Embracing Sustainability as a Breakroom Operator
Christine / February 17, 2022
More companies are going green and want to buy their products and services from businesses whose values align with their sustainability efforts. So, it comes as no surprise they will make purchasing decisions based on those criteria. In the refreshment services industry, there are many ways a breakroom operator can create a sustainable environment for customers in the breakroom that encourages well-being for employees and the planet.
In fact, many breakroom operators are already embracing sustainability in support of their vision for a greener breakroom experience. Check it out!
Breakroom operators are also promoting their sustainability efforts through online marketing tools.
🌍 A dedicated webpage to communicate the sustainability initiatives being implemented
🌍 Social media to keep followers informed of sustainable measures being taken
🌍 Blogs to report the positive effects your sustainable efforts are having on the environment
And, some breakroom operators are taking their sustainability efforts to the next level!
Canteen Canada and their coffee roasting partner, Café William, are rethinking and strengthening their sustainability efforts. Together, they are building the first zero-emission sailing cargo ship to transport coffee beans from South America to its roasting plant in Sherbrooke, Ontario. With this project, they are putting a green foot forward to making a change together.
One Source Refreshment installed 554 roof-mounted solar panels on their 24,000 square foot facility in Pottstown, PA. As a result, the panels will produce 236,094 kWh in electricity each year, offsetting nearly 100% of their company’s energy usage. This is enough energy to power 22 homes, offsetting 183.6 tons of CO2 or 387.2 barrels of oil every year.
Magic Works Charitable Trust has been providing food and clothing to the homeless in the Seattle area for 24 years. For the last 6 years, Vista Vending has been there alongside them, donating unsold vending and micro-market food and drinks to them. Vista Vending is proud support a local charitable organization doing so much good for the community.
Going green is here to stay
If you are a breakroom operator, now is the perfect time to embrace sustainability and implement an eco-friendly strategy into your breakroom operations. Why? Because breakroom operators who create a sustainable breakroom environment for their customers will have an edge up on the competition simply because they are offering eco-friendly products, services, and technologies. Plus, companies want to partner with a breakroom operator that will share a common vision for a better, greener breakroom.
Going green is here to stay so make sure your business operations include sustainable products and eco-friendly services – your customers, the community, and our planet will appreciate it.
Online Ordering: Boosting Profits for Breakroom Operators
Christine / February 9, 2022
Gone are the days when placing an online order was considered a luxury. It is now an expectation for customers, including those in the refreshment services industry. But, online ordering not only makes it easy for OCS customers to order products where and when it’s convenient for them. It’s a legitimate way for breakroom operators to increase sales and cut operational costs.
That is why VendCentral recently teamed with Supply Wizards to help our clients add and promote online ordering capabilities. Supply Wizards specializes in the refreshment services industry. Their online ordering system is fast and easy to implement. Plus, it can function independently or seamlessly integrate with your existing vending management system.
Are you a breakroom operator interested in upgrading from taking orders via phone, email, and fax? Want to explore a streamlined, more reliable process? If so, read more to learn the many benefits Supply Wizards can provide.
A personalized experience for your customers
Supply Wizards allows you to customize your online store by individual customer account. Do you have a variety of pricing, payment terms, or product offerings in your contracts? No problem. Each customer has their own login to the online ordering platform and a unique experience based on their contract. You can even provide budget tracking in the system for customers who request it.
Increased order sizes
Online ordering not only increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. It can also boost sales by encouraging customers to order more. Supply Wizards builds an intuitive product recommendation feature into their platform. And the power of suggestive selling is real. Customers often add on recommended items or additional products available to them through the browse feature. Studies have shown that 52% of customers on the Supply Wizards ordering platform use these features. This means a bigger average order size for you. In fact, breakroom operators report an average order increase of 14% after implementing Supply Wizards for their OCS customers.
Influence over what’s purchased
In addition to the recommended products feature, the Supply Wizards platform includes dedicated space for promotional ads. VendCentral can work with you to design promotions that move slow sellers, introduce new products, or reward customers for buying more. For clients on select marketing programs, VendCentral can further promote these specials through exclusive website features, social media, or email campaigns.
