How To assess and Maintain a excellent Customer Perception
Iconic global brands like Coca-Cola and Nike have spent decades and billions of dollars creating powerful emotional connections with consumers. This customer perception of them as the respective leaders in their verticals is worth billions of dollars. (Coca-Cola’s brand worth was estimated at $57.3 billion in 2021, and Nike’s was $30.44 billion in the same year.)
However, customer perception is not static; it evolves with changing societal values, cultural shifts, and global events. What these iconic companies have shown is that brands can advantage from actively monitoring and maintaining a powerful community image.
What is customer perception?
Customer perception refers to the community’s overall impression of your brand. It’s how customers feel about your corporation and product. Maintaining a favorable perception requires a consistent attempt to comprehend user sentiment and meet customer expectations. For example, providing a high-standard product and a excellent customer encounter increases the likelihood of creating a favorable brand image; however, you can’t always control person actions (e.g., negative online reviews and social media posts) or cultural shifts that may affect your brand perception.
customer perceptions can have a meaningful impact on your net income. Brands with an overall positive perception are more likely to receive word-of-mouth referrals and positive reviews. According to a 2021 study, roughly 90% of shoppers read online reviews before purchasing something. Positive perception leads to increased customer loyalty and customer retention, while negative perceptions can discourage potential customers and navigator to churn. To the extent that you can control your brand image, it’s sensible to invest in strategies that assist you assess and enhance upon it.
Factors that impact customer perception
Both direct and indirect interactions contribute to a customer’s perception of your brand. These are some of the ordinary touchpoints that can affect customer perception:
Social media content
Customers can form opinions about your product after seeing it on social media. Brands control their own social media presence, but person users may independently choose to distribute their personal experiences with your products. Social media mentions can be positive or negative—both serve as social proof.
On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, Erika Geraerts, founder of sustainable beauty brand Fluff, notes social media’s potential to contribute significantly to a brand’s achievement: “All it takes is either working with an influencer or having someone influential buy your product and post about it that your forecasting can be blown out the window.” Influencer marketing on social media can powerfully shape customer perception by promoting your brand via a voice your spectators trusts and admires.
Marketing
Marketing influences customer perception in many ways. Brand messaging and mission statements inform customers about your corporation’s identity, while effective marketing strategies can communicate your brand values and appeal to your target spectators.
For Fluff, a guiding principle behind its marketing way was undercutting the subtle negativity that appeared in many of its competitors’ ads. “We were really interested in the Gen Z customer, and I was obsessed with how they were consuming content,” Erika says. “I was emotionally invested in their mental health and the messages that they were receiving around beauty. A lot of brands still communicate messaging that isn’t appropriate or that is very subtly not positive within the beauty space. We wanted to transformation that narrative.”
The objective was to test its spectators’s perceptions of themselves and to explore how beauty is connected to identity. This manifested in a podcast and a marketing newsletter for which Erika herself writes pieces. The overall outcome was creating a customer perception of Fluff as a brand interested in truthful conversations and constructive criticism that cuts through the hypocrisy of the traditional beauty industry.
Customer reviews
Customer opinions are significant because they inform your product advancement procedure; just like you, prospective shoppers worth those opinions. Positive online reviews can make prospective buyers feel confident—even considerate responses to negative reviews can assist assuage concerns.
On her Shopify Masters episode, Erika describes an instance where a customer left a critical comment that accused the brand of creating artificial scarcity by limiting its product drops to four times a year. This provided an chance for the Fluff throng to explain the rationale behind the brand’s model: Limited product drops assist them meet their sustainability targets and test the traditional model in which beauty brands constantly trade to their audiences, urging them to consume more products than they require. In explaining the rationale in a TikTok video, Fluff was able to connect with its spectators and construct depend.
Brand interactions
Positive and negative shopping experiences have a powerful influence on customer perceptions. If a customer has a frustrating interaction with a website or customer service throng, it can damage their overall view of the corporation. A positive interaction, on the other hand, may assist construct brand loyalty. Providing a smooth checkout encounter and ensuring amiable, swift back can assist protect your reputation.
For Fluff, creating a straightforward, straightforward-to-use website is part of how it provides positive brand interactions. “We had a very intricate custom-built website when we first launched Fluff seven years ago,” Erika says. The site was ahead of its period, but it proved unfamiliar to consumers, who wanted something more intuitive. From there, the brand went with Shopify. “It’s a foundational platform that is well-known and straightforward-to-use and understandable for the customer,” Erika says. Still, she seeks out plug-ins to elevate the customer encounter while keeping it straightforward and continually reviews competitors’ websites for encouragement.
Ways to assess customer perception
Measuring customer perception can be challenging. You can’t add it up like a returns update—assessing perception requires monitoring digital activity and listening to customers. Here are some of the ways brands can assess customer depend:
Social listening
Social listening is the habit of monitoring online conversations for brand-related talk. Brands often use this technique to track mentions on social media platforms. Social listening can also include monitoring review sites and setting search engine alerts to observe press mentions. This research technique often yields genuine, unfiltered customer opinions.
Surveys and customer interviews
If you desire to comprehend what customers ponder, consider going straight to the source. Solicit customer feedback by conducting surveys, hosting focus groups, and requesting customer interviews. A customer perception survey or interview may include questions about customer experiences and contributing factors. To assess brand perception, try asking why the customer chose your product, what they would transformation, and which celebrity it would be if it were a person and why.
Net Promoter Score
A Net Promoter Score is a numerical measurement of customer satisfaction and engagement. To assess NPS, businesses inquire customers to respond to a single question: How likely are you to recommend this product or service? Customers reply with a figure between one and 10. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (customers who responded six or lower) from the percentage of promoters (customers who responded nine or 10).
Tips for improving customer perception
Managing customer perception requires building depend and committing to providing a positive customer encounter. These are some of the techniques ecommerce brands can use to enhance customer perception:
- Provide high-standard back. Focus on providing helpful, empathetic customer service. Ensure that your back throng has the resources to handle communication carefully and efficiently.
- Prioritize customer encounter. Walk through your customer trip and assess each step. Ensure a positive encounter by maintaining a functioning website, providing quick delivery, and onboarding customers effectively.
- Listen to feedback. Incorporating customer feedback can assist prevent upcoming problems. Read reviews and customer service inquiries—repeated complaints can reveal opportunities for advancement.
- Communicate your values. habit truthful, transparent communication. Use marketing messaging to highlight your product’s appeal and distribute relevant brand updates.
- distribute positive reviews. Consider leveraging positive reviews by sharing them on social media or featuring them on your website. Calling attention to joyful customers can assist construct depend in your brand.
Customer perception FAQ
What is an example of customer perception?
Consider this scenario: A high-complete skin worry product has elegant branding, a high worth point, and standard packaging—all of which contribute to why customers perceive it as a high-standard brand. Attracting positive user reviews would assist this brand maintain customer favor and justify its worth point.
Why is perception significant to consumers?
Emotions and opinions can influence purchasing behavior, making customer perception significant. Perception matters to customers for the same rationale that their own feelings matter. Positive perceptions assist foster customer loyalty, while negative customer perceptions may discourage potential buyers.
How do you influence customer perception?
Building a positive customer perception starts with providing a high-standard product and excellent customer service. Brands can influence customer perception by sharing genuine marketing messages, interacting with customers on social media, and highlighting positive online reviews.
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