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Q: Dear B2B, how can I offer a service that fulfils all my customers’ needs when their demands are so diverse?
Martin: All customers want to feel valued – whether that’s being greeted by a local trader who remembers their usual order or being rewarded for loyalty with discounts or points. Offering a personalised approach that’s tailored to the individual is essential for firms looking to build mutually rewarding relationships that keep customers coming back.
For businesses with a large customer base, it can be challenging to understand and keep track of diverse customer needs. Clearly, technology has a key role to play, alongside marketing strategy and company culture. Below are my recommendations regarding the approach firms should consider to truly fulfil diverse customer needs, and ideally exceed their expectations – not just once, but over and over again for the long term.
Data, data, data
Luckily for businesses today, marketing professionals don’t need to be mind readers to know what their customers want. Thanks to a proliferation of digital and social media channels, businesses now have access to endless sources of customer data and should use this to their advantage. In the banking industry, for example, those banks and fintech firms that are connecting the dots between transactional and social data are more able to offer services that align with their customers’ spending habits and life goals – and are more likely to achieve satisfied customers as a result.
Understanding customer needs
Successful customer lifecycle marketing strategies are focused on adding value and driving customer loyalty at every single touchpoint along the path to purchase. Businesses need to focus on creating highly-targeted and personalised offers that will achieve cut-through and impact. Developing a core set of buying personas within a persona-based marketing strategy is a crucial first step in helping to deliver the right offers to the right customers and best serve customer needs.
The AI advantage
Equipped with in-depth customer data and a well thought out, persona-based marketing strategy – technologies such as AI and machine learning can be applied to analyse data, spot opportunities across the business and serve up personalised recommendations to customers. For example, by combining transaction data and personal data (with the appropriate permissions), a bank could identify that a customer is interested in buying a car and offer the appropriate insurance at just the right moment. By tailoring the offer to that customer’s age, the vehicle type and known history, the bank can make the process as easy as possible for the customer.
The customer-centric business
Businesses will struggle with customer-centricity if the concept isn’t embraced from the inside-out. Ensuring the whole workforce is on board with the customer effort, and is embracing a customer-centric culture, is essential. To ensure this is brought to fruition, a customer-first strategy needs to come from the top. Once there’s buy-in from the board, the approach needs to be driven across the whole workforce. This approach encourages cross-functional involvement, breaking down silos and communicating customer needs across the whole lifecycle.
While customer-centricity can’t be built overnight, it’s essential to start the journey as soon as possible and to put customer needs at the heart of your business. Happy customers can become an extension of your sales force, being more likely to recommend your products or services, and less likely to stray to competitors.
