Give your customers what they want and watch your sales grow

“The number one driver of growth is always sales. And the number one way of getting more sales is to drive the customer behaviours that equate to sales.” In episode 92 of the Customers Who Click podcast, I had a great chat with Howard Tiersky about how ecommerce businesses need to adapt and innovate to provide more value for the customer and grow. Who doesn’t remember Blockbusters? It’s all that we have left today - a memory, because as we know Blockbusters failed to take advantage of the digital transformation and… Well. You know who rules the streaming world today *cough* Netflix *cough* . Blockbusters, and many other long-established businesses ceased to exist in the recent years for one simple reason: they failed to serve their customers’ needs. The good news is, these are extreme examples, but I also know that many of today’s DTC brands struggle to provide more value for their customers and as a result, watch them leave one by one in favour of competitors who offer better customer experience. How can you change that? If you feel like you’re forever a step behind your competitors, and can’t seem to really understand what drives your customers, this episode is for you. Howard is a speaker, author and digital marketing consultant who helps the world's largest brands navigate digital transformation — to re-invent their customer journeys to earn the love of today's "Digital Customers." In the 20 years of his professional career, Howard has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies, including General Motors, General Electric, NBC, Universal, Avis or Airbus. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter or head over to https://www.from.digital/.

92. Give your customers what they want and watch your sales grow

“The number one driver of growth is always sales. And the number one way of getting more sales is to drive the customer behaviours that equate to sales.”

“You can't take the mindset that says, well, it's worked for the last 10 years. So we should just keep doing what we're doing. That's what Kodak tried to do. That's what Blockbuster tried to do.”

In episode 92 of the Customers Who Click podcast, I had a great chat with Howard Tiersky about how ecommerce businesses need to adapt and innovate to provide more value for the customer and grow.

Who doesn’t remember Blockbusters? It’s all that we have left today - a memory, because as we know Blockbusters failed to take advantage of the digital transformation and… Well. You know who rules the streaming world today *cough* Netflix *cough* .

Blockbusters, and many other long-established businesses ceased to exist in the recent years for one simple reason: they failed to serve their customers’ needs. The good news is, these are extreme examples, but I also know that many of today’s DTC brands struggle to provide more value for their customers and as a result, watch them leave one by one in favour of competitors who offer better customer experience.

How can you change that? If you feel like you’re forever a step behind your competitors, and can’t seem to really understand what drives your customers, this episode is for you.

Howard is a speaker, author and digital marketing consultant who helps the world's largest brands navigate digital transformation — to re-invent their customer journeys to earn the love of today's "Digital Customers." In the 20 years of his professional career, Howard has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies, including General Motors, General Electric, NBC, Universal, Avis or Airbus. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter or head over to https://www.from.digital/.

Key Highlights

12:28 - 18:05 - How to find out what customers really want - Focus on the needs, not the solution. If you’re trying to figure out how you can better serve your customers, don’t just settle when they tell you they need a particular product - dig deeper and find out WHY . Where are their current points of pain? Where is their current level of inconvenience? We talked before about the importance of convenience. What? What is it that's taking their time, their energy?

Bear in mind though, this isn’t about asking the customer about what’s next. Each customer journey elicits both, positive and negative emotions. For you to be able to add more value to that journey, you need to start removing touchpoints that create friction - and build on those that make customers feel good about shopping with your brand.

19:42 - 23:18 - Recreating That In-Store Shopping Experience Online - The one thing we don’t see enough in DTC today is the same level of personalisation and customer service we get in brick-and-mortar shops. Even though online shopping is a lot more convenient, consumers still prefer to shop on the high street simply because they can chat with the shop assistant to find exactly what they’re looking for. Going forward, brands who cannot provide the same level of personalisation might struggle - and even share the fate of Blockbusters.

23:18 - 31:35 - Resistance to Change Is Your Bigger Obstacle - If you could pick any company that went out of business due to failure to transform and ask what they would do differently if they could rewind the clock, you will find somebody in their organisation screaming and yelling at a senior level that the transformation is necessary. Just because what you’ve been doing got you so far, even if it allowed you to considerably grow your business, might also sink it if you’re refusing to adjust to the challenges for further growth.

How can you create a culture where change is embraced, and not feared? The most fundamental reason that people resist change is that they just don't think it'd be good for them individually - even if it is good for the company; it could be as simple as employees fear that the latest technology will replace them. Howard provides 12 different strategies in his book, but it starts with showing people within your company how the change will benefit them all.

31:47 - Who Would Howard Like to Take For Lunch in the D2C Marketing World? Mark Zuckerberg and Howard would love to know how Mark copes with stress.

If you’d like to hear more from Howard, you can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter or head over to https://www.from.digital/.