Customer Perception – The Importance Of Building A Strong And Positive Customer Perception
Business leaders recognize the importance of positive customer perception to build brand loyalty and gain a competitive advantage. With increasing competition, advancement in technology, and changing consumer trends, there is a greater need for marketers to encompass customers’ emotions when formulating marketing strategies. Positive customer perception plays an important role in the success story of a company. The quality of a brand’s customer service and overall customer experience influences how the customers and prospects perceive them in comparison to other competitors.
Studying customers’ behavior, their purchasing decisions, motivations, and pain points is vital for businesses to develop a positive affiliation with customers. Companies need to work on building trust and loyalty with their customers, and analyze how they can promote brand loyalty to brand advocacy. According to a Deloitte study research, repetitive customers refer to brands with which they have a buying history the same way they would their friends and family; using words like love, adore, and happy. Delighting existing customers with good service at every touchpoint can help companies to sway negative attitudes and assessments into a positive.
What is customer perception?
Customer perception reflects customers’ opinions or impressions about a brand and its products. It refers to what a customer thinks and feels about a product or service. Everything a company does impacts customer perception. Customer experience is quickly becoming the differentiating factor between brands and their competitors. Brands with a solid obligation to client experience see higher brand mindfulness, higher-request esteems, maintenance, and consumer loyalty. When customers have a pleasant experience while purchasing a product from a particular brand, they form a positive opinion about the brand.
Why is customer perception important?
Customer perception is important for companies to build the right brand image among the public. Positive customer perception can strengthen a customer’s relationships with the company. Customer perception affects the buyer’s purchasing decisions. If a customer perceives a company’s offering to be of lower quality then they may refrain from purchasing the product. Also, customers pay a lot of emphasis on the quality of service. Businesses need to focus on enhancing their customer experience to improve brand perception and attract new customers.
When buyers like a product, they are likely to trust the company behind those products. When trust is established, there is a greater likelihood of buyers becoming repeat customers. Trust becomes an important element that affects the customer’s buying decision- approximately 31%-37% of the decision-making process, especially in terms of big purchases. A commitment to building trust and positive perception can contribute to business growth.
How companies can build a strong and positive customer perception?
Develop an emotional and empathetic relationship with your customers
It’s important to understand the customer’s emotional drive to develop a relationship with them. Every purchasing decision is associated with rationale and emotion. Brands need to identify the emotional drives of their target audience to optimize their marketing efforts. Focusing on empathetic words and limiting the use of negative words such as ‘no’ and ‘can’t’ can propel customers to feel positive emotions.
Develop the right pricing strategy
There are numerous pricing strategies that a company can adopt. But it’s important to select the right one that does not isolate the target audience and allows the business to maintain a profit margin. A pricing strategy that customers would perceive as justified may help brands to create a positive perception.
Develop a seamless customer experience
Every customer touchpoint is an opportunity for the company to make a positive impression. A seamless, excellent customer experience at every stage of the buyer journey, from the point of awareness to post-sale service, is a necessity for companies to create positive customer perceptions. Brands need to evaluate their existing buyer journeys and provide assistance to customers at every stage of the journey to ensure fast, fluid, satisfactory customer service.
Develop a consistent brand voice
As human beings, we seek consistency and symmetry in everything we do. A consistent brand image, makes a company stand out and instantly recognizable among the competition. Every department, every touchpoint needs to promote a consistent brand voice to build a stronger customer perception. Variability in the buyer journey creates negative perceptions. So businesses must capture every opportunity to build an identifiable brand.
Social listening
Social listening is a necessary skill that helps to gather information about customers’ likes, dislikes, and interests. This information can become valuable insights for companies to build a positive brand experience. Social listening allows marketers to uncover underlying patterns and similarities, and identify upcoming consumer trends. These insights can help marketing teams to optimize their campaigns and enhance customer perception, loyalty, and retention.
Final Thoughts
The end goal for a business is to retain and acquire customers. Positive customer perception is a stepping stone to customer loyalty and advocacy. Outreaching customers and making them feel valued can have a tremendous impact on how they feel about your brand as a whole. At Alkye, we offer client branding and product design services to help create a unique brand voice in a crowded marketplace and enhance their public image and perception.
