Two Resolutions Business Owners Need To Make In 2015

Individuals aren’t the only ones who should be making — and keeping! — New Year’s resolutions. The new year is also a critical time for businesses to reassess their prospects, financials, and, most importantly, their customer relationship management process. Attracting new customers and maintaining old ones is the key to success. Here a few things you can resolve to do in the new year to keep customers happy and coming back.

Respect Customers’ Preferences
More customers overwhelmingly prefer to make purchases and otherwise interact with companies via smartphone or tablet, and 100% online. That’s why all businesses — large and small — need to work on their website, portal integration, mobile applications, and ecommerce solutions. Remember, the vast majority (75%!) of customers will make judgments about the professionalism of a company based on their website; design web applications with that in mind. Also remember that consumers want to see videos (websites with videos get 50 times as many hits), and tablet owners make up a large portion of online purchasers — with 72% buying at least one item, product, or service per week.

Be Available To Your Customers (And Be Useful, Too!)
If you haven’t already, it’s time to take a page out of Google’s book. The internet behemoth and ever-popular search engine is tweaking its algorithm and web design again — and, this time, they’re doing it with usability and customer experience in mind. That’s the same exact approach you should take to the customer relationship management process, particularly online. It may seem difficult to appear genuinely human and helpful via the web, but that’s the goal. Do what you can to make it happen. Keep websites easy to navigate, make online purchases simple, and consider having employees available on the website and/or social media 24/7 (or as close to it as possible!) to answer customer concerns and questions.

Resolve to keep your customers happy this year — and know that doing it often starts with mobile devices and the web. Optimize websites for the very best user experiences. Make it easy for customers to reach you from their smartphones, and always prioritize your customers above all else.