Tips to Engage Your Customers on Mobile Devices

Customers these days – they want to be sitting at their favourite cafes, and be able to reschedule their IPTV installation, their annual water well checkup routine, book another appointment at their regular spa place, and also order that dress that caught their attention when they went out last night. All this at the same and from their smartphone or tablet.

That is how much consumer habits and buying behaviours have changed over time and shifted towards a more mobile centric way of things. Consumers also expect businesses to understand and facilitate these new means of interaction and commerce.

In order to meet these expectations, businesses need to adopt a more personalized approach, in their marketing and general relationship with customers. They need to embrace mobility and make it easier for customers to access their brand. To make the most of mobility, here are a few techniques for starters:

Informative online presence through mobile

Considering the mobility driven buying habits of customers these days, it is obvious that the first thing they would do when they are looking for some information, is browse online on their mobiles. They browse about the products and services they want, as well as the companies they might be interested in. Hence, it is very important that you make your mobile presence effective.

69% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from companies whose mobile sites or apps help them easily find answers to their questions.

There’s nothing else that turns away a customer, than a site that lacks functionality, is not easy to find or lacks important information. You don’t want your prospects to leave your site and prefer your competitor’s brand do you?

Well, for that you need to make sure that your site;

• Shows exactly what products and services you have to offer
• Shows what kind of mobile tools are available to assist in customer experience
• Provides an intuitive experience for customers
• Has all information related to your products and services, like features and other details, at easy access
• Provides easy access to contact information about your company
• Has an FAQ page, to provide a resource for customers to clear common questions related to return policy, warranty etc.

Google actually prefers responsive websites for several reasons. As a matter of fact, it has almost become the standard now.
Apart from that, time spent by the customers on the site is actually lower when it’s on a mobile, which makes it all the more important for you pay more attention to site details. You need to make it possible for customers to call the company on one click.

The basic point is that, customers probably would not want to read through your entire site to get a little information, say your contact number for example. You have to give them any kind of information they are looking for and make things as transparent as possible.

Engagement

One of the most effective ways to increase brand recognition is customer engagement. It can happen through various ways like a customer call for a service booking, or a product installation call etc. For example, a live chat function can prove to be very effective in providing detailed information to customers.

You can also seek reviews and feedback through the different social media channels. That way, with the contagious nature of feedback and engagement, customers would be more inclined to respond and engage with companies that their peers have engaged with.

You need to also take feedback seriously, and address issues and questions in a timely manner, so that customers feel cared for and valued.

Management

Once you get an appointment from your customers, you need to be able to turn the request into an effective meeting. And for that, you need to do more than just send out meeting details through email.

People have this tendency to forget about meetings and appointments, if they are not all that important or if they were agreed on impulsively. In order to avoid such scenarios, you can make use of mobile reminders in the form of push notifications and SMSs. Whether it is just for a pick-up or a delivery, it would be good to send reminders a couple days or a few hours before the appointment.

Make sure you mention the date in the notifications or reminders you send, as most smartphones automatically detect dates in messages and emails, so as to integrate appointments into the phone’s calendar. Thus, the effectiveness of reminders is increased.

Personalization

Remember that simple thing you asked your customers to do when they first came across your site?
Registering their emails?

It is high time you made use of that. Make sure you send out personalized emails to them, depending on their likes and purchase patterns. It could be a special promotional offer for a particular customer or even a reward discount sent to their mobile.
You can also send them general information related to new promotions and offers. This makes them feel appreciated and hence improves loyalty.

Mobility can thus have a great impact on the profits of your business, as well as your customers’ satisfaction. In the long run, it will help you create a large customer base, which can be a massive support for market survival too.

Source: ThinkWithGoogle