“Good companies will meet needs; Great companies will create markets.” – Philip Kotler
This is the age of ‘fast’ – everything is now and always on. Smart technology is present in every aspect of life – it is fast and always available, which in turn has made people highly impatient and unwilling to wait for anything. The ‘online’ habit ensures that customers remain connected at all times and can conduct any kind of business at any time and from anywhere. This means that customers deem it unacceptable if companies do not respond in a timely manner or an unable to supply the product of their choice. Customers have a plethora of choices and in order to remain competitive, companies must devise ways of increasing customer demand for their brand / products. Generating such demand is not about putting out a product into the market – a company must first conduct research to ascertain exactly what customers want and need in order to make products that fit their requirements. Not only will a company be successful in increasing customer demand for their product but will establish itself as a market leader, thereby garnering more attention and demand for its products.
What steps has your company taken towards increasing customer demand for its products? To start with, an understanding of the market and the target customer base would be essential. There are a number of potential customers – the only problem is that some of them are apprehensive and do not want to try out or buy anything new. They need an impetus – a reason to buy. Increasing customer demand from this set would require your company to make efforts to understand what would make them buy, what are the reasons for the hesitation and what kind of products would excite them. This understanding could come about through surveys, online discussions via social media and or the company website and even through emailing short questionnaires to a select few.
As mentioned, customers have a number of companies and product choices now and hence they do not have any reason to stick with a company that makes it difficult to do business. With a view to increasing customer demand, companies must eliminate hassle and the pain of doing business – it is all about providing easy service and removing any obstructions the customer faces or is likely to face. Making the path of business smooth and alleviating the customer’s pain would be one of the top ways to increase customer demand.
We mentioned that customers want everything fast and now hence increasing customer demand would mean ensuring that customers do not have to wait for service of any kind. Their expectation of ‘now’ would need deft handling – a time lapse of a few seconds is all they should need to bear. Even if one company succeeds in doing so, customer expectation would rise for all others as well and hence all companies must be ready and agile in order to accommodate sudden rises in demand and expectation. If a company can keep up with the demand of urgency, it would be successful in increasing customer demand for its products and services.
When a company invests resources and time in making service personal and products personalized, it paves the way for increasing customer demand for the offerings. When customers feel emotionally connected to a brand, they are more likely to buy it repeatedly and encourage other sot do the same. A personal connection is potent and has huge recall potential and hence if a company expects to increase demand of its offerings, it must start by creating and building a personal rapport with the customers.
We have mentioned several times that part of great customer service is that it would make things easy and simple for customers and is a great way to increasing customer demand for the company’s brand. Payment processes can often be the cause of companies losing business and is often the reason that companies decide to choose brands of companies that offer simple and hassle-free payment options. It is no wonder then that companies are constantly looking to provide such options, with the idea of increasing customer demand for their products. In addition, to easy pay options, the other factor that could lead to an increase in customer demand, are products that are simple to understand and use and backed by solid customer service led by knowledgeable, friendly and trained staff.
Increasing customer demand would start with gaining attention for your business and brand, especially for a new business or a yet to be launched product. Getting the right kind of attention would be possible through great content. Messages and communiqués that go out from the company about the business should be interesting, engaging and informative. Content should convey the usefulness of the brand and products convincingly enough to garner demand. Content, in addition to being informative, must also be enticing and entertaining for the readers such that it does not only serve the purpose of only increasing customer demand but to sustain the demand on a regular basis. Companies are beginning to see the importance of content, are investing in regular features, blogs, articles and even interactive videos, and feature these on every possible channel of communication with customers. By churning out high quality content consistently, a company is able to build trust and a rapport with the target audience – an ideal way towards increasing customer demand.
A well-known fact is that customers believe the statements and testimonials of other customers a lot more than they would the best advertising campaigns of a company. Hence, in order to garner more customer demand companies must feature as many of the positive comments from their current customers as possible. These testimonials should appear in prominent places on the company website, social sites and any other place that has ‘prospective customer traffic’. Statistics reveal that at least 78% customers look at reviews before making a buying decision – so it makes good business sense to post the great reviews the company receives from customers. To seal the deal with prospective customers, offer one-time only discounts or incentives for ‘new’ customers who buy your products for the first time. Such offers would strengthen their interest in your company, especially post reading the great comments and the possibility of them becoming long-term customers increases significantly.
In their effort towards increasing customer demand, many companies put together loyalty programs that are aimed at ‘celebrating and acknowledging’ their most valuable and loyal customers. Customers who have been investing in the company expect such attention and appreciation and when they do get it, they would more likely to encourage others to do business with your company. Apart from great offers, this ‘exclusive set of customers’ would also be privy to proposed launches, new endeavours and other such ‘secrets’ that the company would reserve for the most valuable associates. Companies can benefit immensely from these loyal customers – they could be part of an advisory board, provide relevant and ‘inside’ feedback to the company and provide other such invaluable insights to the company. The more involved they would feel with the company, the harder they would try to gain success for both sides and would do their bit to help your company’s efforts of increasing customer demand for its brand.
The business world is unlikely to stop moving at an accelerated pace and those brands that can keep up and put together innovative ways to garner more attention, would gain success. The key point to remember is that they must keep the customer’s wants and needs in the forefront since despite every effort there still seems to be a huge gap between what customers actually want and what they end up buying. Those companies that can bridge this gap sooner and more effectively would not have any trouble increasing customer demand for their products on a sustained basis.
