The customer is the king, and the modern customer knows it. It is the customer who controls the relationship with brands today. In the world we live in, brand loyalty and trust go far beyond the quality of product alone; they are shaped by the brand’s understanding of what the customer wants. A deep understanding of their needs, values, and experiences that resonate with them.
Customers are aligning with brands that have tried to understand their lifestyles, personal values, and emotional expectations. Brands that evoke emotions by listening, adapting, and responding to the customer wants are the ones that are succeeding in this competitive world. Brands that work on their marketing and sales strategies to offer personalization, transparency, and authentic experiences to the customer foster a strong emotional connection that leads to a lasting loyalty. A lackluster experience is highly intolerable, and the customer that has once gone is difficult to win back.
Earing the customer’s trust goes much beyond making a sale. The journey that starts from generating interest continues in to after sales support and upselling. Relevant, contextual, and tailored experiences are what the customer wants. As Zig Ziglar once said, “If they trust you, they will do business with you.”
When asked how important trust is:
- 83% of customers said they preferred to do business with brands they trust.
- 83% of customers said they will recommend the business they trust to others.
Research also shows that just 5% of customer retention can boost up the profits as much as 95%. The key to earning and maintaining customer trust and loyalty is to go deep into knowing what the customer wants. History has proofs that businesses who have gone beyond selling and have actively engaged with customers and prioritized sustainability have built a deeper trust and loyalty and aced ahead of the competitors.
The dynamic relationship based on shared values and authentic engagement, lays a lasting foundation for brand loyalty that sustains a rapidly changing market. In a market full of options, brands that provide a holistic appearance by focusing on what the customer truly wants win over the competition.
Here are some strategies for businesses to adopt to align with customer’s lifestyles and beliefs.
Understanding the Deeper Wants: Beyond the transaction
Customers tend to stay with the brands that look after them after the purchase. They want the brands to care about their needs, listen to their feedback, and respond with empathy and emotion. Brands need to understand customer motivations (conveniency, status, sustainability, or community) to deliver values that are beyond the product.
Customer feedback plays a crucial role in this process. learning what the customer wants and feels about your product or service, helps plan the business’s long-term success. When the customer feels that the brand truly cares and anticipates their wants, they are more likely to build a strong, loyal connection.
Focusing on authenticity and transparency for building trust
Customers want to know what the brand does and what goes on behind the product development, including where the material is sourced from, what goes behind production, and how the pricing is decided. They expect the brand to have transparent practices and be authentic in their communications. Failure to be transparent can erode trust. Open communications build creditability. Over 90% of customers have agreed that transparency plays an important role in their purchase decisions, and 94% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to brands which are fully transparent in their practices.
Publish all customer reviews and testimonials
The entire world is online today. And 88% of customers trust online reviews and look at them as personal recommendations, and 72% have confirmed that positive reviews and testimonials help them build trust. New customers wants more likely to trust the other customers more than a salesperson from the company.
Let both positive and negative reviews go online. Make an effort to reply to the reviews and solve the issues raised in negative reviews. This will go a long way in the brand, helping the customer Wants learn more about your brand.
Making the experience as personalized as possible
There are many ways to get to know the customer. It includes asking about their opinions and needs through feedbacks, surveys regularly. You can ask questions like if the product or service has lived up to the expectation, are they getting the support they needed, and are they happy with the product or service.
Another method is to use the marketing tools to know about customer behavior, and interests, and segment them on the basis of the demographics, gender, past purchase choices, locality, earnings, and other parameters.
Using the above two data points, work on sending personalized offers to the customers through various touchpoints. Customers value the brands that understand their individual preferences and tailor the products, services, offers, recommendations, and contact preferences accordingly. This step makes the customer feel highly valued and helps deepen the loyalty.
Refining the customer want service and support to be super responsive
Customers don’t have the time to wait. They will go with the brand that is most responsive to them. Brands need to be quick and responsive with their support when the customer needs assistance. Use an automation tool and a dedicated support staff to set high standards in terms of speed and quality of the service. Resolve the issues effectively to build loyalty and retention.
Another important thing to remember is to be consistent with your responses. Your marketing and sales strategies should have a clear set of guidelines for common questions. Make sure that the customer gets support all through the journey.
75% of customers expect a consistent experience regardless of the channel they engage through. That means when the customer is contacting you over the phone, live chat, or social media, or through the chatbots, they should get instant and consistent support and try to resolve in the first point of contact itself. This is crucial for building long-term relationships.
Building loyalty and trust in this competitive landscape means going beyond the sale of the product. To cultivate trust and loyalty, the brands need to engage with customers according to their unique desires and values. Understanding what the customer wants will help the brands stand out in the crowded market and foster meaningful relationships.
Read Also: Top Strategies to Uncover and Address Hidden Customer Wants