Streamlined operations
Staffing shortages have become a significant pain point for breakroom operators. Keeping up with customer orders across various methods can be time-consuming, create bottlenecks in the system, and cause inaccuracies that lead to dissatisfied OCS customers. Supply Wizards streamlines order management for more efficient back-end operations. Orders can now be processed by your team with little to no manual effort. Breakroom operators using Supply Wizards report significant decreases in operational expenses – enough savings that the Supply Wizards system actually pays for itself.
Better inventory management
One of the biggest challenges for breakroom operators is efficiently managing their inventory. Supply Wizards seamlessly integrates into your existing vending management system. Once items are set as out of stock, they are automatically hidden from the customer’s view on the Supply Wizards ordering platform. They will not reappear on the ordering platform until they are acknowledged as back in your inventory.
An online ordering system can be a powerful addition to your website – loved by your existing customers and impressive to new prospects. With Supply Wizards, adding online ordering to your website is easy and completed in only a few short weeks. In the end, the only thing breakroom operators wish is that they had done it sooner. If you are ready to see the Supply Wizards ordering platform in action, VendCentral can help. We will arrange a quick demo and show you how we can help launch and promote your new online ordering capabilities. Contact us and our team will help you get started!
A brand-new Coolbreakrooms has launched for 2022 – just in time for a year that is sure to be filled with new opportunities for the refreshment services industry. As an extension of VendCentral, Coolbreakrooms offers an online community where operators and manufacturers can thrive.
Coolbreakrooms speaks directly to breakroom decision-makers. It is a platform designed for operators and manufacturers to promote their goods and services directly to HR and facility managers. With its expansion this year, Coolbreakrooms is developing new industry partnerships. How it can help you reach your business goals for 2022?
Promotes the Industry
Coolbreakrooms’ main initiative is to promote breakroom operators and the refreshment services industry as a whole. Its website inspires breakroom upgrades by showcasing how better breakrooms positively impact employees and improve workplace culture.
The website’s Featured Breakrooms page highlights gold-standard breakrooms that deliver modern technology, satisfying food and beverages and a welcoming environment for employees. It provides customers interested in updating their company breakroom with the inspiration they need to get started.
Coolbreakrooms intends to rapidly expand their featured breakrooms gallery with pictures of breakrooms in all sizes. This is a great opportunity for operators to showcase their work. Operators are invited to submit photos of their premium breakroom installs for inclusion on the site. Selected operators may receive free marketing exposure through photo credits, in-depth articles, and social media promotions.
Boosts Business for Operators
Coolbreakrooms is focused on providing more leads to top-notch operators in the refreshment services industry. It does this by consulting with breakroom customers and matching them with Authorized Providers in their own hometown. They enhance the service by guiding customers to products and equipment best suited for their workplace environment.
Coolbreakrooms is valuable for larger companies that are interested in breakroom upgrades but have limited time or resources to dedicate to the process. It’s particularly useful for companies with workplaces in multiple cities, as it provides one turnkey solution for breakroom services across the US and internationally.
To become part of the Coolbreakrooms Authorized Provider network, breakroom operators must satisfy certain quality standards. There is no fee to join.
Drives Sales for Manufacturers
Manufacturers in the refreshment services industry have long found themselves short on channel-specific marketing opportunities. But the Coolbreakrooms website provides a new way to promote products and equipment directly to breakroom customers. Those partnering with Coolbreakrooms can now drive demand for food and beverages, gourmet office coffee, water filtration systems, breakroom technology, and more.
As it grows, Coolbreakrooms will shine a larger spotlight on the best of the best from all business categories. It will develop key relationships with industry manufacturers and create an impactful way for them to market directly to breakroom customers and influence sales.
The website will promote newness and innovation in a constantly evolving industry and educate customers on the latest breakroom options available.
VendCentral’s goal with Coolbreakrooms is straightforward – to promote breakroom upgrades and support the growth of the refreshment services industry. This year, the new Coolbreakrooms website will generate content geared towards breakroom decision-makers and provide a unique platform for all members of the industry community to participate and benefit. If you are interested in realizing greater demand for your goods and services VendCentral welcomes you to contact them to discuss joining the Coolbreakrooms movement.
