Customers expect a good experience when they pay for a product or service. This makes customer onboarding the most important stage of the customer lifecycle. When you get new users started with your product on the right foot, it sets the tone for their relationship with your company.
Read MoreThe fashion industry is under enormous pressure to provide better shopping experiences, requiring a thorough evaluation of strategies and models to improve customer journeys efficiently and cost-effectively
Data and immersive technologies can pave the way for more interactive experiences and help brands pivot their business strategies
Closing the customer experience gap is an ongoing process, one which every business must consider for long-term success
The consumer psyche is changing rapidly.
When it comes to improving customer experience, tech companies have taken the lead, raised customer expectations of speed and convenience and streamlined the customer decision journey.
But retail customer experience lags. Across industry, the process is far more fragmented.
Customers often struggle to shop based on their ideas, desire, or inspirations.
A survey by Qualtrics highlights that while 75% of consumers have high expectations for digital shopping experiences, only 63% believe that brands are delivering on them.
Solving the many CX challenges requires brands to digitize and reassess how it would foster better customer relationships.
Many experts feel digitization is primarily a social phenomenon, offering domains through which we can restructure our digital communications.
Others take a more business-centric approach where digitization comes with the potential of changing the business model and providing new revenue and value-producing opportunities.
In the case of retail customer experience, both these analogies are applicable.
Digitization has opened new ways for consumers to interact and engage with their favorite brands. It has also enabled brands to change their ways of retail execution to adapt to the new realities as well as new restrictions.
The global fashion industry continues to be the largest industry in the B2C e-commerce market with an estimated global size of just over $750 billion (as of 2020).
To succeed, it is incumbent for fashion retailers to close the customer experience gap by anticipating and delivering on customer preferences at every touchpoint.
From addressing changing consumer preferences to mergers and acquisitions, there’s a lot in store for companies in the fashion and apparel industry to tackle as they move forward.
Below, we have highlighted the top 5 CX challenges for the fashion and retail segment.
It is likely that consumers will continue shopping online in 2022 even with pandemic restrictions being eased and marketplaces reopening to normal capacity.
For many fashion brands that have traditionally relied on their department store channel to reach out to customers, it means a change in strategy and a move towards a direct-to-consumer model.
While e-commerce provided brands a pathway to better understand their customers’ preferences and uncover pain points, they would need to re-evaluate their sales channels and recalibrate their relationships with legacy brick-and-mortar stores.
A study by Euromonitor International highlights that more and more consumers expect brands to be purpose-driven. In simple terms, brands should support the “triple bottom line”- people, planet, and profits.
Leading a fashion company and providing a stellar retail customer experience in a post-pandemic world requires a broader mindset to create strategies that drive environmental, charitable, and other social causes.
Closing the customer experience gap would be incomplete without organizations capitalizing on the transparency of their socially conscious, environmentally friendly, and ethical sourcing practices.
The pandemic pushed brands to engage and experiment with immersive technologies to provide customers with a physical experience they used to enjoy at stores, and in the process, close the CX gap.
Virtual clothing, digital catwalks, and online showrooms came into play.
Going forward, brands must maximize such opportunities. Digital technologies offer a quick route for apparel companies to create a collection and present it.
The digital fashion campaign by Selfridges (a UK-based chain of high-end department stores) is a prime example of how immersive tech can be employed to rethink the future of fashion and retail radically.
The campaign explores the domain through the medium of digital art, created by 3D digital fashion designer, Cat Taylor.
It’s a hypercompetitive market for any sector.
Fashion companies will need to be creative in the way they offer their goods. With the D2C model becoming more dominant, it is incumbent for this industry to develop online shopping capabilities and use AR and VR in more ways.
Additionally, brands must look at leveraging digital transformation solutions for processes such as delivery and returns for better speed and accuracy.
Adding to their arsenal will be social media.
Brands that don’t capitalize on it would be left behind in striking long-lasting customer relationships and building brand loyalty.
A macro-challenge for fashion companies to address to enhance retail customer experience is the after-sales process.
Organizations need to facilitate smooth exchange and return processes as well as institute open communication policies if they want to build better relationships with customers.
