strategy Group
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