4/5 Consumers Would Ditch You Over a Negative Experience

Let’s face it. We’ve all experienced bad customer service. Whether it’s long hold times, confusing communication, or an unsatisfying resolution, we know the things that bug us as customers. Scratch that, more than bug—research from Qualtrics and ServiceNow has shown that bad customer service just like the above can cause 4 out of 5 consumers to switch brands. 

Unfortunately, when we’re in the nitty-gritty of our own business, it’s easy to centre ourselves rather than our customers and forget the things that make a real difference. Luckily, that’s where you have it over the big players. That’s right—online and off, customer service is where you can shine. 

When it comes to online customer service, we can see some of the most common complaints revolve around one thing: how impersonal it is. Our customers want to have a relationship with us, be a priority, be understood and valued. They want to be a name, not a number.

So… how do we do it?

At Lightspeed, we think bringing some of that instore magic online is a key piece of the puzzle, and an incredible opportunity to add real value to your customers’ experiences. So we’ve put together some of our top tips to help bring personalised customer service to your online store and use it to improve your marketing.

In this article, we’ll discuss how you can:

• Use customer knowledge to your advantage
• Automate and activate
• Love loyalty
• Gather and use feedback
• Personalise loyalty

You know your customer—so use it to your advantage

Segmentation can add value to your marketing and to your customer.

When your regulars come into your store you greet them by name. If you know them really well, you might have a good idea of what they’ve come in for—or even better, what might tempt them even more. 

So let’s bring some of that fantastic customer service online. Where in-store you might keep a mental note that a customer loves a certain style and use that info to make recommendations, segmentation can do the same in your online store. Segmentation groups your customers together based on their real activity in your online store. This means you can tailor your communications and recommendations, and craft marketing that works. In fact, 78% of marketers reported segmentation as their most effective email marketing strategy.

Above: Lightspeed Advanced Marketing keeps track of purchases and browsing and uses them to segment your customers into relevant categories. This means you can better understand their behaviour and most importantly, what you can do to affect it. Best of all, it does it automatically.

When segmenting your customers, look at what other insights you have available to you—not just their purchase behaviour. In order to have a broader view, consider the demographics your customers might fall into (age, gender, life stage), where they live or even a combination of all of the above. This will personalise your communication and your product recommendations so they’re customer-centric, value-filled and totally relevant to the individual. 

Automate and activate

Automation can be tailored to your business and customers, boosting the efficacy of your marketing.

Automated emails, triggered by a customer action, get 8 times more opens than manual, bulk emails. Because of its responsive nature, customer-triggered automation has boosted relevance. It’s an incredible opportunity for engagement, where some clever software can help bring some in-store magic to your online experience.

When you think of your interactions with your customers, online or in-store, it can be helpful to think of them like a conversation. You want to keep the flow going and prompt positive responses. You don’t want to pester them, or have it be one-sided. This is where automation steps into its own, because it’s always centred around the customer and their action. 

With Lightspeed Advanced Marketing’s Automation you can react to your customers actions automatically, in real-time so you don’t leave the conversation hanging or as a call-back to a previous interaction. When they purchase something for the first time, send them a thank you email and add to that post-purchase glow. Automatically wish your customers a Happy Birthday via SMS, and encourage them to treat themselves with a discount code. The options are practically endless, but with clever automation you know they’re always powerfully relevant. 

Love Loyalty and it’ll love you right back!

Loyalty programs can boost your business and drive your database.

Let’s be real—our customers are rarely as obsessed with us as we are with them.  So if we want to learn more about them, we’ve got to get smart. 

Enter: loyalty programs. 

If you have one, you might already think of your loyalty program as a reciprocal win-win. You get a repeat customer, they get loyalty benefits. But they can be so much more! When your customers feel rewarded for their purchases, they can spend more, more frequently, and even purchase products at a slightly higher price than they might be at a competitor (KPMG 2019). 

They’re also an incredible incentive for your customers to share information with you. From the basics, like their age, gender identity and location, to their shopping habits, each and every purchase is another opportunity to learn more. 

The issue is, how do you ensure that it’s consistent, online and off? 

We know that customers are shopping in a ton of different ways—online, in-store, planned, impulse, and more. With a loyalty program you can streamline it all, to collect those valuable insights with ease and make it rewarding and engaging for both you and your customers. Lightspeed Advanced Marketing seamlessly syncs your POS and eCommerce loyalty experience in the most user-friendly way, so you’re with your customers wherever and whenever they’re shopping. With no data (or time) wasted,  you can better understand your customer, build an awesome relationship and drive results.

You could call it a win-win-win!

Don’t fear the feedback!

Capture customer feedback quickly and cleverly, and use it to build better relationships.

OK, no one wants to hear that their business isn’t doing something absolutely perfectly. But customer feedback, good and bad, is an incredible resource—and a valuable tool. Like most things, it’s what you do with it that counts… and how you capture it doesn’t hurt either. 

We know that people are more inclined to share negative feedback than positive, and with the proliferation of public online reviews bad news travels fast. But in the day to day of your business, getting feedback can be tough. Your customers are busy people, and the majority of them aren’t going to go out of their way to give you feedback.

So you’ve got to make it easy, and using something like Lightspeed Advanced Marketing’s private feedback survey could give you an advantage. After a purchase, your personalised Lightspeed program will send an automated review request. You decide when, and if it’s a standalone email or popped at the bottom of another email. It’ll ask some simple questions designed to gather feedback, which does more than give you the information first hand…

If they’ve had a bad experience, there are a few things this will achieve. It will:

• quickly allow them space to vent, reducing the chance that a long-term negative association will occur,
• reinforce how much you value them, their opinion and their experience, 
• and capture their feedback and give you a chance to resolve it hopefully before they share it.

If it’s positive? It’s more than a great testimonial and a dose of the warm-fuzzies. With Lightspeed Advanced Marketing, you can use reviews to segment your customers, making sure your marketing and communications are informed by their real experience and tailored to suit.

Remember, as daunting as it may be, a bad experience is nothing more than an opportunity to improve. A customer giving you honest feedback is always a good thing—even when it’s bad. How are you going to fix something if you don’t know it’s broken? The people that put their hand up aren’t the problem—they’re the start of the solution.  

Automation + personalisation = results!

It’s simple. The best customer service is relevant and personalised. How to make it relevant and personalised and keep it that way? Not so much. But it can be made so much easier with some clever tips, tricks and software. 

Automation isn’t scary—and it definitely doesn’t have to be impersonal! Remember—the same ‘you’ who greets your customers in-store, is the one that has control over your online store experience and automated interactions. You can use these tools to: 

• segment your customers 
• create and celebrate loyalty, and
• capture feedback.

But what’s more important are the results. You’ll understand your customers, adding value through relevant and personalised customer service and marketing. You’ll grow your business through repeat customers. Your customers will feel seen and heard, building better relationships and a positive reputation. 

Want to improve customer service and connect your in-store and online? The power is in your hands—and Lightspeed’s here to help. 

Lightspeed Advanced Marketing

Lightspeed Advanced Marketing gives you the tools you need to take your customer experience to the next level.

• Build and segment your customer database
• Send beautiful email and timely SMS campaigns
• Create set and forget marketing automations
• Set up loyalty, reward and membership programs
• Capture feedback and generate Google Reviews
• Offer loyalty points in-store and online

Sign up for Lightspeed Advanced Marketing for free here.