“It is not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you”. – Patricia Fripp
Business is all about ensuring that customers buy from your company rather than your closest competitor. However, a company must first know and understand the factors that motivate customers to buy. It is necessary for companies to move over to proactivity and influence customer behaviour in a way that would make them feel engaged and close, choosing a company’s products over others. We know that customers buy for both emotional and logical reasons. They have needs, desires, and wants, which they expect would be fulfilled by the choices they make and the products they buy. It would be the job of a company to show customers why its products would benefit them and why they would not get better from anyone else.
A company would be able to motivate customers to buy by understanding their feelings, emotions, beliefs, thoughts, and values. The better a company understands these, the easier it would be for the company to mould customer behaviour in its favour. Not only would prospects become customers, but existing customers too would provide repeat business, and spread a good word about your company. If a company fails to motivate customers to buy they would seek fulfilment of their needs elsewhere, meaning that the company loses the customer to competition. A company that completely understands its customers / target audience would be able to harness their motivations to buy, which in turn would make it easier for customers to take swift decisions in favour of the company.
What steps does your company take to motivate customers to buy, and do these measures bring about the desired results? A company could do a number of things to ensure that prospects become customers, and existing customers stay on for a very long time. It is important to make things easy and convenient for customers. Actions such as user-friendly website and online presence, hours of operation, location, easy payment, swift delivery without follow up, efficient self-service, and other such actions make interacting with a company easy. The easier a company makes it, the more likely customers would be to pay more for a company’s service or product.
We know that resources are limited for everyone, and customers are no different. They want extra for every buck they spend, and a company that can give them extra value for the price it charges, would easily motivate customers to buy on a sustained basis. While price may not always be the deciding factor, it would become so if two companies were offering similar products and quality. Price would be what would sway a customer’s decision.
Personalized service is amongst the top motivating factors for any customer to begin an association and remain with a company for a long time. Courteous and empathetic treatment, attention to their needs, intelligent, and empowered customer service – all factors that would make a customer feel valued and important. The better a company gets at ensuring that every customer feels like a celebrity, the more customers would be likely to spread the positive word of mouth, which in turn would motivate even prospective customers to buy. The fact is that a company must pay more attention to existing customers, and do whatever it takes to keep them motivated. Doing so would make them inclined to share their positive experiences with others, drawing in more people to become buying customers.
We have mentioned several times that prospective customers and existing customers are more likely to prefer a company that comes across as transparent and honest. It is important to customers that a company does whatever it can to ensure their peace of mind. This can be done through transparent transactions, ease of paying, updated records, and other such behaviours that display the company’s commitment to integrity and honesty. The better a company gets at being transparent, the easier it would be to motivate customers to buy, and not look at any other company to fulfil their needs and expectations.
Another way to motivate customers to buy is by factoring in urgency and showing them that given the benefits of the company’s products it would be prudent for them to buy them now. Show customers that they need a product or service, not only because many people are discovering the benefits, but also because the product or service would save them huge amounts of time, energy, and even money. The company should be able to show customers that the money they spend on buying the product would be well spent and would be made up in a short time. It is also important for a company to provide assurance of safety and security of their personal information that customers give when they first associate with a company. Several instances of information leaks and security breaches have caused numerous problems to customers, making them wary of sharing information with companies. Companies that can keep the information of their existing customers safe are more likely to attract potential customers to begin buying.
We have mentioned several times that customers have many reasons to buy – and one of the main reasons is social standing and prestige. A company that is able to provide custom made items / products to customers that seek such products, would motivate them to buy and encourage their peer groups to buy from the company too. Custom-made products are usually expensive and only a few customers would be able to afford these products – but given the factor of exclusivity and uniqueness would make more customers want such products – a great way to motivate customers to buy more consistently.
It is known that customers return to companies that give them reason to feel happy and positive. It is a strong motivator to buy. When customers have happy experiences with a company, they are more likely to remember it and be persuaded to buy from it more often, and encourage others to do so as well. Positive behaviour from the company is a great way to engage customers, and over time build loyalty for the company. Positivity makes customers feel good about themselves and therefore with their association with a company, ensuring that they stay. Making customers feel good is a company’s way of telling customers that the association is all about them and their needs. This feeling of warmth and assurance is hard to beat, which ensures that customers never want to leave a company.
One of top ways to motivate customers to buy is by indicating that they would benefit and gain some great advantages from the association. Of course, the advantages must happen for the customers else, they would ultimately leave. Customers must feel an emotional connection with a company and its offerings. Over time they must be able to clearly state what they expect from a company, and the company in turn must clearly understand what their customers need and want and do whatever it takes to make sure customers have what they need. Given the many choices now, it is imperative for a company to give constantly reasons to return and motivate customers to buy – more each time. Customers may have a number of reasons and motivations to buy – but who they buy from would be a factor of how well a company can entice them, and show them why they would benefit from buying from only their company. Is your company able to motivate customers to buy or is it letting customers get away for a variety of reasons?
