The Sunday Mail
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba
“To the customer, you are the company” – Shep Hyken
Winter can be a challenging season for businesses to keep their customers happy, especially for organisations that largely depend on foot traffic.
This is because customers do not want to venture out as much when they are uncomfortable with the weather.
Customer experience is a critical aspect of any business and becomes even more important during the winter season.
With the cold weather upon us, customers are looking for a seamless and enjoyable experience when they visit your business.
But there are some best practices for creating a positive customer experience during the winter season.
1. Offer Winter Promotions
This is probably the most common practice for many companies.
They offer discounts or promotions. The idea behind these promotions is to attract more customers, especially those that detest the cold season.
You can offer seasonal items or have items that are winter-related that will lure customers to your shop.
For example, you can have a combination of your corporate-branded woolen hats, scarves and gloves.
Once you offer these enticing items to your loyal customers, it can be the nudge that will unconsciously compel your other customers to come in and spend on your products or services.
2. Provide Excellent Customer Service
Excellent customer service means getting personal with customers.
Any customer would agree with me that what is important is convenience, and any organisation can feasibly offer this to its customers.
For instance, instead of letting them carry their shopping bags, you can offer to deliver goods to their doorsteps, if they are in a certain radius.
Such a gesture shows that you value your customers’ convenience.
Moreover, when you are offering to deliver, always make sure that you do that with a cheerful face so that they know you are glad and ready to be of service to them.
When you serve them this way, customers will not see this extra service as something that they have burdened you with.
3. Keep Your Customers Informed
Be present on social media, because these platforms can contribute to your organisation’s “winter wins”. Use your social media pages to promote your winter treats, sales and brand. Your messages to your customers must not be plain, but rather you should use enticing, brand-aligned graphics.
Besides letting your customers know about your organisation’s operating hours (for example, opening hours, early closures and late openings), you can use these platforms to share news and updates about your business.
You can leverage email marketing to send regular updates and promotions, while the website or blog can be used to post informative content, such as winter safety tips or product reviews.
Use of text messages or push notifications is another way to send personalised messages and reminders to customers.
4. Create a Warm and Welcoming Environment
It is good to make your customers feel warm by providing comfortable seating, warm drinks and snacks.
You can even go the extra mile by decorating your offices or stores with winter-themed decorations and colours like brown, red and tans. This helps in cranking up the heat, because such colours are more inviting and relaxing.
They can attract more traffic to your business; once they are in, they may buy something in order to justify staying indoors.
5. Go Virtual
It is not every product or service that requires customers to be physically present. Sometimes customers are forced to come to your shop for business because you have not given them the option to transact virtually or online.
Having a virtual shop allows customers to shop from the comfort of their own homes.
The other advantage of virtual shops is that they can provide customers with a wider range of products that may not be available in physical stores.
Customers can also get personalised recommendations based on their preferences and their purchase history.
Additionally, virtual shops are capable of providing customers with detailed product information and reviews that can help them make informed purchase decisions.
By providing a seamless digital experience for customers, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
*Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer experience. For comments, suggestions and training, she can be reached at [email protected] or at +263 712 979 461, 0719 978 335
