The population of people who frequently use the goods and services provided by your business is known as your customer base. These clients interact with your firm on a regular basis and bring in the greatest money.Leverage existing customer base for startup funding is best way to raise funds.
Knowing who your consumer base is is crucial because they are a huge asset to your company. They are the ones who rely on your business to help them reach their objectives and buy your items the most. Your marketing, sales, and customer support teams can better connect with your customer base by identifying these customers.
Your installed customer base is a segment of the total client base that you have. These consumers stand out from the rest of your customer base because they are at a particular stage of the customer journey.Leverage existing customer base for startup funding is to offer them the opportunity to invest in the company in exchange for equity or other perks
How to Build a Customer Base for leverage existing customer base for startup funding
Here are a few simple ways you can start building your customer base from the ground up.
1.Build brand awareness on social media-
You may start growing your consumer base and disseminating information about your company on social media for little to no money.
On websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, you can rapidly engage with your audience. You can even hold contests to draw in additional visitors.
2.Partner with other businesses-
Partnering with other companies is a surefire strategy to increase your consumer base if your firm is still relatively young and has a small customer base.
You must provide something worthwhile in exchange for the larger client base you’re attempting to reach for the relationship to succeed.
In order to assist their clients in documenting their outdoor excursions, hikes, or workouts, for instance, you may execute a co-marketing campaign with an outdoor or fitness company if you offer portable cameras.
3.Run email marketing campaigns-
Email is still one of the best ways for companies to begin expanding their consumer base. The people on your email list are already interested in your goods and services, unlike those on social media.
In order to nurture these leads until they become clients, establish email marketing campaigns.
Grow Your Customer Base for leverage existing customer base for startup funding
Creating a positive customer experience is crucial for retaining and growing your customer base, and this is where the customer service team plays a vital role. By effectively addressing customer concerns, providing helpful support, and consistently delivering excellent service, the customer service team helps to foster long-term customer loyalty and ensure repeat business. In contrast, the marketing and sales teams are responsible for attracting and engaging new customers in the first place.Leverage existing customer base for startup funding is essential concept for growing business.
Below are a few tactics your customer service team can use to grow and retain your customer base.
1. Provide excellent customer service-
Many companies fall short when it comes to providing exceptional customer service, despite its critical importance. Studies have shown that poor customer service is a major reason why customers choose to stop doing business with a brand, with 80% of consumers reporting that they have ended a relationship with a company due to a negative customer service experience.
Interacting with customers who are in need or dissatisfied should be seen as an opportunity to expand your customer base, rather than a burden. By quickly addressing customer complaints, you increase the likelihood of these customers making repeat purchases.
Furthermore, customer service is a major factor in retaining customers. Research indicates that 91% of consumers will continue to do business with a company after having a positive customer service experience. This highlights the importance of your customer service team to efficiently meet customer needs and respond promptly to their requests.
2. Encourage customer advocacy-
Gaining new customers can be difficult, especially when they are not familiar with your product or service. Moreover, customers tend to be skeptical of advertisements, and marketing alone may not be enough to convince them to try your product or service. To establish trust and credibility with potential customers, it is crucial to demonstrate that your company is aligned with and committed to their needs and goals.
One effective strategy for building trust with potential customers is utilizing customer advocates. These advocates can provide valuable referrals and testimonials that boost your brand’s credibility.
Research shows that 79% of consumers have the same level of trust in online reviews as they do in personal recommendations. So, even if your customer advocates aren’t directly bringing in new leads, promoting their feedback can help establish your company as more trustworthy.
3. Create freemium offers-
Freemium offers are a great way to grab the attention of potential leads. With a freemium offer, companies give away something of value for free in exchange for customer information. The item given away can be as simple as a PDF download or more interactive, like a free prototype software.
For instance, HubSpot provides a free version of its marketing, sales, and customer service software. While users do not have to pay to access these tools, they do need to provide an email address and create a HubSpot account.
