Tag Archives: customers

Business, Marketing

5 Great Customer Retention Ideas That Work

An army of loyal customers is every company’s goal. Yet, it’s one that can be quite hard to accomplish. Here are 5 ideas for customer retention that work.

1. Know Your Business

Having your own business means much more than having a job and paying you salary. Your basic roles are in finance, administration, marketing, and the responsibility of personnel. You need to know what you can deal with yourself and which parts you’re going to need help with. One person can rarely succeed in all of these to get the best results.

Many companies are run by people with great business acumen, yet they fail because they don’t have all the information they need to do their job. This includes a clear notion of marketing mix, market segment, customer service, target markets, product selection, promotional activities and pricing tactics. You need a well-devised business plan if you want to succeed. This will help you make the right decisions.

2. Pay for Good Training

Train your employees to always be available. Retail has always been about interacting with shoppers. Yet, staffs are often so busy multitasking that they ignore customers who are obviously looking for help. They need to be trained and taught that no task is more important than paying attention to customers because customers pay their salary.

If you have a larger company, you should train your managers to be the best salespersons. A manager probably won’t recognize, analyze, and give direction when a sale is lost if he or she doesn’t have the background knowledge to begin with. A good manager will know how to make a sale.

Finally, teach your managers how to train their associates. It can be that staffs are promoted to managerial positions not based on skills, but on how long they’ve been working for a company, and the disastrous results soon follow. They need proper retail sales training themselves if they’re to manage effectively. It takes more than criticism or praise. Both approaches can create a lot of damage to your staff that are left adrift.

3. Get a Reliable POS System

A full-scale POS solution like Aloha POS is of paramount importance to customer retention. It will allow you to efficiently manage all your back office activities. Reliable systems are rich in features to optimize inventory management and take the guesswork out of purchasing decisions.

A POS system addresses the needs of businesses in many sectors and industries, including grocery stores, convenience stores, apparel, fashion, and sporting goods, liquor, gift shops, and specialty stores.

Among its advantages are the following:

  • Top-Notch Order Fulfillment
  • Robust Email Marketing
  • eCommerce
  • Inventory Management

You’ll be able to attract more customers by offering better value. You’ll also be able to offer more opportunities to shop at your store. It’s your job to give your customers what they want, because if you don’t, they will stop doing business with you. The products and services you provide should be in tune with customers’ needs and wants.

4. Sustain your Unique Image

To attract more customers and understand them better, develop a unique image. This image is important and is a function of your marketing materials and efforts. Customers create their perceptions of your store from your name, location, web site appearance, products, prices, visual merchandising, displays, signs, business cards, customer service, newsletters, advertising material, and anything else that relates to your business.

Try to think like your customers do; buy, show, sell, and give them interesting information (not only what’s interesting to you). Your success is determined by the customer.

To maximize your online revenue, you need to develop a website where to sell your products. You can build the site yourself if you are familiar with HTML or similar programs and codes. It is essential that you determine the niche of your website. Some niches are less lucrative than others. You have to find a balanced relationship between passion and profit until you start making money.

For many years, many people have been selling private label products through sites like Amazon. The profit potential of the Amazon FBA program is huge. You need to make a product, choose a manufacturer and start selling this product on Amazon. The first step is having the right keywords. To obtain long-term customers, you need to acquire them to begin with, and this isn’t very easy either.

Also ,use multiple channels for customer service. This creates an opportunity to create an omni-channel experience, where the customer’s experience with the brand is consistent across different channels and devices. This brings about loyalty and greater customer satisfaction because it makes your customer service offer user-friendlier, which is exactly what your brand needs when your customers need assurance they will be served well, as always.

5. Market Based on Good Customer Experiences

Share any and all positive customer experiences with your brand with as many other people as possible. Collect customer feedback and share your reviews to inform your customers of the perks that your company can provide. Sharing “success” stories across an omni-channel communication system will be viable because new customers tend to trust old and loyal ones more than advertising. To maximize value, leverage these interactions effectively.

Creating customer loyalty is no easy feat, but know that customers are driven by their goals like all people and they will be loyal to the company that can meet their needs. If your competitor offers them a better deal, their positive experience with your company doesn’t matter. The customer will go for the better deal.

To build customer loyalty, you need to be aware of your customers’ needs very well. A multi-channel service system is one of the best ways to stay connected with your customers, particularly if they need help with something. Your customers will have better access to your service staff, which will generate a higher number of customer interactions. The more often you can interact with your customers, the better your chances of influencing their experience and retaining them.

General, Mobile

The Rise and Power of a Comprehensive Customer Driven Digital Platform

What do the tech companies of today and digital-born organizations all have in common?  

Yes, Amazon, Google, and Alibaba all had a keen understanding of the sheer power of digital technologies. Dig a bit deeper.  Many of the digital companies of today disrupting legacy industries are based on platforms. 

