There are some benefits in life worth paying more for, even if they may not have a direct monetary value. If a cinema attendant you were purchasing movie tickets from offered you a 10% surcharge to ensure you’d have the movie theatre to yourself, just you and your partner, family, or relative, would you do it? We’d argue that most people would, if only to sit back, relax, and not be concerned about anyone else for the moment.
Guide To Business Helpfulness
We see how these additional costs for convenience and a more pleasant experience are considered all the time.
For instance, many firms offer deliveries, including next-day deliveries, but sometimes even deliveries are guaranteed before 12 pm or 10.30 am. You pay a good amount more for that service, but for some, it’s worth it.
As such, any business that offers customer convenience through and through, even if it may cost them a little, is going to be better appreciated by its patrons.
Better yet, if you offer this convenience for free, and if you add features over time, you can bet that most users will want to utilize your services more and more, returning because they feel your convenience is a normalized part of their schedule.
This is the ideal achievement to benefit from. In this post, we’ll discuss some essential customer conveniences, and why they’re so crucial in the modern day:
Live Support Chat
Think of how people communicate with one another most commonly in 2022. When they need to send a quick message to someone, they tend to text, or use a third party app like WhatsApp, or a social media messenger like Twitter direct messages or Facebook messenger.
So, keeping that logic and allowing our customers to utilize a live chat software can be worthwhile. This keeps the regular scope of your communications remaining quick and easy to resolve, while also providing clear, text-based instructions or complaints that can be measured well.
More information on how to set up live chat software on website support areas can show you how easy this is, and with minimal training your staff will be able to attend to any queries, customer reports or complaints that come your way. Better yet – this will have been incredibly easy to integrate.
Customer Accounts
Customers are fully adept at managing online profiles of all types, be that their online banking, their shopping accounts, or even the streaming service accounts they use for their entertainment.
So, there’s no shame in offering them another account should they wish to register one with your firm. For example, you may decide to implement an account section where customers can set their preferences, like if they’re subscribed to your newsletter or not. They may also save their payment and address information, add two-factor authentication to secure their account, and track their orders and deliveries as appropriate.
It’s important to make sure you have a robust privacy policy that lays out exactly how you will use the information provided to you. This way, you will be transparent from the very moment you integrate this feature.
Instructional Guides
It’s true that not everyone will be entirely familiar with how to use or operate your product. This might sound silly if you’re selling something quite obvious, like cutlery sets, but even then, it’s good to have an instructional guide for how to use and care for those products.
In many cases, instructional guides provide information that remains vitally relevant. A fitness supplement company, for example, will benefit from instructional guides that showcase exactly what dosages are best for given tablets, how many to take, when to take them, and why to discontinue use if any odd symptoms are found – including who should never take that product, like pregnant women or those who may be taking prescribed medication.
When you very appropriately lay out a reasoned and appropriate list of best-use cases, you can also enhance responsibility and safety, preventing the possibility of liability coming your way from improper use. Of course, many industries may have mandated guides you need to ensure, such as the “DRINK RESPONSIBLY” stamp on all alcoholic beverages industry-wide.
Updates & Newsletters
Optional newsletters and update alerts can be thoroughly useful in many ways. It may help your customer base remain informed as to when you have new stock in, or what reservations may be available. For instance, if a tattoo artist shop has a free booking available thanks to a cancellation, they may email a few of their waiting customers to ask who may like it, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Just be sure to let the rest know when that slot is filled.
Newsletters can also be a more curated information offering, such as those which inform your customers about exciting new events you have coming up, updates from your blog, or maybe discussing the opening of your YouTube channel and what content you’re hoping to post there.
So far, this all seems like promotional content designed to help you rather than anyone else. But it’s true that if you’re a business that remains trusted and appreciated, your customer base will appreciate the transparency and cultivated effort. You can be sure this beats having to wait for a company to communicate for months on end – or never addressing problems at all.
Outage & Problematic Alerts
No business runs perfectly, without hitches, interruptions, or unforeseen challenges. It’s unlikely that any business ever has or will. If anyone needs more proof of that, it’s true to say that the years of the global pandemic (which is still ongoing), has certainly been a gut punch for many businesses just trying to stay operational.
We really had the chance to see how every single business reacted to such challenges at this time, and it was tremendously eye-opening to see those different approaches. Many gave statements about how their practice would be changing. Some offered discounts, some announced redundancies. A measure of a business is often how they act in tough times, and great communication, especially with customers, is certainly part of that.
A worthwhile alert, such as if your site is going to be down for maintenance at a particular time, is all you need to do to keep in the good graces of customers, even if you may have a lapse in service for a small amount of time.
Lay Out Your Information Clearly
Have you ever been to a restaurant that seems to have a unique theme, but offers no instruction for how to order food or become seated? Do you order from the bar area? Do you wait for someone to seat you? Do you just grab a table? What if that’s been reserved? This can feel tiring, and it’s not the kind of first impression you want to give.
This is especially true if you offer an online business with products or services that can be booked through this platform. It takes seconds, quite literally seconds, for someone to find an alternative option. As such, it’s essential to make it clear what you have to offer and why this is important.
Let’s say you offer a spa service with multiple packages on offer. You may have the standard package, a VIP package, a couples retreat, or many others. Clearly list, using bullet points, what each package gets you. Make the prices or subscription clear. Keep a FAQ section near the page so customers won’t have to contact you for further context.
For example, if you sell our aforementioned fitness supplement in a small bottle, how long is that expected to last via normal use? Try to take the words out of your customer’s mouth, and as paradoxical as it sounds – try to overexplain, but concisely. It will help you remain accessible to any and all who even have a passing interest in what you do.
Adding Onto The Last Point – Never Patronize
Convenience is not just logistical convenience, but informational convenience, too. As an addition to our prior point about laying out your information clearly, it’s important to avoid patronizing your guests or customers, as if they should know everything about what you have to offer.
Take a specialist, vintage, niche violin creation service. You may handcraft and carve the violins from selected pieces of wood, providing beautiful works that are sought-after by players all over the world. Does this mean you only have to sell to violin players with many years of experience behind them? Could it be worth making your listings clear, and opening up sales to anyone who appreciates your products?
This can help you avoid taking anything for granted, which in business, is actually a huge step towards long-term survivability and relevance. You would be surprised just how many companies can deprive themselves of good custom because they may be too proud or restrictive in the information they present.
With this advice, you’re sure to integrate some excellent customer convenience measures that not only treat your audience as human beings with needs that should be served, but as friends you welcome into your enterprise.
After all, when life is easier for us all, we tend to be happier and more willing to cultivate our bonds, even if that’s as a customer or fan of a given brand.
