Happy customers are everything. When a customer is happy, they not only choose your business when the need next arises but also tell their friends and family. They become an ambassador of your brand.
A customer need is a motive that typically prompts a customer to buy a particular product or service, and is the driver of the customer’s purchasing decision. A customer need provides an opportunity for businesses to provide a solution.
Types of Product Customer Needs
Price
Customers have a budget in mind with which they can purchase a particular service or product.
Convenience
Your products or services should provide a convenient solution for the customer issue or need.
Functionality
Customers require your products or services to function the way they need in order to solve their problem.
Performance
The products or services should perform correctly to allow the customer to achieve their goals.
Experience
The user experience should be as easy as possible so as not to create extra work or issues for your customer.
Reliability
A product or service should function reliably each and every time the customer wants to use it.
Performance
The performance of a product or service should meet the needs of your customer.
Compatibility
Where a product or service is used in conjunction with other products a customer is using, there must be full compatibility.
Design
A product should be designed well and look as appealing and slick as possible, without compromising performance.
Efficiency
Products and services work best when they reduce what would otherwise be a time-consuming process.
Types of Service Customer Needs
Fairness
Whether it’s the terms laid out in a particular service contract or pricing, customers expect fairness from a business.
Options and Choice
Provide customers with options such as a variety of subscriptions, payment options and sizes. This will help customers feel that your business provides the right solution for them.
Empathy
Customers want a business to understand their needs and look for empathy from those who assist them.
Control
It should be easy for a customer to return products, cancel or amend a subscription and generally feel in control of the entire relationship with your business.
Accessibility
Customers should be able to access support from your business as and when they need it. Ensure your customer support channels are established and communicated with customers, so they know how and who to contact for assistance.
Solving Customer Needs
An easy way to start solving customer needs is to identify their most common pain points. Place yourself in their shoes and run through the entire buyer’s journey.
DO provide onboarding and instructions for easy adoption
Customers seek out and purchase products or services because they feel they will solve a particular roadblock or problem. Be sure to think carefully about your brand’s post-purchase strategy to ensure customers see value as soon as possible.
Consider in-product and email walkthroughs, free onboarding sessions, personal account managers, tutorials and instructions. A customer education guide or knowledge base is essential to deliver proper customer adoption and avoid the ‘floundering effect’ when customers are stuck.
DO encourage feedback at every stage of the process
Feedback, both positive and negative, has the potential to help you change the way you run your business for the better. Encouraging customer feedback at every stage of the buying process means customers feel empowered.
Make use of customer satisfaction scores, customer surveys, exploration customer interviews, polls on social media channels, and of course, customer review requests. A platform like HelpfulCrowd can help you automate the customer review request process to boost the number of reviews you receive from verified customers. These reviews, often compiled with video and images, can then be displayed on product pages throughout your website and used across your marketing channels as social proof. Click here to try a free demo of HelpfulCrowd.
DO build relationships with customers
Relationship building is essential to prevent customers from losing their post-purchase excitement and ultimately churning. If customers stop hearing from you and you don’t hear from them this can be a bad sign that their lifespan is in danger. Solve for the long-term customer needs and consider loyalty programs, rewards and offers to reward and strengthen your relationship.
DON’T try to be all things to all customers
Understanding whose needs you can fulfill and whose you cannot is a major step toward solving the right problems. This means that at times, you’ll need to exclude a segment of customers from a particular marketing activity or promotion. Create buyer personas that look like your audience, and then work to create an individual marketing pathway for each profile.
All customers’ needs can’t be treated equally and a company must recognize which problems they can solve and ones that aren’t aligned with their vision.
DO provide outstanding customer service
When a problem arises, your customers want to feel that your business is working hard to resolve it as quickly as possible. Meet their needs and issues with empathy, using clear communication channels that are convenient. Prioritize customer issues by the that are time critical and those that can be solved at a more leisurely pace, but always communicate and provide ETAs so your customer knows when to expect a solution.
