In China, it is not enough to open a shop, invest money in setting up or ensure the quality of products. What is important for companies in the management of the customer relationship with the brand. Customer service can be offered in many ways, such as simplifying payment processes, avoiding the long wait for parking time, improving service delivery, expressing the value, image, mission, and story of the brand. All this is necessary to improve the customer-brand relationship and express trust in the customer who will surely speak about your brand in a positive way. This is all-important in China as consumers tend to seek advice from other consumers or trusted people to buy products. Therefore, the more people talk about you in a positive way, the more success in the Chinese market will be ensured.
Why is customer service important in China?
Customer service is important to companies in China because it keeps customers and derives more value from them. By providing first-rate customer service, businesses recoup customer acquisition costs and cultivate a loyal following. Loyal customers will help you acquire new customers as their positive comments will be more effective and cheaper than any of your current marketing efforts.
Three reasons why customer service is important in China:
- Happy customers will refer others
When customers are happy with your customer service, they’re more likely to spread it to friends, family, and coworkers. In this way, consumers can be your best and cheapest form of word-of-mouth advertising, as long as you give them a reason to do so. This is very important in China as people only buy products after receiving advice.
- Good customer service encourages customers loyalty
If a customer has a positive experience with your brand, there’s no reason for them to look elsewhere.
- Good customer service is a competitive advantage
Good customer service is the key to keeping customers loyal and choosing your brand rather than another one. 60% of customers stop doing business with a brand after one poor service experience.
What are the points that brands need to focus on to create good customer service?
Branding is the first way to create a good customer relationship
Companies should offer Chinese consumers a reason to buy. In this sense, branding is essential. A significant part of the overall perception of value is created by branding. Brands should invest in communicating with consumers, telling their story and brand values:
- Make the consumer participate and part of the brand,
- Create a closer bond,
- Have the consumer feel in a safe place to buy the desired products.
Brands must include the feelings a brand wants to evoke. If the brand experience is not clearly defined, there will be no experience. If there is no experience, there will be no memory, and, without a meaningful memory, no value is created.
In China, consumers tend not to trust brands they don’t know, so this is a great way to get closer to the consumer and get them back to buy your products thanks to great customer service.
Teaching your staff about the brand’s value and story
Brands need to train their staff on all aspects of the history, image, mission, and value of the brand as they are the first people to connect with customers. Your customer support team is your connection with your customers. Therefore, that team has a responsibility to represent your brand to them.
This is especially true in China, where Gen Z and young millennials, for example, surround themselves with brands that share their values.
Staff must be able to understand the evolving needs of Chinese customers, so they can deliver a personalized service experience that customers will remember.
Brands and therefore staff is tasked with inspiring, delighting, and creating positive memories for customers and not just selling beautiful, quality products.
Empowering staff is essential, especially in times of crisis and rapid change. Brands need to make sure they put their staff in a position where they can create brand memories through proper training. Otherwise, your customer’s physical experience will not only be meaningless, but it will also help destroy your brand.
Good service delivery means a more positive attitude to buy products
Service delivery management refers to all the necessary steps that need to be taken to ensure effective delivery to a client. If done right, the work you do here can positively influence your brand’s image and customer satisfaction rates.
If delivery services are slow, Chinese consumers tend to change their minds and not buy your product but that of another competitor. They are in fact very demanding and tend to prefer fast deliveries of one day or a few hours.
Fast payment service to entice customers to buy your products
Over the past few years, paying with a mobile phone has become a daily gesture in China. The Chinese use these applications to pay for anything so they are essential for brands that want to sell in China.
The fast payment system connects traditional banks and electronic payment and digital wallet operators. Users are able to perform instant money transfers or make payments to merchants by using the recipient’s phone number or QR code that contains the user’s numeric identifier.
The most used payment service in China is Wechat Pay or Alipay. Thus, brands should provide this kind of fast payment service to entice Chinese customers to buy their products.
What are the tools that companies can use to create good customer service in China?
In China, customers make assumptions based on your social media presence, advertisements, content, and other external marketing. Therefore, companies should focus and strive to express brand value and offer great customer service on channels such as social media, Q&A platforms, or e-commerce platforms.
Wechat is the best social media where to build a good customer-brand relationship
WeChat, the most used social media platform in China, offers companies excellent customer management service. Thanks to its many models, it offers brands the opportunity to promote brand value through articles and manage the relationship with the customer through private chats.
In particular, WeChat mini-programs (Sub-applications within the Wechat ecosystem which enable to provide of advanced features to users such as e-commerce, task management, coupons, etc.) are a good way to develop customer loyalty because, through the creation of the brand mini-program, people can receive special information and discounts. In this way, brands give people new reasons to buy.
Question and answer platforms to spread positive comments
Positive feedback in China is key to getting consumers to buy your products. In fact, as previously mentioned, before buying, the Chinese look for information, comments, and positive reviews on social networks like Xiaohongshu or question-and-answer platforms like Zhihu.
Chinese people tend to buy products only if they have positive reviews. Therefore, brands should use these platforms to generate positive customer feedback, and what’s the best way but to offer good customer service?
E-commerce platforms are based on a good delivery process and fast payments
E-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are great ways to sell your products as they offer a very fast and efficient delivery service. They also offer the possibility to pay for products through fast payment tools.
GMA is the best partner to create good customer service in China
Gentlemen Marketing Agency is a Digital Marketing Agency that is an expert in helping foreign companies to establish or strengthen their position in China. Contact us!
We offer several services that can help you to create good customer service in China like social media management, Q&A platforms management, and e-commerce store management.
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