When you have a business, it’s easy to get bogged down by all the details and bottom-line practices to get things up and running. This applies to different team members as well; we’re all guilty of tunnel vision and want to move forward with work. But, one thing you can never let yourself forget is how to imagine being a customer and shaping your company’s efforts around what you learn after stepping in your customer’s shoes. So, today, we will practice a little exercise to get you thinking about your business in a new way, and what aspects of your business may change as a result.
An important thing to note before we get started is that you aren’t just part of a business or a professional. You are a customer too! Whether it’s a subscription to an online newspaper or being a shopaholic on Amazon Prime. You are buying things from businesses all the time! The same things that make the difference for you on who to buy from make a difference for your customers. Appealing to the right customers and applying the best techniques will make a difference as we discussed in another article.
Now that we’re thinking about how customers engage with businesses let’s get started with our little experiment. Sales reps and developers for your company should try this as well. The more perspectives you have during this experiment, the better!
Imagine you’re a customer trying to figure out what kind of new products exist in a given industry, let’s say, beauty care. You want to learn more about some industry leaders. So you go to their websites, and you explore what they have to offer.
What are you noticing about these companies?
- Is the website easy to navigate? Interesting layout ideas?
- What don’t you like about these companies?
- Is there customer support readily available and helpful?
As you go through and answer these questions, you and your teams will start to compile a list in your heads about what makes you want to buy from certain companies instead of the others you’re looking at.
Now, come back and go over what you just discovered. Think about your own website and your own customer engagement efforts. Are you guilty of any turn-offs that you found during this little experiment? If anyone in your group is saying, “yes,” don’t panic! No business gets everything correct every time.
One of the main reasons we as business owners overlook minor errors in our websites or customer service efforts is that we look at it from an owner's perspective. We are focusing on what we have done and not what we could have done. When you fail to take in the bigger picture and consider how consumers may perceive your business and its efforts, you might be missing out on new customer opportunities. The answer to why you aren’t getting as many new customers as you’d like could be an easy solution, and you wouldn’t even know it.
If a customer doesn’t feel welcomed or interested by your efforts to draw them in and gain their patronage, then they’re not going to buy from you. So take some time to examine your business’s brand and customer service efforts from your customers' perspective. Then, with some help from your trusted team, see if there’s anything you could fix or improve to make the experience better for consumers.