This is where conversational commerce comes into play. While born with the primary objective of stimulating sales, it is not restricted to that role.
While the pandemic disrupted the industry, forcing sales to drop to zero in months, there is a positive side to look forward to.
The challenging period has also offered a learning curve to the sector to understand how to employ technology and maximize benefits from the minimum.
We have listed five strategic steps that the industry should take to close the customer experience gap.
It is time to simplify processes and consolidate your core systems to improve customer experience and achieve success in today’s digital competitive marketplace.
Your first step is to eliminate data fragmentation and duplication to create efficiency and deliver real-time information.
Take a one-system approach by putting your back-end Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and order & inventory systems into one platform.
Now that your foundation is in place, you can seamlessly connect more modern channels with any part of your business. Unified with your back-end systems, an e-commerce platform will serve as the base for your digital platform.
With instant access to inventory, you will provide accurate inventory levels to shoppers while delivering relevant cross-sell and upsell merchandising offers.
You cannot manage if you don’t measure it.
Fashion and retail companies that have integrated data into their planning, merchandising, and supply chain processes are not only witnessing tangible results but are also closing the customer experience gap.
In fact, data-driven strategies for stock and sales optimization led to a 10% increase in sales, according to McKinsey research. The same study highlights how data-centric models have streamlined inventory management, improved returns forecasting, and optimized transport networks.
Your e-commerce platform, which is now tied to your back-end systems, will also unify your online and offline channels by supporting a modern Point of Sale (POS) system.
This essentially means that your customer journeys can easily transition between online and offline platforms. Sales associates can quickly leverage inventory and product data for an enhanced in-store experience.
Other channels, such as pop-up stores, catalogs, and call centers, will also seamlessly connect with your back-end systems, allowing your shoppers to truly buy from any touchpoint.
A survey by Twilio Segment highlights that only 60% of consumers find their retail shopping experience to be personalized.
While e-commerce does offer a way ahead for brands to customize their customer journeys, such strategies usually focus on improving the shopper’s current visit.
But technological innovation is giving a whole new dimension to personalization. Retailers can utilize a customer’s current shopping behavior to generate profiles, complete with their brand affinities, to point towards their future purchasing habits.
Customer behavior and preferences keep evolving, but the pandemic has created a revolutionary change in their purchasing habits.
Convenience takes the top spot on the list. In fact, 73% of customers are ready to spend a premium on convenience, according to Deloitte’s Global State of Consumer Tracker.
While the tide of digital innovation does not mean the permanent closure of in-store experiences, it does require brands to focus on building customer-centric strategies for a more immersive omnichannel approach.
Read MoreB2B businesses should have instant access to the data of every customer and transaction. It’s necessary to find out who is buying what and the drivers for such decisions.
Read MoreThe risk of recession is slowly but surely rising as global turbulence continues.
B2B businesses are more likely to realize outsized gains before, during, and after a recession if they prepare to take advantage of opportunities, particularly in periods of more volatility.
As terrifying as it may seem, some great sales strategies can be implemented to ensure your business is recession-proof and in a better position to move forward quickly when growth returns.
The next recession may be on the horizon.
By August 2023, it is projected that there is a 25.15% of probability that the United States will fall into another economic recession.
That doesn’t mean your business must suffer. Following the right sales strategy can keep your business afloat – and even grow during a recession.
This blog post will explore how a recession can affect sales and provide some recession-proof strategies for B2B businesses.
By the end, you’ll have a game plan for tackling a recession – and coming out on top.
In the US, the last recession officially ended in June 2009. However, many businesses felt the effects long after that. Some companies are still struggling to recover.
So, is the next recession a threat to B2B businesses?
There are several factors to consider when evaluating this threat. First, let’s look at what causes recessions.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, recessions are caused by “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months.” This can be caused by various factors, such as an increase in interest rates, a decrease in consumer confidence, or an increase in oil prices.
Any of these factors could have a significant impact on B2B businesses.
For example, an increase in interest rates would make it more expensive for companies to borrow money for inventory or expansion. A decrease in consumer confidence could lead to a reduction in demand for products and services. And an increase in oil prices would likely lead to a rise in transportation costs.
