There’s an old saying in business – “the customer is always right.” Of course, anyone who has worked in hospitality or retail for about a week will understand how flawed this statement is. But the meaning conveyed behind the outright objective truth of the statement is perfectly valid – the point being that if you’re unable to accommodate a customer request, or know what it is they’re looking for, well, you won’t stay operating for long.
For this reason, it’s important to be open and provide accessibility to your products or services when running a business. In other words, you need to make sure the most amount of people can identify value in what you’re doing, even if you run a particularly niche service like repairing high-end music equipment.
A good way to go about this is to make provisions for preference as and when you can. In this post, we’ll discuss how to achieve that, what goals to set in relation to that goal, and some pitfalls to avoid. With that in mind, please consider:
Payment Preferences
The more payment options you can provide, the better. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to accept every single new cryptocurrency that comes out, and especially not those that become trendy for about a week and then die out.
That said, it’s true that there are more payment providers and alternative payment methods than you might be offering right now. This Solidgate guide is a great place to start: https://solidgate.com/blog/alternative-payment-methods/.
Certain payment providers can also inspire confidence in you from those consumers who may be reticent in giving out their financial information to any small business, which is understandable. They may not want to input their card information on your website, but may be perfectly happy to use PayPal, for instance. Having those options available takes relatively little effort to set up safely and reliably, but could potentially widen your market.
Website Viewing Options
Think of how people use the internet in 2022. People generally prefer to choose their aesthetics in their web browser, be that using light or dark mode, and having this generated with the correct fonts and tones can help you preserve how your website looks.
But of course, it’s much better to consider how most people will visit your website – and that will be through their smartphone or portable device. Around 70% of people use this as their main means of using the internet from day to day.
This means ensuring your website supports app browsers like Safari is important, and that it retains the best aspect ratio when someone rotates their device is crucial. But more than this, developing an app in which you have more control over the coding and the preference setting you offer – such as if someone wishes to gain delivery notifications to their phone, will be worth your time to implement.
Customer Support Alternatives
It’s essential to consider the customer support alternatives that truly do matter. Not everyone has time to wait around on the phone to get through your customer support. They may wish to use your contact form to send an email, and that’s it. Providing this front and centre can be a good measure to implement, and it’s incredibly easy to do through basic web design.
On top of this, customer support offered through live chat is a helpful way to connect with your agents or representatives in a short amount of time, doubling up as an email note system too. Live AI chatbots can help serve as frequently asked question providers, and also filter systems to make sure a customer query is implemented through the right channels.
When you give a customer more than one way to get in contact with you, something quite interesting happens – they believe that your customer support is more attentive and professional even if you haven’t answered their query for a day or two. This is the power of acquiescing to appropriate preference settings.
Account Management
One of the main reasons to provide a customer account creation feature is to ensure they can join your services and have a reason to come back, with their information such as card details saved for convenience sake
Another reason is that accounts allow customers to set their individual preferences for how they interact with your store or services, never having to reapply them time and time again when they come to visit you. So it might be that a certain product category has never, does not, and will never interest them. If they can filter these out from their search recommendations, all of a sudden your store is more customized to them, and their needs. It’s not hard to see where the value lies here, but it’s hardly the end of the story.
Wishlists, baskets, personal details, saving multiple addresses and card information, a quick way through support security, store credit, delivery tracking, all of this can be easier to integrate when you adopt customer accounts. So – perhaps this could be your next investment.
Delivery Methods
It’s easy to think of deliveries and logistics as a simple matter – either the item reaches your customer or not. But the truth is that there can be a great deal of options available here to convince someone to buy.
Perhaps some delivery options worked out with your carrier can provide next day delivery, before noon, for the highest price. And at the bottom of the list, for those who don’t mind waiting, you may offer free delivery via the cheapest service that may take 3-5 days to arrive. It’s a spectrum, and providing these options can help a customer feel accommodated, and never as if they have to cancel a purchase just because the delivery cost is too high or perhaps not calibrated to the currency they’re paying in.
With this advice, your business is sure to make provisions for preferences in the best possible light. In the long run, it will make a worthwhile difference.