The success of these unicorn companies are based on some core elements: the technology platforms they’ve built, and perhaps more importantly, the innovative business models these platforms enable.

As digital businesses shift away from the traditional business models towards interconnected ecosystems, technology is responding in a similar manner by progressing from siloed technical infrastructure to an ecosystem of enabling platforms.

Platform Takes Center Stage

Digital is increasingly the agent of disruption to the old commercial order and in the hyper-competitive digital economy; enterprises that excel are those that are harnessing the power of platform economics. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Airbnb are all platform companies. In fact, in its 2018 report, Gartner ranks digitalized ecosystems among its top five trends. So, as emerging technologies continue to develop, they will require support from more dynamic ecosystems that are based on new business strategies and platform-based business models.  

These platform-based business models are quickly becoming the foundation of business innovation, with emerging technologies providing the means to develop increased value and create new business models performing at optimal levels of efficiency.

While all of these companies have thrived, the challenge has been to define the platform.  Third-party analysts give various descriptions of the platform. Traditional and ICT manufacturers have launched a variety of “platform” models, but the industry, as a whole, lacks a clear definition.

 

Huawei is positioned as the digital technologies enabler and initiator in the digital platform and uses its digital platform to support the partners’ platforms.

In an effort to define and enable a clearer model of successful transformation, Huawei Technologies recently presented the company’s “power of the platform” approach at Huawei Connect 2018 in Shanghai. Huawei’s new digital platform strategy will enable governments and enterprises to accelerate digital transformation and achieve new levels of innovation and growth.

The X Factor in Digital Platform

Digital transformation cannot be achieved with any one single technology, and the value of the cloud cannot be realized without other technologies. To capitalize on the value of the cloud, terminals need to collect vast amounts of data and utilize networks for transmission. For Huawei, it is this collaboration that is dependent on its cloud-pipes-devices collaboration ability. It also represents the company’s most powerful capability.

With the goal of offering customers a long-term strategy to accelerate digital transformation, Huawei offers a “Digital Platform + X + Ecosystem” approach. This unique method puts the digital platform as the foundation, with new capabilities (the “X”) such as AI, IoT, Big Data, security, ICP, and videos.

Lu Qi, President of the Marketing & Solution Sales Department of Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group, stated at the event that the company’s digital platform offers three core advantages. “It is full-stack, open, and supports enterprises across multiple industries; our digital platform can be used in a wide range of scenarios, as it supports both private cloud and public cloud.”

By incorporating their products and solutions with those from other providers, Huawei is actually able to create an open, win-win ecosystem that offers customers the freedom to use the best solutions for their unique requirements.

Huawei’s Digital Platform Enabling Growth

At Huawei Connect, Yan Lida, President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said: “Digital transformation is a complex process which requires a systematic approach and convergence of various technologies to integrate the physical and digital worlds. Huawei is committed to enabling our customers’ platform-based businesses with an ICT platform that allows partners to integrate industry-specific applications. In this way, Huawei’s platform serves as the ‘fertile soil,’ enabling the growth of the industry ecosystem, and promoting digital transformation of various industries with our ecosystem partners.”

Partnerships and Design Thinking

For several years, Huawei has been at the forefront of digital transformation. Huawei is committed to working with customers in the long term and takes a future-oriented approach to drive enterprise digital transformation through the power of the platform. So far, 211 of the Fortune Global 500 companies (including 48 Fortune Global 100 companies) have selected Huawei as their digital transformation partner. This list includes SAP, Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen, Oracle, Honeywell, GM, ABB, Intel, Sony, the Russian Federal Savings Bank, and more.

In the digital transformation journey, Huawei has embraced the vision that partnership and collaboration will be a bigger driving force than the technology itself. By partnering and guiding its customers in their digital transformation journeys, Huawei is strategically guiding each enterprise to their destination. The goal is to be connected, intelligent and cloud-based. Huawei is uniquely positioned to take enterprises on this journey because the company is able to provide a holistic suite of solutions from devices, to infrastructure, to services based in the cloud equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities.

Huawei teams up with customers and partners to create a vibrant ecosystem, meeting customers’ requirements in increasingly complex application scenarios, creating value for customers, and achieving a win-win situation for continuous growth.

Customer-Driven Digital Platform

Achieving positive digital experiences serve as the foundation for successful transformation. Customer experiences serve as the impetus for businesses to innovate, create and measure its overall digital platform strategy.

Designing a successful digital business needs to focus on innovating and attaining new business value, aimed at creating an optimal user experience. Consumers today, demand a faster, simpler, and enhanced digital experience that provides the best product and combines it with stellar service and most advanced technologies. These are all digital platforms that can provide enterprises for agile innovations.