Of course, not all recessions are alike. Some are more severe than others.
The last recession was particularly brutal, with many companies going out of business altogether. It’s important to remember that even during less severe recessions, some companies struggle while others thrive.
So, what can B2B businesses do to recession-proof their organizations?
Most organizations do not prepare for an upcoming recession. According to a Bain survey,
Only 43% of sales organizations develop plans for a recession well in advance
Some 86% of companies that create a plan well in advance focus on using the downturn to gain market share
50% of companies make their plan shortly after the recession hits
The fact that many businesses survived the last recession did not happen by chance; when necessary, the companies shifted course and their approaches to weather the downturn.
Businesses that are adaptable, future-ready, and willing to change will be able to survive any economic downturn. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but there are some strategies that can help.
First, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your customer base and your place in the market.
During a recession, customers may be more price-sensitive and less likely to make large purchases. Knowing your most loyal customers and their needs during tough economic times is essential.
It’s also essential to have a flexible pricing strategy.
During a recession, you may need to offer discounts or promotions to compete on price. But be careful not to cut costs too deeply – you don’t want to erode your profits or damage your brand image in the long run.
Finally, despite the economic environment, focus on generating sales, even during recessionary times. The response from the consumers may be slow and delayed; however, the demand for the goods will always be there, so don’t cut back on your sales operations.
These measures can help ensure that your business will weather any future economic storms.
A recession can significantly impact sales, as businesses are typically more conservative with their spending during economic downturns. This can lead to reduced demand for goods and services, leading to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.
While a recession doesn’t necessarily mean people will stop spending money altogether, they may be more selective about where they spend their money. This is where having the right sales strategy for business growth can make all the difference.
If your business can offer products or services that are seen as essential or that offer good value for money, you may weather the storm of a recession better than those who don’t have such an offer.
Of course, it’s not always easy to change your sales strategy mid-recession. But if you’re able to adapt and adjust to the current climate, you may be able to come out of the recession stronger than ever before.
Investing in diverse products and services is crucial for any business.
By spreading your risk across different areas, you can protect yourself from potential downturns in any one particular area. Diversification can also help you to tap into new markets and reach new customers.
By offering various products and services, you can appeal to a wider range of people, increase your chances of success, and increase sales during recession.
It might also mean cutting down on some of your less profitable products and services to focus on the ones doing better.
Recessions can be challenging for businesses, but diversifying your offerings can increase your chances of weathering the storm.
When reviewing your pricing strategy during a recession, you should keep a few things in mind.
First, you need to make sure your prices are still competitive. This means you may need to lower your expenses to stay competitive with other businesses in your industry.
Second, you must ensure your prices align with your costs. If your expenses have gone down, you may be able to lower your prices without sacrificing your profits.
Finally, you need to make sure your prices are still sustainable. This means you need to be sure you can still make a profit even after lowering your costs.
It’s also worth considering offering discounts or promotions to boost sales.
As the world economy shows signs of a recession, it’s more important than ever to ensure your business is in good shape. One way to do this is to gather customer reviews and testimonials.
Customer reviews are a great way to show potential customers that your business is reputable and trustworthy.
They also help to boost your search engine rankings, which can help you attract even more customers. And during a recession, customers are more likely to research businesses before making a purchase, so having positive reviews can help you stand out from the competition.
If you don’t have customer reviews or testimonials, now is the time to start collecting them. You can post a call for reviews on your website and social media channels or reach out to customers directly and ask them to leave a review.
Now is the time to rethink your business strategy and make data-driven decisions to help you survive and thrive during the next recession.
Investing in solid insights will give you a competitive advantage when the recession hits. Keep your team focused on making data-driven decisions before, during, and after the recession. This can be accomplished by reinforcing a data-driven approach throughout business interactions.
Data-driven insights are an effective way of creating growth strategies by identifying trends and patterns among customers.
So what are you waiting for? Start investing in data-driven insights and position your business for success in the next recession.
Some businesses immediately cut marketing spend when they see a recession on the horizon.
