As of March 2024 we have renamed Apexchat to Blazeo. We are excited to share the next part of our journey with our customers and partners.
The name ApexChat implies that we are primarily a chat company, which is no longer true. Now we have many offerings, such as call center services, AI, Appointment setting, SMS Enablement, Market Automation, and Sales acceleration (Q2 2024), that go beyond chat. The new name will not only allow us to convey the breadth of our offering but will also better convey our company’s mission and values.
Blazeo, which is derived from the word Blaze, evokes a sense of passion, speed, and energy. A “Blaze” is captivating, illuminates, and represents explosive growth. Blazeo encapsulates our mission to ignite such growth for our customers and partners by delivering innovation with passion, speed, and energy.
A business is nothing without its customers, which makes customer success one of the most important investments your company can make.
For those that work in customer service, fulfilling their needs is your main priority. Whether it’s responding to inquiries, troubleshooting support calls or providing relevant information about your product, you need to find ways to keep your customers satisfied.
How exactly should your business do that?
Customer loyalty measures the extent to which customers are devoted to a company’s products or services and how likely they are to select that brand over the competition.
It costs five to 25 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one, according to Invesp. In order to fully utilize your customer base, implementing a customer loyalty program is a great way to incentivize your customers to continue shopping at your business.
What incentives should you offer your customers? It depends on your business. There are a number of different programs you can implement to improve the buying experience.
Anytime a person makes a purchase in-store or on your website, they are rewarded with points that count toward their next purchase. Setting a reward tier that people can work toward incentivizes them to come back in the future.
Think of this as a loyalty credits system for your business. Depending on how much your customer spends, they get a set amount of loyalty credits that can be redeemed for a discount or benefits in the future.
Another common program that sets a clearly defined “tier” system that offers increasing benefits the more people spend.
Similar to a paid subscription model, this would require a monthly or annual fee to join your business’ VIP Club. Members would have access to exclusive features, discounts or limited-time offers. These offers must be exclusive to members otherwise they lose value.
What do your customers value in your product? This program offers rewards or special currency that can be used to donate or support programs that your members value. For example, when a member spends $20 your business would donate $5 to a specific foundation or charity.
This program is a strategic partnership for customer loyalty that not only brings value to them but helps grow your own business in the process by building new relationships. This also illustrates that you understand their business and care about their needs.
Incentivizing purchases for your product or business requires you to understand your audience. Some questions to consider would be:
A knowledge base is a customer service tool that informs and educates people about your product or service. Think of knowledge-based software like a guide to help troubleshoot and diagnose common problems that people encounter.
Implementing a knowledge base offers people a resource for help other than contacting your support team. This will save you and your customers valuable time in the process. They also help your website rank better in search engines.
Adobe provides a good example of what a knowledge base should look like. Be wary that every business is different and the information you provide can encompass many different topics.
Other features you can add include GIFs that outline steps to your product or informative videos that people can view to learn more. The whole point of a knowledge center is to consolidate information in an easy-to-read format.
Good customer service comes in many forms. There are times when your support team just isn’t able to provide the answer a customer is seeking. This is where community forums come in.
Community forums are another great form of self-service information you can provide your customers.
While it may not be a direct source, community members can help guide new users or give insight to improve the overall experience.
When your audience cares about your product, they are more likely to give helpful feedback or answer questions from others in the community.
The live chat landscape is always evolving and changing to better suit customer needs. Live chat tools help convert up to 40% more leads on your website, saving you valuable time and making you money in the process. But before live chat became the best tool in lead generation, most businesses were using it for customer support.
The reason for this increased adoption is because more than half of all customers prefer to chat with someone in real-time and online, rather than call a company for support. Live chat tools can act as a service representative 24/7.
Some live chat providers offer services that focus on lead generation but are capable of providing light support if necessary.
Unfamiliar with how live chat works? Check out our live chat whitepaper below.
Automation is everywhere these days, and for good reason. By automating menial tasks you save time for your sales team and your audience.
Automating certain tasks related to customer success will minimize human error in retention efforts. This also creates a more consistent customer experience across the board, since automation can standardize communication throughout your business.
Customers can utilize automation as well by setting up calls or connecting with support reps through online forms or meetings set up by live chat on your website. That being said, be wary of how many tasks you choose to automate.
Users value person-to-person interaction. Try to utilize automation for tasks that don’t require much input to complete.
Customer feedback gives you the information you need to improve your business. You can’t solve your audience’s problems if you don’t know what problems they have in the first place.
One company that uses people’s feedback to their advantage is Airbnb. After each visit, they ask customers to fill out a survey that lets the company know how their stay was.
By utilizing customer feedback, Airbnb’s bookings increased by 25 percent. Utilizing feedback from your audience will directly help you come up with the best customer success strategies for your business.
Your customer service team shouldn’t be waiting for a crisis to happen. Being proactive and anticipating issues before they occur will make your brand more reputable and trustworthy amongst your audience.
Customer success managers should encourage their teams to be engaging and helpful to people wanting more information. One company that does digital marketing inquiries well is Warby Parker.
Customers want to feel wanted by the brands they shop at, and Warby Parker saw this as an opportunity to create that connection and build trust with a customer who had issues with their product on social media.
Timing is key in these interactions, and the more proactive you are with responding the better your brand will look to potential buyers and current consumers.
With these tools, you can now implement your own customer success program for your business.
Read about these digital marketing strategies to improve your business.