What makes customers come back again and again?

It's the experience they have when they work with you of course!

The really interesting thing is that when I work with my clients, I find is that most of the time we just kinda………….let customer experience work itself out. We don't really think about it in too much detail, but today I want to encourage you to spend some serious time mapping out your customer's experience when they work with you in your business. Think about when somebody comes to your website, Facebook page, wherever it is that they're finding you; which hopefully you already know, based on your Google analytics or questions that you're asking them, then you can actually see how easy it is for them to find their way to the next point.

Make sure you download the free Customer Experience checklist at the end of the post!!

One thing that a lot of customers do complain about is how hard it is to work with some businesses.

1//FACEBOOK PAGE INFORMATION AND EASY ACCESS

For example, I might go to somebody's Facebook page and there's no email, there's no website link, there's no way to really contact them. There's just not a lot of information that makes it easy for me to find out more about their business and what they do.  Head to the intro section on your Facebook Page and hit edit, or you can go to the About Tab and add your company which you can use your business facebook page to do, add your title and a description.  I've found a lot of people that I've worked with this way.  It also means that when you're being helpful in groups, people can quickly find out more about you!!

2// WEBSITE WONDERS

I might go to a website, there's no signup bar, it's not exactly clear what's happening or what they do, or how I can find out more, or how I can work with them.  Now I know that most of you have probably got an awesome website with lots of great content, but what you've got to think about is that you built it and you created it all. You really need to take a look at what is the experience for somebody who knows nothing about you when they come to your website. It might be worth actually getting somebody with fresh eyes to take a look and see what they think and how easy it is to navigate around and find out more about what you do.

The other thing that you need to be able to do is obviously get them to sign up if possible. There's the signup bar, there's popups, etc. You have to go with whatever you're comfortable with, because I know there are some people that don't like popups. Have a think about how you can capture them as well.

3// IT'S EASY TO GIVE YOU MONEY!

The other thing around customer experience is how easy is it for them to buy for you. Are you making it easy or hard? Now if you've got digital products, can they just click a button and purchase it? Or is it really hard to figure out how to actually give you money?

4// CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE AND BRANDING

Now, once somebody decides that they want to work with you, have you actually mapped out that experience for them? They come to you, they contact you, they say, “Yeah, I want to work with you.” Then what? Things like I've spoken about 17hats before, where I send a questionnaire to my client and then they automatically get the contract of how we're going to work together. They then get the invoice with payment options and all my details. All of that is branded. It all looks the same. It's all very slick in regards to how it goes out. That's a good experience.

Remember that regardless of what it is that you do, if it is a service or product that can be bought again and again, if people find something that they love, they will stick with you. Because it's harder to go and find something else and change if they've already found somebody that they love and love to work with you as well. Customer experience really creates stickiness with clients. Because they want to stay with you, they're comfortable with you, they know how it works, they know how easy it is to work with you, and they know what they're going to get. It's a great experience where you surprise, delight and excite them.

Also, when things look professional, it creates confidence for clients that this is a good decision, that they're spending their money in the right place with the right person. Have a think about that experience as well. Also, then when they're working with you, whether they're buying a product or they're purchasing a service, is it really clear about what's going to happen during that process?

5// AFTER THE FACT

Also take a look at once they're finished working with you, what's the experience there? Do they just continue to be on your subscriber list? Is there any kind of special offer that you provide them if they want to come back and work with you or if they refer somebody that they know? I like to give a gift to my clients at the end of our coaching, which is a gift of something that I use in my own business that I find quite valuable that I really want to share with them.

Have a think about that customer experience. Because if you think about experiences that you've had that you've loved where you have been completely delighted in the way somebody's dealt with you, think about how many people you tell about that and think about the fact how happy you would be to go back and work with that person again. There are certain companies that I work with over and over and over again because not only are they friendly and fantastic, but their service and the experience that I had is really clear, it's professional, and I really enjoy it. I will always go back to them.

If you haven't taken the time to actually sit down and map out your customer experience, I would really encourage you to do so. Because what you don't know you can't improve as well. Hopefully, that's helpful. Customer experience is really, really important. Spend some time on it, because it will ensure that you get repeat business or referrals. Head over to the blog and you can check out more information on this I topic. Also remember to subscribe so that you can get videos, tutorials and more information straight to your inbox. Have a great day, and I'll speak to you soon