However, this can be a mistake. While it’s true that discretionary spending is usually the first to go during tough economic times, businesses that maintain or even increase their marketing spend during a recession can see significant growth.
During a recession, customers are more likely to be value-conscious and look for deals. Your marketing campaigns should reflect this by emphasizing your company’s value proposition.
You can also use targeted marketing to reach new audiences who may be looking for products or services like yours.
Lastly, don’t forget that your competition will likely cut back on their marketing spend. This presents an opportunity for you to gain market share and improve your position in the marketplace.
According to Business.com, returning customers spend 67% more than new customers.
As we enter a period of economic recession, businesses must focus on retaining and increasing sales from existing customers and ensuring their success.
Now more than ever, investing in your existing customer base is crucial and ensures they remain loyal to your brand.
So how can you keep your customers happy and engaged during a recession? Here are a few tips:
Keep communication lines open. Let your customers know what’s going on with your business and how you plan to weather the economic downturn.
Offer discounts and specials. When budgets are tight, customers are looking for deals. If you can offer incentives that help your customers save money, they’ll be more likely to stick with you during tough times.
Go above and beyond. Excellent customer service is even more critical during a recession. Go out of your way.
By focusing on your customers and their success, you can weather the storm of a recession and come out stronger on the other side.
Adding more quality leads to your email list should always be a priority, regardless of whether we’re in an economic recession.
However, it can be challenging to maintain a consistent flow of fresh leads during tough times.
You can use a few strategies to help keep your email list growing during a recession.
First, ensure you consistently create quality content that will attract new subscribers. You can also offer incentives for signing up, such as discounts or freebies.
Finally, stay active on social media and make it easy for people to find your sign-up forms.
Following these tips can help ensure that your email list continues to grow even during a recession.
Without being original, competitive, and creative, it’s frequently impossible to expand and scale a firm during a recession.
As a B2B business owner, it’s critical to be ready for crises, economic downturns, and other dangers to your company. Recession-proofing your firm is always a good idea, regardless of whether a new downturn is imminent or you want to be ready “just in case.”
Read MoreEffective sales pipeline management can help you organize your sales process efficiently and make better business decisions
A sales pipeline represents the complete journey of a buyer – from coming in as a lead to becoming a customer
Sales pipeline software helps track each stage of your pipeline, monitor the process, and helps in understanding the next steps
Sales pipeline CRMs offer customizable pipelines that help manage leads, opportunities, and customer relationships throughout the sales process
A CRM tool helps you understand if a lead is responsive and if they’re interested in your product or service
In today’s competitive marketing world, businesses need innovative sales strategies to attract leads. And the sales process plays a vital role in attracting those leads and converting them into customers quickly.
From generating leads and building a contact repo to following up and closing the deal, your sales process requires systematic planning to help the team close the deals faster.
However, managing it manually can be time-consuming and tedious. To help manage things efficiently, you can empower your team with effective sales pipeline tools.
This blog will cover everything you need to know about sales pipelines and the top tools to manage them.
A sales pipeline includes several stages, and the leads are moved from one stage to the next as they move through the process. The stages include lead generation, lead nurturing, marketing qualified leads, sales accepted leads, sales qualified leads, closed transactions, and after-sales.
Today, organizations employ technology to move, monitor, or evaluate prospects through the phases of a deal, and this technology is called sales pipeline software. It enables businesses to keep track of their prospects and clients and know where they are in the sales funnel.
With a sales pipeline enabled in your work process, you will know how many deals your salespeople need to close in a given time.
The importance of maintaining your sales pipeline is straightforward – to stay ahead of the game and manage your salespeople. It also helps to improve your sales operations process, get a picture of your targets, and better revenue forecasting.
Are you looking to be more successful in your business? Identify the changes that can be made within your sales pipeline, so your prospects move from one stage to the next faster.
We’ve listed down the steps to help you build a successful sales pipeline:
Understanding your target audience is the first step to building an effective sales pipeline.
Next, set up your sales cadences for the best accounts by identifying and targeting them from your database.
Group those accounts based on product interest, location, and previous interaction with your brand.
Finally, set up a successful sales pipeline with the right tools and software.
