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Take the Time to Connect with Your Customers

dotserixAfter dropping my daughter off at school this morning, I stopped by the local bagel shop.

“Sausage, egg and cheese on wheat.  Salt bagel, double toasted, extra cream cheese. Coffee refill, please.”

“Do you have a daughter who goes to school?”

“Yes, she’s seven.”

“And your husband has a beard?”

“Yup.”

“Tell him I said hi.  I recognized this bagel must be for him from the extra toasting, extra cream cheese.”

The bagel shop owner took an extra few seconds to connect with me on a more personal level than just saying hi.  Not only did I mention this exchange to my husband, but it also struck me as important enough to blog about.  In this tight economic times, spending a few extra seconds connecting with your customers, remembering an extra little personal detail, can go along way to providing you with good referrals and future business.  All it takes are a few extra seconds and bit of effort to connect the dots.

(photo by erix! @ Flickr CC)

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Are your FAQs Questions your Customers Actually Ask Frequently?

question-bastWhen was the last time you went to a website looking for some information about a product or service?  Did they have a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)?  Was the information you were looking for actually there?  A lot of times FAQs are only marketing driven – trying to cover any doubts a customer may have about purchasing a product.  But there is a real opportunity to provide useful information for your customers by providing answers to questions they actually ask frequently.

Obviously listening to your customers is one way to find out what types of questions they may have – and the best way –  support and sales people often are a good source within your company.  Another source of information is the search functionality on your website (if you have one).  What searches are people performing on your website?  Those may be the types of questions that are worthwhile to provide answers for (and make easy to find).

If you don’t have search on your website, or don’t have a good way to tell what people are searching for (both I would recommend remedying), take a look at the searches (keywords) that people use to come to your site from outside search engines.  This is information that the search engines feel you are good at answering, so it may be a good idea to make sure your answers are well rounded and provide all the information your customers (or potential customers) need.

The best source of FAQs really should be your customers.  Provide contact forms and periodically poll your customers (both in-person and online), to make sure you really do have all their frequently asked questions answered. By providing FAQs that your customers actually need, you’ll provide more support information for current customers and more purchasing information for potential customers.

(photo by -bast- @ Flickr CC)

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Creating Leads with Customer-Centric Design

butterflyjustchaosNow that we’ve had an overview of what customer-centric design is, let’s discuss how it can be used to create leads.

Providing Valuable Information

Having a reason for customers to visit your site is the first step in creating leads. The most important aspect of customer-centric design is providing your customers with exactly what they are looking for.  Think about everything they might come to your website to look for and make sure the information is easy to find.  It should also be easy for customers to contact you with questions or concerns.

A Place to Connect

By providing a place for your customers to connect with each other and with you, you can help your customers get the information and support they need.  More importantly, you’ll be able to get information about who needs help and where they are in the buying process.

Enticement

Do your customers have a reason to give you their contact information?  Is there some useful information or service you can provide for free in exchange for contact information?  Enticement to create leads can be very effective for you and provide a useful service for your customers.  Remember to keep information gathering to a minimum. (name and email work best).

How do you use customer-centric design to create leads?

(photo by Just chaos @ Flickr CC)

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