How do you uncover the moments where your customers come unstuck and disengage? Do you know if you are failing to deliver on your brand promise? And, do you know at what moment your customer becomes your biggest advocate? 

Get out a pen and paper and try to answer the following:

  • Where and when was the first time they heard about you?
  • How do your customers find you?
  • List all of the touch points a customer interacts with your brand (example: they see my sign on Portsmouth Drive, pass my sign written car (hope its clean), they phone the office, walk-in to the office reception, a friend shares them the website or facebook page, you are mentioned in a news article, the apprentice mentions our name at the bakery......list everything you can think of).
  • What are your customers looking for? How do they know you can provide that?
  • What is their experience of your brand? Think about the moments before, during and after interacting with your brand, was it positive, difficult, bland, left them wanting? 
  • What feedback have you received recently? The good, the bad and the ugly.
  • When was your last news update or social post? Is the website content up-to-date?
  • What are you telling your customers, what are your core key messages? Who were they developed for? Has your audience changed?  Are your messages still relevant, are they tailored?
  • What about your competitors (local, national, global and online), what are they doing? Are they doing it better? 
  • What other things are competing for attention? Is your customer a dad of three or a businesswoman with no time for lunch? 

There are many tools and strategies out there that can provide you with more insight and data about how your customers are interacting with your company and brand. From how they are finding your website, the moment of conversion, gathering feedback or identifying the moment the customer has lost confidence and gone somewhere else. Some of these strategies have been around for donkey's years, are tried-and-true and others are brand new, shaking up the traditional marketing model and can provide you with valuable information on what needs to change. 

Here is a list of a few great tools and strategies: 

  • Google my business ensures that you are a listed business in your local area, shown in the local business listing it's all about getting on the map and being visible.  
  • Google Analytics is great for seeing how many visitors you are getting, where they are coming from and where they are exciting, to take analytics to the next level you can monitor campaigns and primary calls-to-action with triggers.
  • Heat Mapping Tools like Hot jar allow you to explore the user behaviour on your website, you can follow your customer's journey and identify the hot spots the areas that are getting the most attention and identify those with little to no activity.  Heat mapping tools let you get to know your audience better, identify the best place for valuable messages, and help you eliminate confusion. 
  • Tracking codes, facebook pixels and remarketing tools allow you to stay forefront of mind after your prospective customer has left your website, by serving up your advertising on other platforms. The path to a sale is rarely, "my hair is wet, I need a hairdryer, google hairdryer, click the first result, click buy, receive the parcel, plug-in, use, satisfied, tell a friend" - because there are so many options available, so much competition, customers need assurance that the one they choose is the right one, the right price, the right look, works the way that suits them and the right colour. 
  • Sales and CRM integrations make monitoring website enquiries easy and automatically add them to your sales workflow. All good CRMs (customer relationship management) have an API (Application programming interface), this allows developers like ours to call and send information between different digital solutions and services. 
  • Customer Surveys are still a thing and are valuable, tools like SurveyMonkey make it easy to set up, send out, gather responses and analyse. 
  • Keep it human and talk to your customers. Nothing beats a face-to-face or over the phone conversation, who are your champions and who are your critics - engage them.
  • Try it out yourself or get a friend to buy your product or engage with your service online, instore or over the phone? How easy was it to get the relevant information or to buy? 
  • Lead Generation and Management Tools pull all of the above together, allowing you to drive more leads, convert them to sales (phone, emails, text and Instant messaging and digital automation) and optimise and personalise your marketing all in one place. Tools like Salesforce and Sharpspring.

Firebrand can facilitate and support you in the implementation of these tools, assist with analysis and help you build out strategies to optimise your service and customer experience and stop losing leads. 

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