Read on to explore the best sales pipeline management tools that can help you set up an efficient sales pipeline.
Sales pipeline management tools help you organize your entire selling process.
It gives you a clear view of your pipeline by tracking every stage, streamlining the complete process, enabling your team to function better, and helping in understanding business growth.
These tools can also accurately evaluate your leads, predict sales, and track key metrics. Stay informed of your prospects, enable your sales team to follow up with them, and make better decisions with an effective sales pipeline.
By using a sales pipeline tool, you can organize all the processes in your pipeline efficiently.
You can understand where your leads are coming from and where they are in the pipeline and automate scheduling meetings, sending emails, and more.
Apart from minimizing human errors and saving time in repetitive tasks, it helps your business with the following:
Understanding customer behavior: Sales pipeline tools can track conversations and metrics, which helps in understanding your customers and their pain points better.
Making better decisions: The tool offers insights regarding leads, conversions, and processes, helping you make better decisions and understand where your business is headed.
Generating more revenue: It helps you understand which leads are cold/potential, and how interested they are in your product/service while translating into more conversions and revenue generation.
Let’s look at the top sales pipeline management tools, their features & benefits, and why customers prefer using them for managing their sales processes.
Salesforce is one of the top CRM software providers as it redefines the way businesses connect with their customers.
It is designed for marketing, sales, and customer service ops to create meaningful customer relationships by understanding their requirements.
This CRM helps in creating an effective sales funnel to nurture customers. It provides excellent automated features and customer service tools to help manage good relationships with your leads/customers.
According to Salesforce customer success, companies that switch over to Salesforce see an average of 25 percent increase in revenue.
Salesforce helps communicate with customers/leads using automation tools
Gives a 360-degree view of your customers and engages with them accordingly
Removes the burden of using various applications by syncing data from them all
Positively impacts online customer support by providing chat assistance
It helps your brand have a unified approach with an omnichannel feature
Collects insights to understand your customers and business better
Pipedrive is a fully functional, cloud-based CRM tool for managing sales effectively throughout the pipeline. It helps you stay focused on hot deals, track leads, and predict business revenue.
Pipedrive offers custom web forms and chatbots to automate repetitive tasks. It helps you get the most important deals fed into your pipeline and track calls/emails/contact history for each deal. Control your sales pipeline through a mobile device and boost your work by integrating Pipedrive with your business tools.
Pipedrive is easy-to-use and customize
Can track the number of active deals and give detailed information for each open deal
Guides you with the deals that need prioritization
Adaptable and cost-effective plans
Offers machine learning-powered sales assistant for all plans
Workflow automation for most plans
Pipedrive doesn’t have all the features that Salesforce does, but it is perfect for small businesses with smaller budgets.
HubSpot CRM is a cloud-based tool that supports sales, marketing, customer service, and content management with better resources and strategies. You can avoid your sales falling through the cracks and easily manage your deals.
HubSpot CRM helps you to design attractive brand profiles and organize all the important communication details with your leads/customers. It allows you to add new deals directly from the CRM with up-to-date details.
Whether you already have an established sales process or are just starting, HubSpot CRM eases your work by creating an ideal process. With HubSpot, you don’t need the help of a technical team to edit, delete, and add deal properties and stages.
It allows you to create visual dashboards and design a sales funnel the way you want it.
It can be connected to your social media handles.
The website integration feature will notify you when a lead visits your website.
The features of HubSpot CRM are not as complex as other CRMs’
It also offers a clear view of all the tasks/activities of the team in a single dashboard
Lusha is a data enrichment tool that enables you to retrieve phone numbers, email addresses, and other contact information quickly and easily. It helps you to access your leads’ contact details and B2B company info within seconds.
Marketing and sales professionals can use Lusha to drive business growth, boost campaigns, and improve revenue.
It helps gather accurate B2B contact information
It allows data enrichment at scale
One-click CRM integrations
The goal of any company is to increase revenue and generate leads. However, most leads are lost in the pipeline due to irregular/negligent follow-ups.
An effective sales pipeline management system can help convert your leads into customers. If you haven’t implemented sales pipeline management for your business, it is high time you do it immediately with expert help.
