Nowadays, the idea of personalising your marketing communications is not a novelty. Everybody knows and understands that the email labelled “Hello Jane”, is more likely to get read than a more general “Dear Customer” kind of message. Admittedly, creating a friendly and welcoming personal space in your marketing strategy is limited by the data you can collect about your audience. As a result, more and more companies have opted for a convivial and casual tone of voice to ensure that their customers feel at ease. Using first names and keeping a jargon-free language also helps to develop a welcoming approach.
But, you may not be ready to kiss your customers on the cheek after each purchase!
Not to worry, the KISS strategy has nothing to do with it. It’s all about maximising your customers’ satisfaction by making simplicity your priority. Indeed, Keep It Simple Stupid is a design principle that was first introduced by the US Navy in 1960. The idea is that any system will work best if you avoid unnecessary complications. When it comes to customer management and relationships, making everything as straightforward as possible can dramatically improve your brand perception and usage.
While the KISS design can extend to the tiniest functions of an interface, every business should make sure their online customer interactions follow the principles of simplicity.
Offer meaningful and helpful customer support
On average, a call or chat to the support service starts with waiting for an agent to be free. Some call or chat centres can experience delays of 10 minutes or longer. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Everybody wants to be able to sort out their problems in a few minutes without interfering with the rest of their day. However, if you fail to offer alternatives to the traditional call/chat centre – or to bring more agents – you’re likely to lose frustrated customers. Additionally, as many support agents follow a script, customers often feel they don’t receive the help they need. Instead, you can provide simple solutions through diverse contact options, troubleshooting material, and a trained team who can solve problems rapidly.
Let the communication workflow do the hard work
Keeping your customers in the loop through newsletters is always a good idea. But you can simplify the process by automating interactions. Indeed, creating a workflow that tackles intuitively your audience needs can make a significant difference. You can use a dedicated cloud communications platform to plan and track interactions. For example, a first email could inform your customers about a future conference, allowing them to register their interest. Once the tickets become available, a second email can target interested customers to speed up the purchase process. Using the information provided during the transaction process, you can offer tailored transport or accommodation options through partners. Additionally, you can also automatically remarket the conference to customers who have not replied to the first email.
Use proper imagery
Websites that use the information displayed online to drive sales, such as ecommerce sites, for instance, need to be hit a sweet spot between promotional display and informative content. In other words, of course, you need to use professional images that enhance the aesthetics of the page. However, at the same time, the photos you use should also showcase the specifics of each product. Fashion e-retailers, especially, can suffer from the desire to produce glamorous and elegant pictures that resemble more an art museum display than meaningful representation of the product. In context snaps of your product can boost emotional engagement; however, they rarely encourage purchases without a polished gallery that shows the item from each angle.
Let them book on the go
Booking a room or a table should be straightforward. However, not all businesses make it easy for their customers to pursue through the reservation process. Indeed, ideally, you want a booking system that allows tech-savvy customers to book reliably in a matter of a few clicks. Nobody wants to struggle with a system that crashes on peak days or that asks for too much information. Your customers should be able to get on with their queries in a couple of minutes. As more and more users prefer to click to purchase without needing to call to check their booking, you can’t afford to lose them through a complicated system.
Ultimately, the KISS strategy focuses on offering simple and straightforward online interactions that speed up the whole process for your customers. From an intuitive workflow communication that directs your audience to using images as a reliable description, digital simplicity leads the way. However, some customers feel less confident using technology for online payment, reservation, or even troubleshooting. KISS is also about being adaptable in your strategy. Offering multiple options, including offline processes, is crucial.
Add comment