This approach allows customers to experience the benefits of using HubSpot tools for their business. By analyzing the usage data of these users, HubSpot can then create tailored customer service and sales offers based on the features that they use most frequently.
4. Adopt customer service tools-
As your customer base grows, your customer service team must be able to handle the corresponding increase in customer demand. One traditional solution is to hire more representatives to handle service requests.
However, this can be costly and time-consuming. An alternative approach is to leverage customer service tools to expand the capacity of your existing customer service team without hiring additional staff.
One effective way to enhance your customer service team’s capabilities is to implement a help desk. A help desk is a platform that provides a range of customer service tools such as a knowledge base, a ticketing system and a shared inbox. These tools enable the automatic organization and distribution of incoming customer service requests, making it easier for representatives to manage their open cases. By automating and optimizing their workflow, customer service tools free up time for representatives to handle more cases daily, instead of having to keep track of their progress manually.
5. Collect customer feedback-
If you’re struggling to come up with new ways to bring in new customers, examine your customer feedback. Positive feedback can provide insights on what aspects of your business are working well, and what you should highlight to potential leads. On the other hand, negative feedback can reveal areas where your business needs to improve, and what changes are necessary to retain existing customers.
Obtaining feedback on customer service should be done after a support ticket is resolved or a customer service interaction is completed. Additionally, asking customers for feedback after a sale has been made, can help you gather information about the customer service provided by your front-line sales team.
6. Create a customer success program-
Businesses that are successful understand that a customer’s value to the company grows over time as they continue to make purchases. Therefore, if you can persuade customers to return to your business repeatedly, your customer base will grow steadily, even if you’re only acquiring a few new customers each month.
An effective way to retain customers is to establish a customer success program. The customer success team monitors each account for potential obstacles or challenges within the customer’s journey. If they anticipate any issues, they can reach out to the customer and assist them in overcoming it before it escalates into a bigger problem.
7. Consider web accessibility-
When it comes to website management, it’s important to understand that your brand can be seen by anyone who has internet access, but not everyone uses the internet in the same way. Some people need special accommodations, such as certain software or features enabled on their computer, to fully access and utilize your website. If your website is not designed to be compatible with these programs, it will be inaccessible to this audience, resulting in missed opportunities to convert potential leads.
Web accessibility can open the door to a new ecommerce audience that your brand might not have considered.
8. Optimize your customer loyalty program-
A customer loyalty program is an effective means of both retaining existing customers and acquiring new ones. It can maintain engagement of your most loyal customers with your brand’s offers and promotions, and it can give your company an edge over competitors in the marketplace.
In fact, studies show that 69% of consumers say that loyalty programs are a factor in their decision-making process when considering a new brand.An approach to optimize your customer loyalty program is by implementing a tiered membership structure. This approach encourages customers to continue making purchases from your business, and creates a sense of belonging as they progress through different levels of loyalty.
9. Gamify the customer experience-
Gamification is the incorporation of game-like elements into everyday tasks or activities to make them more engaging and enjoyable. Businesses are now utilizing gamification in order to appeal to new customers by incorporating playful elements that improve the customer experience. The goal is that customers will not only find using the product enjoyable, but they will be motivated to continue using it because it resembles a hobby or game.
10. Personalize customer onboarding-
The immediate aftermath of a customer’s purchase with your brand is a crucial period in their journey. If they experience difficulties with the product or understanding the training, they may abandon your product entirely and seek out a more user-friendly option. In fact, research by Wyzowl shows that 55% of consumers have returned a product due to difficulty in using it.
Your customer onboarding program can address this problem by tailoring the experience for each user. Instead of using a generic approach, have your team reach out to customers and identify their specific needs and goals.
When providing a physical product, it is essential to make the customer support options visible on the packaging, so customers can easily reach you in case of any inquiry. By making your customer service team readily available to customers, you can ensure prompt and reliable support.
Conclusion-
leverage existing customer base for startup funding is an important aspect which is based on different factors like crowdfunding,offering pre-orders or advance sales of a product or service.