When you have a business, you have so many tasks that you have to focus on. You start with a product or service that people need, market it and then ship it to them. You have to make sure that you have every aspect of this process covered, from start to finish. You need to thoroughly map out everything from creating your products to getting them to your customer. Let’s look at some tips to help you master every step of this process.
Market Via Social Media
If you want to reach a wider audience and get more attention for your products, it’s essential to establish a strong presence on social media. No matter what you’re selling, you can be sure that most of your potential customers are using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Instagram. Consider your products and demographics and focus on the social sites that your customers are most likely to use. For example, younger people love Instagram and SnapChat. LinkedIn is powerful for B2B marketing. Pinterest is great for showcasing physical products, as it can be integrated with platforms such as Shopify.
Make Your Website User-Friendly
Having great products is only one aspect of making online sales. You also need a website that’s easy to navigate and a user-friendly ordering process. Make sure visitors can easily find what they’re looking for. Pages should load quickly or you’ll lose visitors. Offer as many payment and shipping options as possible. If you have a membership option on your site, don’t make it mandatory for ordering. In other words, make sure people can order as guests rather than members.
Ensure Customers’ Security and Privacy
People nowadays are rightfully concerned about issues such as privacy, hacking and identity theft. If you want customers to feel safe ordering from you and providing their financial details, you must take steps to reassure them. Having a security seal on your site is an important step. Trust badges such as VeriSign, PayPal Verified, BBB Accredited Business and others help people feel safer shopping on your site. Additionally, make sure you publish your privacy policy and let people know how you use their information. Assure them, for example, that you never share their information with third parties.
Use a Reliable Packaging and Fulfillment Service
No matter how great your products may be, people aren’t going to order from you unless they can count on you for reliable packaging and shipping. When you first start out, it’s often economical to run your business out of your home, doing the packaging in the garage. However, as you grow it quickly becomes essential to find a more efficient and professional solution. A trustworthy packaging service, such as a fulfillment center, lets you focus your time on making your products and providing customer service.
Provide Impeccable Customer Service
Customer service is essential if you want to create a trustworthy business. This is important at every stage of the customer journey. Some people will have questions about your products before ordering. A live chat feature is very useful for this purpose. At the very least, people should be able to reach you by phone, support ticket or email. Always respond to queries within one business day. Social media is very useful for customer support as well. If many of your customers use Facebook, you can reply to people who post questions to your Facebook page. Another crucial customer service principle is to handle return and exchange requests gracefully.
These are some of the major points to keep in mind to ensure that your customers can confidently order from you. Remember that customers want the whole process to be as fast and painless as possible. They don’t want to think about details such as ordering, packaging and shipping too much. That’s why your goal is to make everything as simple and straightforward as possible.