A healthy website is a cornerstone of business success. More consumers are opting to shop online rather than in-store, so a robust digital presence is more essential than ever before. In fact, it takes a user about 0.05 seconds to decide if they’re going to continue exploring your website or jump ship. That means if your site is outdated, unattractive, or tough to navigate, you’ve just lost a potential customer in less than one second.
Just like regularly maintaining your health is necessary for a thriving body, continual updates and enhancements are key to an optimized website. Your site is a living, breathing mechanism that need to be reviewed, updated, and maintained regularly.
If your website has been collecting dust, the beginning of the year is the perfect time to take a deeper look and reassess the health of your company website.
The Importance of a Healthy Website
Your business website is your brand’s piece of digital real estate on the internet. You wouldn’t walk into a dilapidated storefront expecting five-star service, would you? The same thing applies to online shoppers. If your website is poorly designed, consumers will surely look elsewhere.
While 38% of people will immediately stop engaging with a site if the content or layout is unappealing, 88% of consumers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience. That’s a significant number! If your website crashes, hasn’t been redesigned since 2009, or is stuffed with irrelevant information, it will cost you valuable leads.
A website health check is a valuable way to identify how to optimize your online presence, generate leads, and boost revenues.
Your Complete Website Health Checklist
When conducting a health check of your website, be sure to ask yourself the following questions:
1. Is my website user-centric?
A high-performing website is all about the user experience (UX). To be successful, your site must be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and provide immediate value to the customer. It’s important to keep in mind that every visitor who comes to your website has a problem to solve. Whether they want to buy a new sweater or find a new vending machine for their office break room, they have a problem. Your website’s goal is to help them solve that problem as quickly as possible.
A site that is visually appealing and clearly laid out will intuitively guide a visitor from one step to the next.
2. Does it have clear branding and effectively represent who I am as a company?
Your site is a digital representation of your brand. When a user lands on your website, they should immediately know what products or services you offer, what pain points you solve, and what your brand’s personality is like. Branding can effectively be conveyed through engaging copy, color palettes, and imagery.
3. Is it updated and fresh?
Websites that are outdated or include irrelevant information will negatively impact your marketing efforts. Ensure that your company site highlights your latest products and services and highlights pertinent information.
4. Is it mobile responsive?
Consumers engage with their smartphones for an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes on a daily basis. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, you could be losing potential customers. Your site needs to quickly load, be easy to scan on a smartphone, and provide a seamless experience across all devices.
5. Is it optimized to ensure your website ranks high on search?
Search Engine Optimization is crucial when it comes to your website because it makes it more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. It’s also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects, and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in your industry.
6. Is it accessible to all users and ADA compliant?
To be successful, a website must be inclusive. This means that its content is accessible to all users, regardless of physical or situational disabilities. It isn’t just good business practice; web accessibility legislation is continuing to evolve. Making your site more compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) could reduce your exposure to hefty fines.
The Reality
Your website can make or break your business. Regular site health checks, now and throughout the year, ensure that your website is user-friendly, updated, and inclusive.
To learn how VendCentral’s marketing solutions can benefit your website, contact us today by calling (866) 699-8363.
If you are a breakroom operator who has yet to utilize email marketing, the new year is the perfect time to make the leap. Done right, email marketing is a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy – and can provide you with a high return on your digital marketing investment.
Here are some of the top reasons to try email marketing:
- 91% of US adults like receiving promotional emails from companies they do business with (MarketingSherpa)
- Email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business acquire new customers. (McKinsey)
- According to 80 percent of professionals, email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention. (eMarketer)
Getting Started with Email Marketing
Your email campaigns will only work if the right eyes are seeing them. Are your contacts located in a pile of business cards, in your personal email, or stored on your cell phone? It’s time to clean up, organize, and modernize. The process may seem daunting, but it’s worth it! Organize your contacts into one electronic file so they are easy to access, maintain, and transfer. Make sure each contact is complete with all relevant information included.
Add industry-specific columns to your electronic file to include custom tags for the refreshment services industry and your company in particular. Examples of custom tags may include current services (vending, micro-market, pantry, office coffee, etc.), company size, company industry, and contract end date. This will allow you to filter your campaigns for specific audiences.
