Customer Delight

Numerous studies have shown that it is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one (and maybe even more), and according to research done by Bain & Company, increasing customer rates by 5% has the potential to impact profit by 25%-95%.

You want your customers to be so delighted after making a purchase that they return to you again and again. Even more importantly, delighted customers often tell their friends and family about their favorite businesses. So how can you go about using your online marketing strategies to please your customers?

“How can I delight our customers after purchasing so that they purchase again and tell their friends?”

Many business owners spend so much time acquiring new business that they don’t think about their existing client base. As shown by the statistics above, this is a huge mistake because it is always easier to encourage repeat business than to go out and find new customers. Your marketing engine works much harder for you if you increase the average customer lifetime value of your current clients.

Factors That Influence Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value (or CLV) is the projected profit a business may expect to gain from a single customer over the course of their entire future relationship. The higher the average CLV, the more potential each client means to your bottom line.

Here are factors that influence a consumer’s CLV in regards to your business.

• Average Order Value. Big ticket items or services make a larger impact on CLV.
• Purchase Frequency. The more repeat business, the higher the CLV. And if there are people who like your business and what you have to offer, keep giving them what they want!

By increasing CLV, your marketing dollars go much further because ultimately the client acquisition cost stays the same but the return on investment is higher.

How to Get More Repeat Business

• Always stay top of mind by checking in from time to time through a target email marketing campaign.
• Provide excellent customer service. This is something every company and business owner strives toward, but not everyone can achieve.
• Provide a personalized experience. People like to feel special.
• Give them special customer perks and upgrades.
• Create quality products that keep people coming back for more.

• Contact customers who have just made a purchase to tell them what to expect and help enhance the experience of using the product. The best impression is a first impression.
• Don’t just sell. Continually offer helpful resources to strengthen your image as an authority in the industry but also position yourself as their go-to source of information on a given topic.
• Send email newsletters that includes a human element to your brand as well as any exciting updates that your raving fans may be interested to know (e.g. product launches, etc.)
• Segment your email database based on data and focus on sending only hyper relevant emails for a more personalized experience.
• Provide incentives such as free products or discounts that will have customers looking for your next email.
• Use urgency. People always want a good deal, so advertise sale prices for short periods of time. This special time-sensitive pricing will make people feel the need to purchase.

So now that you’ve used some strategies to interact with your customers online, but are they “delighted”? Customer delight is signified by clients not only being satisfied with your product or service but feeling joy or satisfaction from coming to your business specifically. This shows that not only are you doing a great job, but your company is going above and beyond customer expectations and actually creating joy in someone’s life.

Delighting Your Customers: Create Delight and Turn Repeat Customers Into Raving Fans

You might think creating delightful experiences for your customers is too difficult or even impossible to guarantee. However, many companies are succeeding at creating a culture of delight both online and in every customer transaction. Many times it comes down to identifying what’s “good enough” and then going above and beyond that to shatter the customer’s expectations. The customer loyalty that happens as a result contributes directly to growing your business.

What Are the Pillars of Customer Delight?

There are three factors that you need to focus on when trying to create delightful experiences for you customers: Innovation, Communication, and Education.

Examples of Customer Delight

All companies, no matter large or small, can create a culture of delight for their customer base. For example, Target has created an exclusive program for a specific group of frequent customers who have consistently shown interest in writing online reviews. Customers are offered a choice of several free items (coffee machines to clothing) a few times a year in exchange for honest product feedback.

As for smaller businesses, independent coffee houses and cafes are known for creating daily delightful experiences for their regulars. When baristas give excellent customer service and are able to offer discounts, word-of-mouth spreads quickly. Pair this with online customer appreciation and “check-in” coupons on social media sites, and you’ve begun building a social media presence that resonates with today's consumer. This is how delight turns into additional new business.

If you need some ideas on how to create delighted customers, here is a list of ways to exceed your customers’ expectations.

• Having Fun with Social Media. Contact your clients through social media. Tell them it was a pleasure to serve them and look forward to seeing them again. Post interesting videos or memes that resonate with your customers.
• Celebrate customer anniversaries or birthdays. You might even offer special discounts for individuals on those days.
• Highlight customers on the company blog. Do you have special clients? Tell others about your relationship or even offer to let them write a guest blog.
• Send customers gifts, especially those that engage with your brand. The gifts are to say thank you for your business and for online interactions.
• Always one up the competition. If a competitor is making a particular perk the norm, discover something even greater to offer that will further “wow” clients.
• Delight your employees. As Richard Branson has said, “Happy employees equal happy customers.” The way you treat your employees is how they will treat your customers. This is one of the most powerful ways of implementing a customer delight model in your business.

Here are some specific ways you can encourage your customers to help you grow your business. The amazing thing is that by creating a delightful business culture, your customers will want to tell everyone about you.

• Offer discounts in exchange for referrals on social media.
• Solicit feedback from customers to continually gauge and improve your customer service efforts.
• Be helpful rather than salesy and continue to be there for the customer as an authoritative resource in your industry.
• Send an email to encourage customers to write a review or testimonial or participate in a case study, especially after a positive interaction.
• Offer incentives for word of mouth referrals.
• GIVE a referral to show how invested you are in your relationship with them.

Customer delight is a simple tool for any business owner. Using internet and social media marketing to create this delight can be a fun and lucrative way to expand your business and keep your existing customers. Infusing your business with a culture of delight will not only keep your customers happy but your employees as well. Best of all, happy employees and delighted customers can result in business growth and success.