If there is one thing any business cares about, it is the customers. So if you were to gauge the potential of a business, just take a closer look at its prowess in tailoring the best customer experience. Towards this end, nothing beats the ability to score heavy on the three golden stages of the customer lifecycle. Let’s first do a quick 101 on these -
Acquisition - the process of discovering new customers & acquiring them. Identify the levers of acquisition being used. Using any or many modes is not bad, as long as the untapped customer base is being reached. Any business that has the ability to continuously acquire new customers is blue ticked.
Conversion - the process of engaging a customer with the prospect of the product and driving her subjective interest towards actionable outcome by giving her a taste of the product. Ability to convert more customers is what gets the business going. So if a business has mastered the trade of reaping benefits out of the acquired customer base, here comes another blue tick for them.
Retention - It is competitive out there & any customer that you have converted once must be your plate of honour. This, only as long as the plate is happy to still show up in your gallery though. Retention could mean different things for different businesses. For some, it might mean the existing customers buying more of the services/products offered by the business, for others it may imply a loyalist lobby that helps bring in more customers through word-of-mouth/referrals, yet, for some others it may imply a life-long relation with the customer. Any business that is a stalwart in retention, has a guaranteed sustenance on the back of this strong foundation. A proud third blue tick in their honour!
So how do we go about hacking our way through scoring blues on all three, is why you have come this far. Let’s dive into it straight away then.
Dumb it Down! Yes, you already knew that. That’s the way to go.
Whether you are selling fancy cars or providing a platform for teaching kids online, any complexity that you endure in the process, must be abstracted from the end user. Your customers don’t care whether you read a thousand books or wrote millions of lines of code to get the solution going. The real sophistication of a solution is reflected by how simply it is put to action.
Remember that famous quote from Albert Einstein - “You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother”. But what does simplicity or dumbing it down mean after all. It maybe quantum physics, if you will, but it shouldn’t be as painful for your customer as it was a century ago for Planck or Einstein. Any product, any business is as good as the ease it brings into solving that problem for the customer. If you were to launch an e-store for selling merchandise, the question to ask is by what degree does it simplify the purchase process for the customer. If you were to build a waste recycling solution, the question to ask is does it reduce the effort required by the populace in waste disposal. Your product might be top notch and a stroke of brilliance, but, it would find users only if it is in line with this philosophy. Humans are wired to seek ease. Unless, you can bet on having solved the puzzle called motivation, simplicity is the secret to your success.
Does this actually work in boosting acquisition, conversions & retention! Stay tuned for the next, as we have real-world illustrations to follow.