Let’s discuss eight smart naming strategies to guide a startup owner so that he/she can choose a name that works now and scales with the business.

Keep It Simple And Easy To Spell

If people cannot spell your startup name after hearing it once, that’s already a problem. You do not want to keep correcting people or watching them type it wrong. Simple names travel faster. They get shared more. Complicated ones just get forgotten.

Short Names Are Easier To Remember

Long names might explain everything, but nobody remembers them. Short names stay in your head. They also look better on logos, apps, emails, and social media. Most people do not have the patience for long brand names anymore.

Check The Domain Early

This part hurts sometimes. You find a name you love, then realise the domain is gone. That is why it’s better to check early. Having a clean website name matters more than people admit. Weird spellings and extra words make a brand feel smaller.

Do A Basic Legal Check

This isn’t the fun part, but it is important. If someone else already owns the name, it can turn into a mess later. Rebranding after growth is expensive and stressful. A little checking now saves a lot of regret.

Make Sure The Name Fits The Vibe

Your name should match what you’re trying to build. Serious, playful, techy, creative, whatever your startup is, the name should feel aligned. It doesn’t have to explain everything, but it should feel right.

Brainstorm Freely, Then Cut Hard

First, write everything down. Even bad ideas. Especially bad ideas. Later, shortlist only the ones that actually feel usable. If a name needs too much explaining, drop it.

Think About The Future, Not Just Today

Do not name your startup something that only works for one product or one city. You’ll probably change things later. Pick a name that gives you room to grow.

Say It Out Loud In Real Life

Say the name in a noisy place. See if people hear it correctly. Try using voice search. If it sounds confusing or awkward, it probably is.

The post Check out the smart strategies for naming a startup appeared first on International Finance.

So why is customer retention so important? Andrew Gibson, Director of Content Marketing at Skipio (a small-business software solution that is transforming customer communication forever), cites an old business rule that says it’s six times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep an existing one.

“In other words, it’s a heck of a lot harder to convince a new potential buyer that you’re worth their money than returning customers who already like your product or service. The key is making sure your current customers continue to like you. How do you do that? Well, let’s look at the top three reasons that customers leave businesses,” the marketing strategist states further.

Going Through The Stats

Emplifi, the leading unified customer experience platform, 2022 released “11 key things consumers expect from their brand experiences today,” a report that offered deep insights into customer expectations for B2C brand experiences.

The report talked about everything from expected customer service response times and preferred communication channels to just how integral CX is to brand loyalty. Surveying more than 2,000 consumers from the United States and the United Kingdom, Emplifi found that 86% of consumers would leave a brand they were once loyal to after only two to three bad customer service experiences. Some 63% of the survey participants confirmed they would leave a brand because of poor customer experience, and 49% admitted they had left a company they were loyal to in the past 12 months for that reason.

The survey only went on to prove how important customer experience (CX) is for a business’ growth. The report revealed slow response time as the leading contributor to a negative experience, followed by a lack of 24/7 customer service support. Some 52% of respondents expected brands to respond to customer service enquiries via digital channels within an hour, while 22% expressed a preference for social media, 19% for email and 16% for website chat.

In this article, we will discuss why companies face higher customer attrition rates at times and how they can solve the problem.

Be Mindful About ‘Bad Experience’

Citing a May 2024 study by HelpScout, Andrew Gibson stated that 78% of customers backed out of a purchase because of a bad service experience.

In the late 1970s, a study was commissioned by the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, and the top reason for customers leaving (over 70%) was the “rudeness or apathy from a company or brand employee”. Forty years down the line, this still has remained the primary reason behind customers not rallying behind a brand.

The remedy here is to train the employees about the “Customer First” and “Customer is God” approaches and they should not be let out of the shop’s door unless they are happy.

“Despite your best training efforts, though, there may still be times when a customer has a bad experience. In this case, it’s best to immediately remedy the situation and promise the customer that it won’t happen again. Throwing in a discount on their next purchase goes a long way in these situations. The quicker you do this, the more likely the customer will be to give you another chance,” Gibson remarked.

Customers Want Consistency

Consumers hate inconsistent information. If you are dialling a company’s customer support number with a question and don’t like the answer, what will you do? You will try to call back and ask some other customer service executive the same question, hoping for a different answer.

Self-service or digital support is becoming more popular. Customers are finding it quicker and easier to visit a website, read the frequently asked questions or interact with an AI-fuelled chatbot. However, there are times when they feel it necessary to talk to a human voice.

