Chasing after a customer is like chasing after a lady (or a dude)! You want her so bad, and when you finally win her; you realize there’s a lot more to be done to keep the relationship alive and beneficial to both parties.
Business-customer rapports kick off like any romantic relationships. At first, the shopper is full of expectations, (and so is the buyer). But some mistakes and disappointments during the customer journey can lead to disagreements, stir up arguments, and in the worst cases; trigger breakups.
Breakups are bad because they lead to lost customers and revenue, and can sometimes result in a bad brand reputation.
What Can Make or Break Your Brand Name
Many things lead to bad customer experience resulting in churn and abandonment including unmet expectations, poor experience etc.
But what most businesses don’t realize is that; for issues that can be fixed, a client tries to reach out to a business’s customer service department several times before giving up, dropping a stinker review, and looking for another alternative.
So failure to meet shopper expectations coupled with an unresponsive customer support department is the perfect recipe for disaster in ecommerce business.
But again, you want to meet shopper expectations because that’s the whole point of being in businesses. And the only way to do so is to understand the shopper’s journey and build your services to address all customer pain points.
After that, you can bring in unswerving customer support to complement your customer-focused business strategy to maintain a good brand reputation.
How to Maintain a Desirable Brand Name
To cultivate and keep a good brand reputation, always keep an eye on these three important things.
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Promise Customers ONLY what you can live up to.
Customers hate it when you set the bar so high and then fail to live up to your promise.
If you say you offer free shipping and delivery in 2 – 3 days, then so be it. If you offer free shipping with conditions, please state it clearly on your web pages. Also, if you promise to be active on live chat from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. then so be it.
Customers make buying decisions based on such things and they navigate from store to store looking for what they want. So when the choose you; remember you not only have some money to make but also a promise to keep.
That said, never make any promise that you cannot live up to. And to uphold brand reputation, apologize in advance when you realize you are about to break a promise. Explain to the customer that you failed to deliver as expected because of this and that.
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Offer a Perfect Website Experience.
Your website must be visitor-friendly. A well-built ecommerce website should; be easy to navigate, free of clutter, organized with detailed product listings and fast-loading. The checkout page design should optimized to boost up conversion rates.
Integrating extra features like live chat and help desk systems can go a long way in improving your site’s experience because they better the quality of customer support your offer clients.
Also, all the information and resources that matter to customers should be arranged to appear at the relevant stages of the customer journey.
And lastly, eliminate redundant and unnecessary steps to simplify the customer journey.
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Strive to Stand Out.
Brands that attract a rich regional and international market-base and uphold their brand reputation like Amazon and Alibaba go the extra mile.
The X-factor is what draws the line between you and competitor brands. For instance, Amazon is pacing the shift to sameday shipping sameday delivery with the Amazon Prime Free Same-day Delivery.
But that’s Amazon, rich with resources to put up such systems— what of your small business? Well, standing out does not always have to involve expensive budgets and competing against market-movers.
An affordable innovative idea can get everyone talking about your brand in and out of borders.
Final Words
Brand reputation is everything. What people say about you can make or break the future of your growing business.