Seven ways you can add a personal touch to your business
Although much of how business is run today is automated and down to technology, having the personal touch is still important.
In fact, this is what can make your business stand out from a very big crowd; showing that there is a human being behind all the tech is a USP these days and can often be a pleasant surprise for customers.
Adding a personal touch to business, particularly one that runs solely online, is something of a lost art, but if you can do it, it could bring you in a lot more sales. Here are seven ways you can go about it.
1) Increase your customer interaction
You have probably been in the position of being an online customer yourself. Have you ever sent an email, commented on a Facebook post, replied to a tweet, or otherwise tried to engage with a company and had nothing bad whatsoever? It will have felt like ‘talking’ to a brick wall, and that’s not something that will make a customer feel good about the company they are wanting to buy from.
If you can engage with your customers, it will help you immensely. Answer emails in a timely fashion (although it is best to block out specific times of the day to do this, otherwise it could take up too much of your time), and always at least acknowledge comments on social media; emojis are a good way to show that you have noted what has been said.
Simply by answering questions or showing you have read a comment, you can prove you are real and could make some extra sales.
2) Use your website
Your website is a hugely important tool when it comes to your sales, and you should use it to its full advantage as much as possible. It is the perfect place to show that you are a real person and that you are there for your customers.
Firstly, ensure that the site is easy to navigate and that your hosting company is a good one so that there will be very little downtime. Next, make sure you include an ‘about us’ page. This will give your customers some history about you and the company, which will help them engage with you better.
You can also have a blog on your site, and this will be full of your own personality. Finally, it is important that your customers can contact you at any time, so check that your contact details are correct and that, if you have a contact form, it is working properly.
3) Carry out testing
It’s one thing to design a great website and have everything on it you could need to ensure that your customers feel as though their personal concerns and queries are being addressed, but it would be terrible if you went to all this trouble, working hard or paying money to expert designers, only to find that, after you’ve launched, the site isn’t usable.
Perhaps people can’t see it on their phones, only on a laptop. Maybe the links are working. Perhaps the colors and text are off. This would lose you customers and damage your reputation; after all, you only have one chance to make a good first impression.
When you carry out testing with testRigor, you can ensure that any issues are spotted before it’s too late, giving you the chance to deal with them. In this way, you can keep the website you’ve worked so hard on – the one that offers a more personalized customer experience – and really make the most of it.
4) Offer discounts
How can offering discounts show that you are a real person and add the personal touch to your business? It sounds like a strange way of doing things, but actually, it does work.
When you offer discounts, you are acknowledging that people are spending their hard-earned money with you, and this is a way of saying thank you. Send out coupons to your loyal customers with a thank you note, or set up a members only section of the site that has lower prices, for example.
This will make your customers feel special, and it is unlikely that a big, impersonal corporation will take the time to do that.
5) Tell personal stories
There is no better approach to make your company seem more personal than to share your own personal story. Discuss how and why your company got started. Tell tales about your mistakes, hardships, and triumphs.
Be truthful with your customers. They’ll appreciate hearing how you overcame adversity to become the person you are today. You might even inspire them, and you’ll certainly make them understand you more, especially if they’ve been through similar struggles.
6) Give your customers options
Even if your consumers all fall into the same broad target market, they will all be unique. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to attracting and retaining customers; each one has their own preferences. Since there are so many possibilities available, it can be a challenge to figure out just how to give them a personal touch.
The most important thing is to allow the customer to make the decision. In order to make sure that customers have a positive experience with you, you should provide them with as many alternatives as possible when it comes to how they can pay for your services, how they can contact you, or even which social media platform to connect with you on.
7) Take advantage of social media
A brand’s ability to connect with and be a part of its community, whether local or global, cannot be understated. Many more customers will come your way if you can demonstrate your own unique style and bring it to the table.
The greatest way to accomplish this is via social media. As a result of market research, you’ll be able to connect with your customers and followers in a more personal manner by launching a Facebook page, a Twitter account, or an Instagram account (the one or ones you select will depend on where your target market spends the most time).
Engage with them in conversation and let them see the real you by responding to their inquiries and reacting to their comments. You can go a long way by being more personal and less corporate by showing that the customer is important to you.