Storing and Maintaining Email Contacts
The great news is there are online marketing tools like MailChimp and HubSpot that are available to you for free or low-cost. You can not only store and maintain your contacts here, but you can also create and send email campaigns on the same platform. Take a little time to decide which tool is right for you. Both MailChimp and HubSpot have resources and tutorials available to help you format your contact list properly for transfer (including proper setup for importing your custom tags). They also contain lots of useful information for creating and sending your emails.
Establishing a clean, complete contact database online is something worth celebrating! But we all know how quickly things change. Updating your contact list should become routine. If you have a sales team that contributed to your master list, empower them to take ownership of maintaining their own contacts on the platform after they are transferred.
Ready, Set, Engage
A great email begins with a well thought out plan of what you are going to communicate and to whom. For this article, we’ll assume your message is set and you’ve designed an eye-catching email (if you need help designing digital marketing content, we’ve got you covered).
Now that your list of contacts is uploaded to your platform of choice, you are ready to start sending emails. Some of your email campaigns will be suitable for everyone to receive but many will be targeted for specific audiences. Avoid sending emails that are irrelevant or don’t provide value to your customers. It may prompt them to unsubscribe from your email list. Instead, filter your email list to ensure the right people are seeing your message.
Want to promote your company’s micro-markets? Target this email exclusively for prospects or customers with vending services. Looking to upgrade customers to bean to cup or single-cup equipment? Send your email to customers with traditional coffee service. By understanding and targeting the proper audience, your emails will be more relevant, effective, and likely to convert to a sale.
There is no time like NOW to get those contacts ready for email. Email is a proven way to enhance your overall digital marketing strategy and boost your sales. And by creating and maintaining a detailed contact list online, you will be sure your audience is receiving content that is tailored specifically to them. Compliment your emails with a great website and engaging social media for a multifaceted way to grow your business in the new year.
VendCentral helps operators and manufacturers in the refreshment services industry develop online marketing strategies to grow their business. Contact us to learn more.
The holiday season is a special time of year for friends and family. It’s also the time to find a way to thank the clients and customers. When you find ways to give a meaningful gift, it makes your investment go even farther. Here are some thoughtful ways to say thank you at this special time of year.
Gift company branded swag
From high-end pens and stationery sets to shirts and jackets, company swag always makes a great gift. This gift rewards your customers, but it also serves as a valuable form of advertising. Another way to say thank you is to choose a quality whitelabel wine, and top it off with your own custom-printed labels.
Host a luncheon in your client’s breakroom
Save your top clients a trip and host a luncheon onsite at their location. This is a great way to showcase your commissary foods, and have them try new items that will be coming to their micro-market soon. Your client will appreciate the effort and may just discover a new favorite market item.
Create holiday gift baskets
Gift baskets are a staple for corporate holiday gifts, and a customized basket is even better. The more you know about your customers, the easier it will be to create a truly customized present. Ask your suppliers to provide certain products you know your client loves. You can also include new items coming to your menu in the coming year, or even slow sellers to boost interest.
Extend a party invitation
The holiday season is a time for celebration, so why not let your customers join in on the fun? If you are holding a holiday party, invite your customers to share in the festivities. If your party is onsite, include a tour of your facility. Take photos with your clients to share on social media. Prospective customers will love seeing how you engage with your clients, and they may remember this the next time you reach out.
Out-of-office entertainment
Everyone likes some form of entertainment, so why not give your favorite customers an excuse to get out of the office? Tickets to an upcoming event or a gift card for a local theater are great ways to say thank you. Invite them to join you on a golf outing or spa visit. Plus, socializing outside a business setting creates a personal connection, which increases the likelihood of client retention.
Make a charitable donation
If you know your clients well, consider making a charitable donation in their name to a cause they care about. This is an excellent way to show your client you care about what is important to them, which makes a lasting impression well past the holiday season.
The holidays are the perfect time to thank the ones who helped your business thrive during a challenging year. Whether your business is brand new or well-established, thanking your customers is always appreciated. These holiday gift ideas can help you say thank you in a sophisticated and memorable way during the holiday season.
Most businesses understand the importance of a digital presence, and many have a website and social media accounts. Your company may feel it is not necessary to have a blog if your business is not focused on content. But actually, all kinds of businesses can benefit greatly by keeping an active blog. Here are 3 ways a blog can help boost your business.