Conclusion

In the next three decades, digitization will reshape every industry, and intelligence will have a profound impact on every enterprise. Digital transformation constantly impacts the way in which companies approach and operate their business. The speed and agility that attract many companies to shift towards digital platforms – which Huawei has done – have spawned new business models that have disrupted the way companies approach the consumer, delivering consistent value to the customer, inspiring enterprises to see beyond short-term gain, opting for long-term value.

In the coming years, the digital platform will continue to revolutionize traditional businesses models. While the digital platform model is still young, it is forcing enterprises to make strategic decisions that will undoubtedly impact the future success and viability of their business.

 

Disclosure: The author is a Huawei Key Opinion Leader and has benefited from their products and services. The opinions of this article, however, are completely his own based on experience.

General, software

7 Simple Steps to Improve Profitability

When it comes to managing a business, ensuring that your company retains a certain amount of profit margin ought to be among your top priorities. Of course, every business model is different and the level of profitability that you will achieve is largely dependent on the scale and structure of your operation. However that isn’t to say that business owners shouldn’t take every step possible to try and achieve the maximum profit levels that they can. This guide presents some suggested simple steps to improve profitability.

Sure you’ve worked on your branding, created an attractive website and developed a strong digital marketing strategy but improving profitability runs far deeper than just external promotions.

Make Clear, Actionable Goals for Your Profit Strategy

You will struggle to improve your business’s success and profits if you just try and proceed with the vague notion that you want to improve your profits but do not quantify your aims. Establish challenging, but realistic goals as to how much you wish to increase your profits by, and by which date. Once you have outlined this high level detail, you can work backwards, creating an action plan of what tasks you are going to undertake in order to work towards your profitability goals, and the deadlines for each task. Assign project groups to different parts of the plan, and hold review meetings at regular intervals to assess how you are progressing towards your goals.

Remove Unprofitable Products and Services From Your Offering

Not every product that you sell is going to fly off the shelves or be a cash cow. Of course, some products may see mediocre sales figures yet they are necessary in order to offer the full product range to customers and match the competitors offering. That’s understandable. However there may be products and services in your offering they are really struggling and which may even be losing money. Assess your range and cut out those items which are not performing.

For instance, you may offer a particular item to your customers, but the amount of sales the product sees is abysmal whereas the minimum order quantity is incredibly high and so you wind up losing money. Sometimes factors like this can slip through the cracks and that is why it is worthwhile to conduct a full range analysis.

Improve the Ways You Target Customers

Without customers, your business cannot exist. Without customers, you have no sales and therefore no profits and as such this is a critical piece of the pie. However, are you being strategic enough in your approach to customer outreach? Have you considered sending your potential clients video messages? This is something that will attract their attention and pique their interest.

Are you working hard to develop a strategic and smart action plan on specific demographics, or are you casting a wide net, sending salesmen out all over the place and hoping for the best? Not only does not having an effective outreach strategy affect your profits, it can also result in additional, unnecessary costs.

Assess Your Client Relations

If applicable, review the way in which you work with your clients and customers – particularly where payments are concerned. If you are operating a B2B business then you may find that some of the businesses that you work with engage in payment terms that you are simply not happy about – i.e. they want to pay 30, 60 or 90 days after the receipt of goods.

Sure you don’t want to turn down customers and sales but this is no good for your cash flow and can result in wasted resources when your account is consistently chasing up payments. Insist upon the terms that you are comfortable with. For instance, consider requesting that customers pay 50% of the invoices due upfront. If they want your services, they will have to adapt accordingly.

Reduce Costs

Assess your outgoings and ensure that you are not overpaying in any particular area. This means assessing your overheads and ensuring that you are not paying for anything unnecessary, as well as reviewing your expenditure at the back end with your suppliers. Consider automating some of your processes to make your work day smoother. This includes, using e-procurement software to keep track of all purchases. Employing a strategic procurement team aids you in being certain that you are consistently getting the best value raw materials and supplies in the market.

If you haven’t assessed your supply base in a while then maybe it could be time. Perhaps you have been buying a material from one particular source for several years, however the Supplier’s competitor sells the same item for a fraction of the cost. Alternatively, perhaps you consume so much volume of an item that you are able to shift production overseas to a lower cost country and enjoy better economies of scale. You could improve your profit margins significantly by sourcing strategically.

Assess Your Processes and Workflows

You should always strive to run an efficient business, but when you’re busy, or your company is large scale, it is easy for things to fall through the cracks. This is why it is worth taking the time to sit down and analyze all of the processes and workflows within your business.

Could it be possible that there are steps within your processes that add costs but no value? Maybe some activities are completely unnecessary and there are savings to be achieved by cutting them out.

Ensure You Have an Excellent Customer Service Proposition

If you want to encourage repeat, long term custom then you need to ensure that buying from you is a painless, straightforward process for your customers. Consider using CRM software to ensure that management of your sales team and customers is organised and you have clear visibility on processed. Work hard to reduce barriers to entry and any headaches that may surround your company’s re-order processes. A happy customer is a loyal one.