3 Proven Strategies for Winning your Customers’ Hearts this Valentine’s Day.
In customer experience management, no relationship is more important than that of the customer and the brand. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, there is no more timely occasion to talk about how companies can win their customers’ hearts. Building customer relationships through the creation of customer experiences that stand out will help companies reach the status of a brand that people love. Here are three inspirational stories of how beloved brands engage their customers, show empathy and establish trust with their customer experience.
- Customer Engagement
Unlike most brick and mortar retail outlets, where customers will enter through the door, pick a product off the shelf and leave, the cosmetics company Lush makes sure its visitors receive an exceptional in-store customer experience. Lush employees will greet customers as they cross the shop floor, engage with them further if they sense the customer is in need of guidance with their selection and take time to help determine which product is best suited to their needs. As a result, Lush makes sure customers receive a very personalized shopping experience, dedicated to their well being. During these moments of engagement, bonds are often established that increase the likelihood of shoppers coming back and recommending the brand to their friends and family.
One of our customers is a passionate traveller, who always visits LUSH in-between travelling. When she comes, we would refer to her by name and remember to ask her about her past and upcoming travel journeys. This always puts a smile on her face and she always comes back. — Amy, LUSH team
A recent HBR article revealed that in order to retain customers and create loyalty, businesses need to design an emotionally engaging experience. Connecting with their customers’ emotions has helped Lush provide a truly memorable customer experience by uplifting customers’ spirit. Here is a recent example of how Lush’s customer and emotional engagement led to a customer praising them on social media.
Does your brand know how to engage its customers in order to deliver a superior customer experience? Have you tried collecting customer feedback in order to find out what your customers expect?
2. Show Empathy
Empathy plays a central role in creating a satisfactory customer experience and establishing stronger customer relationships. Therefore, it is important for senior leadership and other key stakeholders to understand what customers experience throughout their daily lives. This often shifts how they look at their business, sparking fresh thinking rooted in an empathetic understanding of customers. However, as more and more interactions are now through digital channels, creating a feeling of empathy and emotional presence can be a challenge. The online fashion and beauty retailer ASOS can serve as an example of a brand that uses its digital channel to show empathy to its customers and enhance their shopping experience. On the Valentine’s Day section of its website, the retailer demonstrates that it can see things from the shopper’s point of view. To its female shoppers, the brand writes: “We know that guys can be hard to buy for at the best of times, which is why we’ve pulled together all our Valentine’s favourites, from grooming gear to novelty gifts. Brownie-point-winning presents are right this way.” As a result, ASOS has adopted the voice of a close friend, someone who cares about its customer’s needs and who has gone the extra mile to help them. Showing empathy in this example has attributed to the creation of a more ‘loving’ relationship between the retailer and the shopper.
What is your company capable of implementing as a strategy to add empathy to the customer experience? Have you ever asked your customers directly, via a survey for example?
3. Establish Trust
In one of his recent articles, Adrian Swinscoe shared the story of a brand that has found a way to differentiate itself in the highly competitive retail market by establishing a customer relationship based on trust. Elizabeth’s Bookshops, the largest secondhand bookshop with 6 stores spread across Australia, has launched their Blind Date With a Book initiative with the goal of enhancing the reading experience they offer. The bookshop is carefully selecting a number of different books across a range of different categories, gift wrapping them and writing a short description on the wrapping paper (see image below).
Customer service expert Adrian Swinscoe explains why this is a great customer experience strategy :
Their approach adds a degree of mystery and surprise to the overall book buying and reading experience. But, for a customer to choose a book from the Blind Date With a Book range then they have to take a chance and do so based on trust. Trust that the book store knows about books and knows what they are doing. If you are a book-seller, you might scoff at the idea but here’s one customer’s description of their experience with Blind Date With A Book.
Research by Maister and Green from Harvard Business School reveals that trusted sellers generate more sales, faster closings and lasting client relationships. In contrast, according to Edelman Trust Barometer, when a company is distrusted, 57% of customers will believe negative information about the brand, and only 15% will believe positive information. In Elizabeth’s Bookshops’ case, one of their customers wrote a blog article sharing her positive experience, which lead to repurchasing and recommending the Blind Date With a Book initiative to her friends and family. Therefore, if companies want ongoing financial performance, building trust in their customer retention efforts is a must.
Conclusion
Consistency in customer experience is without a doubt a key ingredient to keep your customers happy and loved. Make your customers love you every day, not just on Valentine’s Day. Lush has shown us that establishing customer and emotional engagement strategies will help your brand earn loyal customers. Showing empathy and going the extra mile for customers like ASOS will create a more ‘loving’ relationship between the your brand and the shopper. Finally, establishing customer trust with your company like Elizabeth’s Bookshops will help your business generate more sales and earn more promoters. How is your brand going to win customers’ hearts?
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