Last week I shared about what you need to do when you venture into your customers’ world. This week I reverse it and share with you what you need to do when they visit you.
You know stores that you really love to go to. And you also know stores that you hate going to. Personally, I love going to Starbucks. Not only do I love the coffee, I love the atmosphere that they have created. They make you want to hang around, to talk to people, to visit with friends, to relax and chill. Which makes me want to eventually buy more coffee, right? I am not stupid, I know what they are doing. But I don’t care. I like the way Starbucks makes me feel. So what do your customers think about what they feel when they come visit you where your business is? I imagine some of you probably don’t want to talk about it. Well, I think it’s important to talk about a few things that you need to be doing when your customers come visit you, and I am not just talking about your store.
I think it’s a given that you want to give your customers a good experience when they visit you. I mean, that’s a no-brainer as they say, right? And you want your customers to share those good experiences with their friends and family, right? There are many things that you can do to help facilitate that process, for example, by having some coupons or specials sitting there on the counter that your customers can take and share with their friends. Or, instead of giving 1 free gift item for their visit that day, give them an extra one and tell them to share it with a friend. Helping your customers spread the word about you is a smart thing, so if you aren’t doing that then you need to get creative and start doing that.
But don’t stop there. Thing about your online presence. Think about your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your Foursquare venue, your website, etc. Providing that same good experience online is essential. When they visit your website, do you have those social sharing buttons that allow your customers to ‘share’ you on their Facebook wall or tweet to their Twitter account? You see these alot on blogs and in shopping carts when you can ‘like’ that product or ‘share’ the blog post on their social media accounts. By providing those buttons, you are helping to facilitate your customers voluntarily sharing with their friends. If you don’t have those buttons, you are losing out on a huge opportunity.
Don’t make it hard for your customers to talk about you. That’s free advertising for you. Word of mouth is absolutely golden and you want as much of that as you can possibly get, so do whatever you can to facilitate that in both your face-to-face store and your online presence. Bottom line: when your customers come into ‘your world’, make it easy for them to share you with ‘their world’.
