Bea Park
Delivering excellent customer service. I know, it sounds ancient…and it is. In the era of digitalised marketing and sales, it is easy to get bogged down with all the different tricks and techniques to boost your customer reach and potential leads.
But customer service (CX) is of paramount importance for any company, and your value proposition should be tailored accordingly.
In this blog, we aim to explain what a value proposition is, and why it should be CX centric.
What Is a Value Proposition?
A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It’s the main reason a prospect should buy from you and not your competitor. It acts as a unique identifier, without it, people don’t have a reason to work with you over somebody else. Whilst it should help differentiate you from the rest of the industry, it shouldn’t be viewed as a slogan or tag line.
Value propositions are one of the most fundamental parts of your business, being not only one of the first touchpoints a customer has with your company but reflecting your stance on customer service. Customers equate brands with experiences, and your value proposition is one of the first experiences they get of your company.
Why Should My Value Proposition be Built Around CX?
It is not a new concept, but it is certainly a forgotten one. If you really think about it, everything that comes with marketing - from the social to the web and email exchange - all are only important in how they help us to enhance customers experiences with our brands.
Take this for example, a value proposition that says
‘We are the world leaders in sourcing construction equipment and offer a premium, unique product’
Vs
‘Our construction equipment is the best possible fit for you and your clients’ needs’.
See the difference? Whilst the first clearly is an outstanding company, the second is tailored towards the customer, not the other way around.
It is your value proposition that should illustrate the overall value you deliver to customers, what is it you can do for them, and why are you a perfect fit? It is a perfect way to start moulding your company and its culture to customer experience.
Customers don’t care how well you are doing against your competitors or your profit margins for that quarter. They want your service or product that will make their lives easier, faster, quicker, or of higher quality.
Keeping CX in mind when building your value proposition requires you as a company to focus less on business and operations, and more on the experience of your customers. Customer experience should be an avenue to not only generate more new sales, but to maintain existing ones.
“But we are already doing well and investing in customer experience doesn’t guarantee a big return”.
For many companies, responding to new customer expectations means a radical departure from the status quo. But internalising CX into your company culture doesn’t have to be a complete 180 on your business model. In fact, it should build upon pre-existing structures and attitudes. Customers are and always have been the most fundamental aspect of any business, and CX just means consistently treating them as so.
Good CX begins with your value proposition. Does it delight, enthral and engage? Or does it evoke a neutral string of emotions similar to that of reading the back of a cereal box?
A failure to invest in customer experience goes beyond the realm of losing out on one customer because your customer service team were having an off day. Studies found customers tend to mention a good brand experience to an average of 9 people but will tell 16 people about a bad one. Can you afford to lose 16 potential customers every time your customer experience is anything less than outstanding?
Not only does good customer experience attract and retain custom, but it also differentiates you from your competitors. Forecasts predicted customer service to have overtaken price and product as the key brand differentiator for consumers by 2020.
Contrary to the idea of ‘cheaper, faster, better’, a long term, open investment into CX is the key to success, and it works.
Undercutting your costs for a cheaper product to maximise your profit could lose you one customer. Studies have discovered that it takes 12 positive experiences to repair the damage caused by one single unresolved negative one.
In an increasingly CX focused world, even one negative experience is enough to lose a customer forever.
Now I have you convinced on the importance of customer experience, how can you go about implementing it?
How Can I Make My Value Proposition Centred Around Customer Experience?
Your value proposition must reflect your
- Commitment
- Fulfilment
- Seamlessness
- Responsiveness
- Proactivity
- Evolution
To customer experience.
Commitment
It is all very well saying customers are the highest priority. You can hold a couple of training days for staff to become accustomed to customer experience. But are you fully committed to making CX a priority and implementing it at every level throughout your company? Your value proposition should be centred around making your dedication to CX more than just a promise.
Fulfilment
Bill and Bob from down the road may have entirely different needs. Your company needs to fulfil those individual needs, putting the customer first. Having excellent CX is limited if it restricts itself to one type of customer. Your value proposition should outline how your company is centred around fulfilling any and every need of your customer. Is it a ‘promise delivered’?
Seamlessness
Is your customer experience, and every touch point, easy to navigate and friction free? Can a customer purchase, contact and return their product if necessary, at their earliest convenience without being transferred to three different departments and two different customer help numbers? Your value proposition should demonstrate how easy it is to do business with your company, and why that makes you stand out.
Responsiveness and Proactivity
What is the use in having an outstanding product or service if it takes days to get a response from any member of your team? Remember, you do not want to merely be reactive to customers needs, be proactive and reach out to them, predicting their behaviour and channelling through the sales funnel.
Evolution
Customer experience is not a tick box exercise as we keep reiterating. Be ready for moving goal posts, changing expectations and dynamic requirements. By putting the customer first (or second) you can evolve with their wants and needs, always being one step ahead with your customer service. Your value proposition should reflect your ability to move with the customer. Instead of being a one stop shop, you reflect a consumer style that they want to return to, and most importantly, to tell their friends about.
Conclusion
Your value proposition is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to delivering outstanding customer service. But, like any iceberg, it is one of the most visible points of your customer journey and has to reflect and incorporate all that you want to get across in regards to your companies internalised superb customer experience.
If you want to expand your customer experience services, do not hesitate to get in contact with our team of dedicated experts.
About Insynth
At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.
We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.
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