A potential customer making a decision to buy from us is a wonderful feeling. We should make that process as easy as possible from our customer’s point of view. But without realising it, we may be creating many barriers to a sale.
Why?
Because we want to cover every eventuality that could go wrong. As a result our potential customer may have to jump several hoops before buying from us.
Our customers – not as we know them
The modern customers work out a solution to their problems in a different way. They are armed with ‘pre-purchase’ information before they start looking at the best solutions for them. Majority of our customers approach us in a ‘ready to buy ‘ mode. This does not mean that they are not confused: They simply feel they know more. They need to feel that we facilitated their purchase instead of being sold.
Here are some simple tips to make it easy for your potential customer to buy from you:
1. Offer a guarantee: A guarantee minimises the customer’s risk. Have a simple clear guarantee that encourages at least giving it a try. In a service industry this is perceived as a challenge. But it need not be. Guarantee elements that you can control such as response times, service levels etc…
2. Don’t commit customers to long term contracts: Contracts are important to set the rules of engagement and a win-win proposition. But when contracts are simply designed to tie the customer to you for your benefit it becomes a barrier to a sale and off putting.
3. Make it easy to contact you. Make it a point to encourage contact via telephone, contact forms, live chats etc…
4. Reduce or minimize steps to purchase: Don’t make your customer fill too many forms or tick too many boxes. Make it as simple as possible to buy from you.
5. Show you are ‘real’. Don’t hide behind websites, and contact forms. Avoid using ‘info@’ type email addresses and use a person’s name.
6. Remove objections in advance: Objections are unanswered questions. Your blogs, newsletters and FAQ’s should answer as many questions that your customer is likely to ask.
Can you think of any more ideas that can make our customer’s buying journey easy?
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