1. It helps gain more visibility for your business
If you build it, they will come, right? Not exactly. It’s crucial that potential customers are able to easily find your site. Starting a blog can help with that–the more outbound links that redirect to your website, the higher you’ll rank in search results.
Additionally, consumers want to know more about your business. You can use the blog to explain who you are, your company culture, and provide examples of your work. Highlight new and interesting things happening in your business and your industry. It’s absolutely true that prospects will be more inclined to buy your services the more they feel they know you and your business.
2. It drives traffic to your website
SEO and content go hand in hand, and many websites with high traffic have varying types of online content to attract users from different sources. If you are struggling to get users to your site, then adding a blog is a smart strategy. When your articles use the right keywords, they can be picked up by Google searches. As a result, they can bring new users to your website. These new users can be quickly converted to paying customers if the other parts of your website are well designed.
3. It compliments your social media and email campaigns
When it comes to digital marketing, everything works together. It is important not to view your website, blog, social media channels, and email marketing separately as they are all part of the same entity – your branding. If you want a successful social media presence, then your blog content is a vital part of that. Publishing blog content on social media can direct traffic from your social media platforms to your website. It’s also true with email marketing; the most effective email campaigns contain links to blog posts.
These days, a blog is an essential part of a solid marketing content strategy. There are so many benefits to having one, including the ability to increase sales and interest in your business. A blog can better inform consumers about your company, drive traffic to your website, and increase the effectiveness of your social media and email campaigns. Not sure where to start? Rely on VendCentral’s team of content writers to create engaging blogs on behalf of your business. Contact us to start the conversation!
You’ve created social media accounts for your business, but how do you actually get people to follow your page? Social media followers are potential loyal customers and advocates for your business. Ninety percent of shoppers say they buy from businesses and brands they follow on social media. A major focus of your social media marketing strategy should be growing your followers and cultivating your existing ones. This will help you increase your audience reach, boost engagement, and build a loyal following. We’ve outlined steps businesses should take to do just that.
Content Matters
You will attract new followers with content that engages and adds value. Consider content that is:
- Helpful Useful tips and tricks go a long way with followers, and they have high reach potential – meaning followers may send it to friends or reshare it by posting it to their Facebook page, Instagram stories, or retweeting.
- Thought-Provoking Anything that gets followers to leave a comment on your posts is well worth a shot, so ask questions. Does your company install micro-markets? Ask followers what their must-have snack is. Coffee service providers can ask “Do you prefer flavored or traditional roast coffees?” The options are endless.
- Exclusive Give followers the advantage of hearing exciting announcements first on your social media page. This can include sales, new product offerings, or exciting business updates. You don’t need one type of content to work for everyone; try experimenting to discover what works best for your audience.
- Visually Pleasing Some people just love a good aesthetic and seek that during their daily social media scroll-throughs. Remember each post is part of the same story!
- Entertaining You can’t go wrong with a good meme. They’re easy to create and easily editable so that you can make them relevant to your business’s offering.
Follow Relevant Businesses
Following the social media accounts of potential customers in your area can serve as a great discovery tool. They’ll most likely follow your business in return, and this will help your page get suggested to their followers too. However, there are likely other prospects not even on your radar. We suggest partnering with your local Chamber of Commerce to get access to the names of decision-makers and notified of new businesses coming to your area. Following community organizations, especially those you support can also serve as a discovery tool. By liking and commenting on their posts, you’ll catch the eye of potential customers – and stay top of mind when they are ready to make a purchase.
Partner With Your Suppliers
In addition to following relevant businesses, you should follow your suppliers and partner with them to curate your social media posts. Brands have a wealth of pre-made graphics they are willing to share. This will ensure you use high-quality content that’s engaging and consistent. It also makes it easy for brands to feature you in their own content, which can lead to more exposure and more followers for your business.
Another strategy is to encourage user-generated content. This popular tactic involves reposting content created by customers. User-generated content (UGC) can include photos, videos, and product reviews that speak to the quality of your business’ products or customer service.
By rewarding customers with the possibility of reposting, UGC encourages engagement and exposure. For you to see their content, make sure they tag your account or incorporate your branded hashtag in their posts. This simple process introduces you to their followers, who could soon become yours.
