Customer experience – a competitive advantage for small and medium-sized businesses

Approaching the market in a new way

Improving Customer Experience is vital if modern businesses want to be successful. It’s all about offering customers a rich, exciting and consistent experience throughout the purchasing process and via different touch points. To do so, businesses need to maintain a continuous, quality relationship with their customers, and that often means engaging in Customer Relationship Management.

The strategic importance of Customer Experience and Customer Relationship Management 

When we talk about CRM, we often do so in a reductive way, forgetting that it is not just about customer management software, but also approaching the market in a new way, which places people and their needs at the heart of business, before products.

Implementing modern CRM software, in fact, allows companies to manage existing and potential customer profiles much more quickly and effectively than before. However, it also provides a means of better understanding their interests, needs and expectations, implementing more effective strategies in order to build up loyalty over time and maintain interest via tailored solutions and promotions.

Why does improving Customer Experience represent a vital strategic step for small and medium businesses? 

Because these days, it’s often the only way for small and medium-sized businesses to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment, without having to splash out on costly investments. Experience and relationships are becoming the greatest distinguishing factor for obtaining and preserving customer loyalty:

  • 9 out of 10 customers would be ready to pay more in exchange for a better purchase experience;
  • Loyal customers are more willing to forgive brands for mistakes or inefficiency, without immediately switching to a competitor.

Moreover, these days, companies mainly interact with Millennials. Born between 1981 and 1996 and real promoters of change through the use of technology and social networks, this particular generation represents a very important source of data for corporate CRM. Social media is an excellent channel for gathering information on behavior, consumer opinions and market trends, all at an affordable price. An active presence on social networks and the web is therefore essential: 70% of customers use social networks to share feedback with companies after a positive or negative experience. It is important to establish a fast and informal conversation, with the company’s Customer Service team providing almost immediate feedback on official social media channels. 25% of Millennials expect a response within 10 minutes at the most.

Strategies bases on collecting and analyzing data

Digital information and data collection systems are now much more accessible to all types of enterprise and are key in staying one step ahead of the competition and gaining a better understanding of market demands. If well implemented, they can help simplify problem resolution and meet the specific needs of potential customers. Data and information sharing via on-demand cloud technologies also enables small and medium-sized businesses to improve positioning and therefore their Customer Experience as a whole via advanced, low-cost services. The more connected the world becomes, the more data are available on customers, giving companies an overview of the market’s business needs. An opportunity that small and medium-sized enterprises must seize in order to remain competitive.

Collecting and analyzing so-called ‘big data’ may soon become a key factor for small and medium sized businesses wanting to strengthen their market position.

The real challenge is to integrate the data that companies already have available and put them “into a system” to be analyzed intelligently, in order to obtain useful information to improve processes and develop new products.

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