Create customer loyalty by helping your customers to buy and use your products

One way to offer value to the customers is to facilitate the customers’ buying process and use of the products. Facilitating the buying process and the use of the products is one part of the value that customers are offered in the form of customer service and services from the company. Another advantage can be that the relationship between the company and the customer is improved. This in turn means that the company creates more loyal customers.

To be able to help customers in the buying process or in the use of a product it is important to first find out exactly where the customers are looking for information before or after a purchase. Today, most people use the Internet, and about 80 percent of all Internet users have at least once used the Internet to compare prices. This means that the Internet is a good place to start, but as said, it is important to find out exactly where your customers are looking for information.

If your customers use the Internet to search for information, you can facilitate the customers’ buying process by, for example:

• Ensure that customers find relevant and credible information. For the information to be relevant, it must fit the step that the customer is in the buying process. Is the customer searching for general information about the product category or is the customer comparing different products for example? The customer can be offered credible information from the company for example by linking to independent test sites with (positive) evaluations made by other customers or use a well-known blogger who writes about the company’s products.
• Make it easier for customers to weigh different product options. This can be done by starting from the customer’s perspective and not lining up a lot of technical data about the company’s products. The customer’s perspective can be understood by asking questions based on their situation and then propose a product based on the customer’s answers. If you sell stereo systems, you can, for example, ask your customers about how big the customer’s living room is and if you sell accounting software, you can, for example, ask how big the customer’s company is. Based on one or a number of questions to the customer, a product is then proposed.

Another way to help customers is to train them in the company’s products. By educating the customers, the company also builds a deeper relationship with the customers. When the customers become more knowledgeable, fewer support cases and complaints can also be expected. All in all, this means that more customers become loyal. Both companies that sell advanced and those that sell less advanced products can benefit from educating their customers in the company’s products. There is always a need for customers to understand a product better, no matter if the product is complicated or not.