That’s where You need MarketStar as your sales and revenue accelerator. MarketStar is a pioneer in the sales outsourcing industry. With over 50+ world-class clients served, we create growth and drive results for companies of all stages and sizes using tailored solutions to help you hit your specific business goals.
Read MoreLike all areas of business, telemarketing has undergone rapid changes in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Call volumes have increased, contact center managers are looking for better tools, and there is a renewed focus on increasing process efficiency.
A study by the Harvard Business Review highlights how difficult calls saw a 50% uptick during the pandemic.
It is tempting to do everything in-house. The more you can do in-house, the less you pay the third parties. But at a granular level, this approach can prove to be challenging.
Read MoreYour customer onboarding strategy is probably the most important stage of the customer lifecycle
While it comes right at the start of their journey, with your offering, it sets the tone for their whole relationship with your product and company
The ultimate goal of any customer onboarding program is to get your customers to come back to your product
A 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profit by 25%, according to a report by Bain & Company.
Why? Because loyal customers are more likely to repeat their purchases.
Effective customer onboarding is one way to ensure this.
User onboarding is so critically important because it sets the tone for the ongoing relationship your customer has with your product. A good customer onboarding process will:
Keep Your Customer Engaged: They will clearly understand and experience the value they’ll get from your product. More importantly, it will give them a reason to log back in and use your product again and again.
Improve Trial Conversions: If you offer a free or discounted product trial, user onboarding is where your trial users get to experience the value of your product. A good user onboarding process— right at the start of their trial — will help them to convert into paid customers.
But how do we create the perfect customer onboarding experience?
The article shares the top actionable practices and trends of customer onboarding for 2022.
The average landing page conversion rate stands at 2.35%. The top 10% of sites are looking at 11.45% and above.
The above onboarding statistics brings us to a common misconception– that customer onboarding doesn’t start until a customer has signed up for your product.
While every company operates differently, if you see a higher-than-average drop-off rate, it suggests you’re asking for too much information too soon.
Such an approach gives a negative brand review or recommendation.
Ask yourself the following questions while working on your company’s sign-up page:
Does your page make it easier for customers to sign up?
Are you collecting only the essential information to personalize users’ experiences?
If the answer to these questions is a resounding yes, you’re on the right track!
Don’t forget that you can always collect more information about the customers in the later stage
A welcome email expresses gratitude. It speaks volumes about how much you value your users.
It also sets expectations for the customer onboarding process.
A few tips that can help you craft a stellar welcome email are:
Ensure that your content is crisp, actionable, and easy to understand.
Consider including a call to action (CTA) along with the welcome email.
Share the email IDs of your support team so that your customers know who to reach out to in case of queries.
You can also make way for AI-powered writing tools and automate the entire process of sending welcome emails.
If you are a B2B business, then your customer onboarding strategy is more than just helping your customers learn how to use your product.
Your product is now part of your customer’s technology stack. This means that they may need to set up integrations with other tools they use or even invite their team to get the most value from your product.
Automate as much as you can.
Set up an integration between your customer’s marketing automation platform and your product. This will help you remove sticking points that might stop the customer from getting value from your product. But ensure that such a practice is optional and not mandatory.
A well-thought customer onboarding plan consists of product walkthroughs for your customers. This helps them get set up and complete key tasks within your product.
However, product walkthroughs can be done away with if your new customer is already familiar with your product. An unskippable walkthrough can be just as much a barrier for your clients.
Remember that not everyone will want to go through a product walkthrough the first time they log in. Make it easy for your new customers to return to your product walkthrough later.
For some users, such walkthroughs might not be enough to get them started. Make it easier for your customers to find extra support.
It is easy to think that the main goal of your customer onboarding process is to help your customers start using your product. It is so much more than that.
Your ultimate objective is to set your customers up for long-term success, where they become not just your repeat customers but also loyal brand advocates.
Your metric for a successful customer onboarding program is whether your customers log back into your product in the days, weeks, and months after first use.
Have specific questions? Search our blog to quickly access insights that will impact your sales.
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