Be Responsive
Try commenting on the posts of other businesses or individuals in your community. You can answer questions, leave a helpful tip, or just provide some kind words. When people see your comments, they may be inclined to check out your page and eventually follow you. You can search for people and places by location using Facebook and LinkedIn.
Include Your Social Media Links on Everything
If possible, make sure that non-social media touchpoints can be used to access your social media accounts. Website pages, email campaigns, and other digital assets should include direct, functioning links to your channels. Run a micro-market? Tangible items like receipts or shopping bags can include your social media handles, too.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Give users a way to find you based on their interests, because there’s usually an intention to follow with hashtag searches. Use the names of your products and services, as well as popular terminology among your target audience (think #coffeebreak) to boost your chance of catching a potential follower’s eye.
Use Location Tags
This is another quick and easy way for people to find your page. Many people search by location — specifically cities — to find new businesses in their area. Others may search by location to find additional content of interest. Using location tags can be a powerful tactic, requires minimal effort, and helps increase traffic to your business. To stand out among the competition, ramp up your strategy by adding a location to your posts and stories.
Hold Contests
Contests and giveaways are great for boosting engagement and gaining followers. To enter a giveaway, one must follow you, “like” the giveaway post, and tag a friend (or several) in the comments. It’s possible that some of those tagged friends will be interested in your content and follow you. Running a contest after an install for VendBucks or micro-market credits is one idea that’s easy to conduct. It will help drive traffic to your social pages, as well as the potential to increase sales.
Some other techniques to incentivize new followers include offering freebies or perks for proof of a follow. One idea is to hold a coffee tasting event and offer a free danish or pack of donuts to any employee that follows your business on social media. Be sure to have signage that includes your social handles, so it will be easier for those on-site to find and follow you.
Now that you have some ideas for content to post, you need to make sure it’s posted on a consistent basis. A sporadic posting schedule can put people off, because how valuable can your content be if it’s only posted once every few weeks? On a more technical level, consistency plays a big role in how algorithms determine what content your followers will see. To put it simply, consistent posting leads to consistent engagement and new follower growth, which is the goal.
You may have heard of a customer journey map, but are wondering what it is and how businesses can benefit from it. An effective customer journey map is a great tool to help you get inside the customer’s mind, understand their perspective, and learn how they interact with your company from start to finish. The better you understand your customer’s journey, the better you can improve their experience.
What Is a Customer Journey Map?
Your customer’s journey (sometimes called a user journey) is their experience from the moment they first learn about your business, to when they engage in purchasing your product or service, to when they receive after-sales communication. It is the entire lifecycle your customer goes through to convert from a prospect to a satisfied customer.
So, what is a customer journey map?
A customer journey map is the visual representation of your customers’ journey when engaging with your business. Customer journey mapping is used by many companies to understand every detail of their customers’ experience from discovery, to purchase, to long term customer service and retention.
Why Is a Customer Journey Map Important?
There are many reasons creating a customer journey map is beneficial for your business. Although no two customer journeys are alike, a customer journey map can help you ensure consistency in providing a great customer experience. It takes time and practice to create a customer journey map that is clear and effective, but it’s worth the effort.
An effective customer journey map can help you better understand and empathize with your customers. In other words, it will help you put yourself in your customer’s shoes. The customer’s experience should be illustrated at every touchpoint, until they achieve “satisfied customer” status. By doing this, your company can identify improvements to make the experience more efficient and rewarding.
Business leaders create customer journey maps that accomplish the following:
Result in a Desired Outcome
Whether it be contacting you for a free consultation or purchasing from a specific product line, your map should have a specific purpose and goal in mind. Are you creating a map to improve customer service, generate more sales, or eliminate specific pain points? Use your map as a tool to clearly identify obstacles on this journey, address them, and then eliminate them.
Identify Touchpoints
In mapping the customer journey, touchpoints refer to the platforms or locations where customers interact with your business. It can be an advertisement, a social media post, a website, or a Google Search results page.
Customers often go through multiple touchpoints on their journey. For instance, they might have heard of your business from a Yelp review before visiting your website. Identifying all potential touchpoints your customer may go through will help you better understand how you can impact them.
Create Customer Personas
Every customer is unique, comes from a different background, and may have varying expectations. For instance, a facility manager looking for a vending provider might not be looking for the same supplier as an HR manager shopping for an employee retention solution.
