Elevating Customer Experience: How Small Businesses Can Outshine Big Brands

Unless they’ve been hiding under a rock for the past decade, most small business owners must have noticed how customer expectation levels seem to continually increase, year after year.

Regardless of size, market, or industry, businesses are increasingly facing the challenge of meeting customer experience standards set by the world’s biggest brands. Giants like Amazon or Disney are setting the level of service quality, and customers are increasingly expecting the same level of service from everyone else.

Increasingly, customers aren’t just comparing us to local rivals. They’re measuring our service against how they’re treated by anyone – regardless of whether their competitors.

The Customer Experience Battlefield: Competing with Giants

Business marketing and communication have always been continually evolving processes, but never more than right now.

Generally speaking, the big brands nail it on the basics.

It might be a clean, clear, well-organized website that’s easy to navigate through, find the content you’re after and buy whatever it is that you want to buy.

Or perhaps it’s fantastic after-sales service where you’re immediately put through to someone who not only understands your issue, or gives the impression that they actually give a stuff, but (you feel) goes out of their way to turn that frown upside down.

Or maybe it’s a happy, friendly face at the counter, letting you know that you shouldn’t be buying that particular thing today, as it’s going to be on sale next week. Not only that, but they’d be happy to put it aside for you to collect the next time you come by.

But it’s not about head-to-head product competition. It’s about vying for unwavering customer loyalty and satisfaction through the delivery of an awesome customer experience. When a customer enjoys seamless online shopping with Amazon or magical service from Cathay Pacific, they expect the same level of excellence from our business, regardless of its size.

Big brands are setting the gold standard for customer experience. Customers want that from whoever they interact with. Even us.

Customer Service Helps Define Your Brand

As customers, all of use love being treated well. It’s one of the ways that brands keep us coming back for more.

Not only do we reward these brands with our continued business, but we use the way that we’re treated as a measure for all our buying experiences. That includes buying from you.

In other words some of the biggest, most successful and most valuable companies in the world are setting the rules by which your customers are judging how well (or otherwise) you’re serving them. Their level of expectation has been set.

Defining Customer Experience: Beyond the Basics

Business marketing and communications are continually ebb and flow, especially when we add marketing technology into the mix. Global brands have poured vast resources into crafting exceptional customer journeys.

For small businesses, this translates to:

• Seamless Online Presence: A mobile-responsive website with lightning-fast loading speeds, intuitive navigation, and crystal-clear product descriptions.
• Proactive Customer Support: Personalized follow-ups, responsive support across multiple channels (phone, email, SMS, chat), and swift issue resolution.
• Personalized Interactions: Authentic interactions, tailored recommendations, and empowered staff capable of resolving issues on the fly.
• Online Reputation Management: Vigilantly managing online reviews and social media interactions to help cultivate trust and credibility.

Technology: Leveling the Playing Field

The good news is that we no longer need to have a marketing budget comparable to the GDP of a small Eastern European country in order to hold our own against the big guns. Technology has leveled the playing field in terms of communication, distribution, engagement, measurement, design and application.

Technology has democratized the playing field. Affordable CRM systems, social media marketing tools, email automation, and e-commerce platforms empower small businesses to deliver personalized experiences and targeted campaigns that were once the exclusive domain of large corporations.

• CRM Systems: Tools like Zoho or HubSpot streamline customer interaction management and personalize communication.
• Social Media Marketing: Pretty much every media platform allows customer profile targeting and engagement as part of their advertising offering.
• Email Automation: Services like Kit (the new name for ConvertKit) facilitate personalized email campaigns and automated follow-ups.
• E-commerce Platforms: Solutions like Shopify and WooCommerce make online selling accessible to all.
• AI-powered Martech: Solutions like Expandi, SendSpark, and Clay enable quasi-personalization and automated outreach at scale.

The Human Element: Your Unique Advantage

What technology can’t (even AI) do for you, however, is all the stuff in between.

Technology can’t show how (and why) you’re different, and why your customers should be buying from you rather than the place down the street (or the other side of the globe). Your ability to cultivate personal relationships, offer tailored solutions, and provide genuine, attentive service is your superpower. Big brands can’t mimic the human connection.

Technology can’t replicate how you go the extra mile – for your customers, your suppliers and your staff. Most of all, technology isn’t a substitute for the passion that you and your employees bring to the table every single day.

You couldn’t wish for a bigger business advantage.