When done correctly, video can seamlessly integrate with your inbound marketing campaign and boost...
Creating customer delight is one of the most productive ways in building trust, enhancing the good working relationships you have with your clients. Helping to support them and find joy in the little aspects of your work really helps you go the extra mile.
So how do we delight the customer in 2020? Let me give you the breakdown.
What is customer delight?
You may have heard of customer delight before. You may have heard of customer satisfaction. You might think they’re the same thing.
You’re in for a surprise.
Customer satisfaction is very important, but it simply means that you’ve met a customer’s expectations. Delight is the extra stage, the bonus level you’ve unlocked when you’ve gone above and beyond what is expected of you.
By focusing on the needs, wishes and interests of a client, we're ultimately able to provide more than what they need. This may be in terms of top-notch customer service, turnaround time or a myriad of other things.
If the client is singing your praises, then you’ve hit the nail on the delighting head. We want to achieve goals that apply to all stages of a customer’s interaction. When they’re a potential customer - delight them. When they’re currently working with you - delight them. When you’re in the post-sale/service phase - delight them further still.
Customer expectations are more complex than ever. Sure, they’d love to see their service needs fulfilled, but they’re also on the look-out for the little details that didn’t come as part of a contract. We live within markets that offer countless services, so it’s easy for customers to try other places if they’re not fully delighted.
In all, customer delight is all about creating, promoting and sustaining a remarkable buying experience for current and potential customers.
How to create delight in 2020
There are tonnes of ways of delighting your client in 2020. A lot of them will be bespoke to your business. For example, a key way a whitewater rafting experience company might delight their customers is by providing something as simple as a towel and hot drink after a fun day getting soaked to the bone.
But there are other ways to delight that any company can strive towards:
- Stay true to deadlines.
- Solve your customers’ problems.
- Listen to customer feedback.
- Be enthusiastic.
- Provide the best quality help.
These are good - but are also a little banal and self-explanatory. They’re the universal standard of delighting clients. However, there are more bespoke delighting acts you can undertake to truly create an impact.
1. Create a community
The best businesses create bespoke communities that people can feel like a part of. They have easily identifiable voices, educational spaces and attitudes that stand out within fast-paced industries.
A community can be built in many ways. It can be through email communication or customer forums. Techniques that are more relevant to today’s markets now are ones that use social media to create a voice and authority that people can follow and interact with.
Customer reviews, useful information, resource sharing - these are all functions that a digital or physical community can provide. By creating communities, potential customers can see the trust already developed in current buyers, making them more likely to bring their business to you.
For example, creating bespoke customer events where people can attend, congregate, network, learn and have a good time. Think of how useful it is to go to an event all about your industry, where you can meet other industry names and keep on top of current trends.
Like our LOVE INBOUND event that we’re hosting to talk about the freshest ideas and marketing techniques. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Communities build care and trust. They enhance confidence and think as a dynamic collective. If your company builds one, customers will be delighted.
2. Anticipate the needs of your customer
Markets and customer demands can be volatile. It’s sometimes like riding shotgun in a dodgems car - being pushed from pillar to post and you’re not even in control of the wheel. This is especially true for customers who have genuine needs that need catering for.
By analysing your customer data - we’re talking seasonal demands, buyer journeys, demographics and preferences - you can accurately determine the kind of things they want and need.
This can even include sending out weekly polls over Twitter and Instagram. By asking what their progressing needs are and anticipating what they’ll need in the future, you’re providing a safety harness that will ensure their needs are taken care of.
3. Support and empower your colleagues or employees
Delighted employee = delight customer.
Delighting the customers means providing a working environment where employees feel secure, respected and are able to grow.
An employee needs the right authority, tools and training to be able to provide the right service and support. Think about creating a culture code for your workplace for people to believe in. Offer bespoke training for people to progress with.
Even small things like buying cake for everyone can create an enjoyable community for your employees.
4. Utilise the latest technology
Every company can benefit from a range of on-trend, helpful technology. Grammarly for your writing, HootSuite for your social media, HubSpot for your marketing and CRM - there are thousands of options out there to choose from.
Not only that, you should work to provide the latest market trends in terms of content. Today, people want to see your products and services explained using video. More than 50% of consumers prefer video over other content. Video will represent 82% of all IP traffic by 2021.
In order to delight your clients, it’s a good idea to capitalise on this growing trend.
5. Personalise your interactions and communications
Personalisation. Within the marketing world, it’s become a powerful buzzword. It helps in creating customer delight by providing an understanding of your customers’ behaviour and tailoring your communications around that behaviour.
If a customer is not resonating with your online communication, they’re definitely not being delighted. To combat that, here are just a few ways you can personalise any content you’re giving out:
- Determine your customer’s personality and create a written tone that matches that. Are they formal? Informal? Wanting to see humour? Do they prefer longer deep dives or short and snappy content?
- Have authentic conversations either in real life, over the phone or on social media.
- Send follow-up messages after a purchase to show appreciation.
- Design email workflows that can target clients at specific times in their buyer’s journey.
- Provide personalised recommendations based on their purchase history.
6. Educate your customers
A fantastic way of delighting customers is by providing free, educational content.
Creating educational content, be it in the form of a podcast, blog or email newsletter helps to keep your customer informed of new products, services or changes to the industry. By educating them in what you do, they’ll be more confident when it comes to purchasing time.
They’ll even be more confident that you can provide for them as you’ve explained key processes and proven you know your stuff.
7. Support in real-time
If I had to think of one thing I loathe doing, it would have to be waiting in a phone queue. 10, 20, 30 minutes of dull waiting music and finally you’re number two in the queue.
Oh wait, that was number 22.
Only two-thirds of customers are willing to wait two minutes before hanging up. 13% were shown to find any time on-hold unacceptable.
If you adopt up-to-date support techniques and technologies, your customer expectations are all the more likely to be met and surpassed. Things like live chat software and live engagement tools are some of the first steps in combating hold times.
Real-time support offered by live chat or call-based tech like Aircall is great at creating an immediacy to your responses. Similarly, engagement tools such as co-browsing, video calls and voice chat can create a massive impact when trying to delight the client.
In conclusion, creating customer delight is about maintaining the momentum of positive interactions enjoyed across each stage of the buyer’s journey. For any marketer, developing a surefire marketing process is the best way to create trust amongst your clientele.
In order to do this, you’ll want to check out our guide.
Discover the latest knowledge on inbound marketing
‘Inbound 2.0’. It’s the go-to place for ensuring your marketing efforts are up to scratch in these modern times.
Creating a bespoke, community feel to your marketing is what the inbound methodology is all about. In our guide, you’ll be able to determine what the best practices are and use them to scrutinise what you’re already doing.
Want to learn about buyer personas, inbound marketing statistics and delighting the client through thought leadership? Well, click the link below to download your own guide.
