How to Make Your Business More Customer Oriented

The customer is always right has been a saying that has been around for a long period of time. And why the extent to which this saying is true has been heavily debated, the fact of the matter is that in today’s world where everyone can easily voice their opinion through the powers of customer oriented and social media, this statement has never been truer.

This is especially the case as we’ve reached a point where so many businesses and large corporations are only treating customers as numbers and ways to make a profit. So, what people have started to value more than anything are honest and personal connections they can build with businesses which show them their opinion and needs are valued.

With that being said, there’s no way to achieve this without transferring to a business model that puts your customers first. However, this is a process that can take some time to fully implement. So, to help you out, today we are going to take a look at how to make your business, slowly but surely, more customer-oriented.

Make use of social media to gather feedback

One of the most important steps towards making your business more customer-oriented is constantly collecting feedback and implementing it into the way you conduct business. While there are many channels through which you can collect customer feedback, the incredible rise of social media during the last decade has made it the most reliable and efficient channel through which you can do it.

So many of our interactions in the modern world are being done through social media and, when this is joined by a study that has shown that social media makes us more honest, it’s easy to see the possibilities social media feedback can have when it comes to improving your customer experience and making a shift towards a customer-oriented business model. In order to do this, you will first have to have established a presence on social media through which you can start gathering feedback.

Choosing what platforms to focus on to get customer feedback will largely depend on the needs and possibilities of your business as well as the preferences of your current customers. For example, you can utilize chats to talk directly to them, ask them questions through social media posts or just look around for any public mentions of your company.

Make your customers lives easier

While hearing your customers out and gathering and implementing feedback is crucial, you should also aim to implement small changes that make your customers’ lives easier and encourages them to continue being your loyal customers.

One such example is through the implementation of direct debit solutions into your business. In short, it can allow you to grow and retain your loyal customer base by nurturing ongoing relationships with them through a subscription-based payment model.

You should also take similar methods into account and remember that if you are able to give them what they want and need without any complications, everything else will come in on its own.

Personalize

Another big step you can take towards becoming more customer-oriented is by aiming to personalize the relationships you have with your customers. There are many modern tools that can help you with this task; however, the foundation for it should be the constant feedback you are collecting from them.

This will allow you to make sure that every person’s experience is tailored towards the specific needs and will not only lead to you having more customers but to higher revenue from each of those customers as research found that they are 44% more likely to engage with your business again.

Simply put, making your business more customer-oriented is the only way it can survive and thrive in the modern environment. Through a customer-oriented model, you will be able to retain your current customers and build their loyalty which is a lot less costly than trying to attract new ones. With that being said, you have to remember that implementing such initiatives won’t get you far unless everyone on your team is on the same page.

Namely, your employees make up the main points of interaction between your business and its customers, so making sure they understand why this is the way forward and truly believing in it is the only way to start seeing real results, even if it may take quite a bit of time.