Customer Delight, the Key to Retention

In the final module in the HubSpot Academy's Inbound Methodology course, I learned that customer delight is the key to customer retention with my company.  Building trust is at the core of this relationship.  Interestingly, customer delight doesn't begin with the customer, it begins with team members.  Delight begins with the three customer delight core pillars:  Innovation, Communication, and Education.  The best customer delight starts with an organization's team members feeling empowered to offer their best as they engage the customer.   Customer experiences are formed in every interaction from the moment a customer first engages to the post-sale.

Constantly challenging the status quo among team members is very important with regards to employee empowerment and delight.  Change is better than maintaining the status quo.  Creating a list of core principles that team members can live by and developing autonomy among each member will empower employees. This includes everyone at any level of the company, not just those who work directly with customers.  Personal communication is better than impersonal.  Each team member should consider themselves an educator, adviser, and consultant when working with customers.  Customers need to feel that I am building report and that I am seen as a thought leader within my own communication with them.  This will keep them coming back as they consider current and future buying decisions.

Education is the third principle in customer delight.  Educating customers with good content relevant to their needs is everyone's responsibility.  Educating people is more important than ignoring people.  This is true for both team members and customers.  Traditional outbound, seller-centric selling has been replaced by inbound selling and marketing.  It's important to not 'sell' at customers, but inform and educate them by adding value.

All team members should see themselves as problem solvers, provide recommendations, and just be themselves.  Customers today are more informed and perceptive than ever before in the information age.  It's estimated that 60% of customers have already most of the information they need before ever talking to a sales representative.

So, in conclusion, the most important thing to delight customers is for the team members of an organization to feel empowered to serve their customer base using the best innovation, communication, and education available to them.  Simon Sinek said, "Customers will never love a company until it's employees love it first."  Happy customers start with happy employees.

Targeting Email: Choosing the Right C.A.T.

In this module, I learned that targeting my email campaign strategy is much more comprehensive than just simply generating opens and click-throughs.  An effective email strategy first begins with lead nurturing.  With 4.3 billion email accounts worldwide, email marketing is not a thing of the past, it remains a very effective marketing tool.  Unlike other marketing tools, after a lead purchases a product or service, I can continue to engage with the customer after purchase. simply because a trust relationship has begun.

There are four best practices to effective email targeting strategy:  determine the audience, segment the contact database, send the right email at the right time, and nurture the lead into a loyal customer.  The first best practice involves using the buyer personas and the buyer's journey.  Asking questions like, "Who is on the other end of the email?  What are they interested in?  What information would benefit them as a potential customer?  All email content should follow the golden rule in email:  Give value to the customer, instead of asking for it.  Content in context.  Asking the question, "Who are my customers and what interests them?"

The next step involves segmenting my contact list.  Where is the potential customer at on the buyer's journey?  Studies indicate that sending targeted emails to segmented contact lists increases open rates up to 62%.  Email lists decay 25% per year. so cleaning and monitoring lists is very important.  It's also extremely important to avoid spam emails!  Spam email devalues my brand and reduces customer retention.  Also, supplementing emails with blog posts, e-books, free tools, third party reviews, will help increase attention and engagement with the customer.

The third best practice is to explicitly focus on engagement.  It's important to be clear and concise in an email.  Get right to the point and avoid over-stuffing emails with excessive content.  A clear, direct message, one or two CTA's, and an engaging image is plenty to help keep the attention of the reader.  Time is money, so keeping an email short and to the point is critical.  Also, most importantly, make sure that the email is optimized for all devices, especially mobile.

Lastly, as always, testing and analysis will help determine an effective targeted email campaign.  Focus more on click rates rather than open rates.  Looking at what links or CTA's were clicked and developing content around these will be more effective in increasing email engagement and lead to more customer retention and sharing that content with others.  Using best practices for targeting emails will lead to greater click-throughs and ultimately, increased sales.

Ending the Conversion Process: The Thank You Page

Now that a lead has taken the next step and clicked through on a Call-To-Action, it's now my turn to hold up my end of the bargain.  Following through on the offer is critical to keeping the lead engaged with the content, and essential to best practices with Thank You pages.  The buyer has given their information in good faith, so providing them what they requested should be implemented as soon as possible and with relative ease.  Delivery is the most important element of a Thank You page.

Once the visitor has landed on the Thank You page, it's best to help set his or her expectations with a specific time frame as to when they will receive their offer.  If the offer isn't immediately downloadable or receivable, i.e., a PDF document or e-book, then specificity on timing is crucial.  A buyer should be able to expect within 2-3 business days that which they have requested.

Also, as far as the content on a Thank You page, additional Call-To-Action buttons and content relevant to where they are at in the Buyer's Journey is encouraged.  Perhaps the buyer has other interests related to the CTA, so additional information that can help convert the buyer to a genuine lead can be offered at this point.  It's important not to be pushy, but using good judgement will assist in determining if additional content is helpful.  Also, unlike Landing Pages, it is important to include navigational links that may help entice the buyer to access other information relevant to their interests on the company website.  The Thank You page is essentially the end of the conversion process in the Buyer's Journey.