Your customer base can be made of multiple types of customers. Part of a compelling customer journey mapping session is identifying and differentiating between each one. Creating different maps tailored to different customer personas ensures your solutions are personalized to that customer type. Personas are powerful tools for predicting different behaviors by customer groups and tailoring your products or services to give them what they are looking for.
Eliminate Barriers
Along their journey, a buyer’s desire to purchase can weaken as doubts creep in. Is this really the right choice? Should I think about this for a few more months? When mapping, anticipate barriers to closing the sale and create plans to reduce or eliminate them.
Many sales are influenced by price, and they can be lost if a lower-cost alternative is available. Train (or re-train) your team on how to sell value over cost and the points of differentiation that make your offerings unique over the competition. Consider if it is OK to offer discounts or incentives to compete in tough situations and what concessions will make an impact without too much sacrifice to the bottom line.
Be sure your marketing and sales materials are in sync and proactively address the questions and concerns that come to mind along the customer journey. This can effectively remove small barriers before they become big obstacles to closing a sale.
Retain
Your existing customers are one of your most valuable assets so it’s important to invest in a plan to ensure their satisfaction and retention. How are you maintaining contact with them post-sale? Your map should address the content you will generate to market to and serve your customers. You should continually evaluate this content to ensure it is timely, relevant, and interesting.
Keep your customers up to date on news and promotions through regular social media posts, emails, newsletters, and website updates. Blogs, guides, and ‘how tos’ are also excellent ways to help customers without being overly sales-focused. Overall, digital marketing is the quickest and most efficient way to reach your customer base. It can also attract new prospects to your website to learn more about your offerings.
Listen to your customers’ feedback on your products and services to understand what you are doing well and how you can improve. Encourage them to share their thoughts and make it convenient for them to do it. Many companies check in with their customers through email surveys or good old-fashioned phone calls. Progressive companies are using apps to make it even easier for customers to share their feedback through a simple text message.
Mapping your customers’ journey will help you understand their experiences while engaging with your business. It will allow you to identify and better relate to the different types of customers you are serving (or hoping to serve). And it will help you develop strategies to improve the process from beginning to the end. Considering the factors in this article will help you make your map more comprehensive and effective. Examples of customer journey maps are readily available online. Consider using one from your industry as a reference to help you get started.
Challenging times can provide companies with opportunities to prove to their customers and the rest of the world that they are there to help when it matters most. But, reaching your customers online with authentic and meaningful messaging often requires targeted, personalized content. This shows prospects you see and think beyond the obvious and connect with your customers creatively, and with empathy.
Show Customers You’re Listening
Personalized content is more important than ever in a world where people’s lives have changed so much due to COVID-19. Delivering the best personalized content requires strong marketing strategies and a seamless online experience to meet people where they are.
Think of it as a conversation. Imagine that someone is telling you about their day, and you’re either not fully listening or you don’t quite understand something they’ve said. You have a couple of options. 1) Respond with a generic “That’s nice” or a smile and head nod. 2) Guess what they’ve said and respond from that. For both options, the probability of success is low.
Your customers share their thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes, and their typical coffee order as data, and they know when you’re not listening. For example, industry-related topics are always beneficial when establishing your expertise in a particular field. But when you take it a step further and layer personalized content that speaks directly to a particular demographic–this is much more effective in grabbing their attention.
Adjust your messaging accordingly, and keep adjusting, because your customers are going to keep changing. You have to present the right message to the right customer on the right channel at the right time.
Deeper Connections Build Loyalty
Community and feeling connected are likely to remain important as we transition to a post COVID world. This will increase the value of customer relationships even further. Businesses that have taken steps to personally engage with customers during this difficult time will take customer loyalty to unprecedented levels, only seen before by the most iconic and most trusted brands. Over the years, those brands have built passionate customer loyalty. Difficult times call for creativity and new ideas. It is the perfect time to develop a personalized digital marketing strategy for retaining customers and gaining new ones.
VendCentral is a digital marketing agency solely focused on the refreshment services industry. Our team of digital marketing specialists can help deliver personalized, targeted messaging for your company. Interested to learn more about how we can help? Let’s chat! Contact us today to get started.