“It should be an easy, seamless transition, but some companies hide behind a wall of digital support and make it difficult for a customer to connect to a live agent. Furthermore, some companies bury their customer support number on their website, making it difficult, if not impossible, to find,” says world-renowned customer service and CX expert Shep Hyken, while citing a 2022 study, which found around 71% of customers ditching a company for the same reason.

“You can’t be great one day, not so great the next day, average another day, etc. Inconsistency erodes confidence. 59% of the customers we surveyed would walk if they didn’t know what to expect. Customers want a consistent and predictable experience. That gives them confidence that they know what to expect every time they do business with you,” Hyken added further.

Make The Rewards Tempting

Having a loyalty programme is a must for any 21st century business to ensure repeat visits and product buys from existing customers.

“It’s worth noting that the average American household is involved in 29 of these programmes, but did you know that they only actively use (earning or redeeming just one point per year) 12 of them? What does that tell you? That the loyalty programme itself isn’t enough to keep your customers coming back for more,” Andrew Gibson continued.

“For example, let’s say that there are two restaurants right down the block from your customer’s office. The food and service are fantastic at both, but one has a loyalty programme that gives them a free side for every USD 100 spent, and the other has a loyalty programme that gives them a free entree for every USD 100 spent. Now, where do you think your hungry customer is headed for lunch every day?” he added.

While the companies often get enticed by the proven “recipe” of rewarding customers for their loyalty like offering occasional discounts, letting them try out new products before release, and throwing in an extra service for free every now, customers sometimes want to be more than just another number.

Developing a personal relationship with their customers will not only increase a company’s loyalty game, but will give the customers a reason to brag to their friends about their favourite brand, serving two purposes at once: Customer Retention and Free Word of Mouth Advertising.

Honest Communication: Another Key

Long wait times and poor response times, or just failing to fix the problem are the major catalysts behind people ditching your products, as they believe that you gave them “Broken Promises.” Another phenomenon most companies fail to take note of is “Buyer’s Remorse,” a sense of regret customers experience after making a purchase, knowing that the investment from their end was big and they could have gone for a better alternative than your product. In some cases, buyer’s remorse can influence the customer leaving if they aren’t made to feel sufficiently comfortable in their purchase, and if negative consequences emerge early in the customer experience/relationship.

Here, the ability to communicate with customers (also giving honest replies to their queries becomes critical starting a strong customer relationship. Don’t keep your customers in the dark on important events.

You have to master the art of communicating consistently across channels like email, chat, phone etc. While it may sound like “too much hard work,” customers want an effortless experience and always seek businesses that will deal effectively with their queries.

Better Deals Always Await Customers

A customer can ditch you if he/she finds a considerably cheaper or more convenient deal for a comparable product or service elsewhere. In a competitive business environment, entrepreneurs always need to look out what their rivals are doing, in terms of quality, availability and price.

As a business leader, aim to be disruptive. At the same time, focus on developing loyalty programmes and customer retention strategies to ensure they are future-proof. In this age of AI and data science, market research tools are your best allies for understanding rapidly changing consumer behaviour.

Ensure that your deals are at the forefront of the customers’ minds. Business text messaging is a fantastic way to do this, as customers are always on their phones and getting updated on what’s new. As per a report from SimpleTexting, more than 90% of business owners see higher conversion rates via text messaging.

The post Why do customers leave a company? Finding reasons & solutions appeared first on International Finance.

“Customer experience is made up of so many factors, but ultimately it simply boils down to being solely about the customer. The focus is to make their experience a positive one from the moment they first encounter your business to the moment they either move away or place their 100th order. Along the way, you can do a lot for them by simply putting yourself in their shoes,” says Brian Sutter, a specialist in the field of sales and Marketing, along with customer services.

Now in this copy, we will talk about the ways in which businesses can improve their performances in the customer experience front, that too without hurting their purses much. Does focussing on improving customer experience matter? Yes, going by the fact that companies that deliver great customer experiences enjoy higher retention rates, higher brand value and higher stock prices due to consumer goodwill.

Be Friendly And Honest

“I’m sure you’ve walked into stores, restaurants, or offices where people were personable and happy. You have also probably walked into places where they were clearly unhappy, and it affected your experience with the business,” says Sutter.

So what does that mean? Even when decorated with posh furniture, a business establishment, where staffers are tense and defensive is not a nice place to be for the customers. On the other hand, a not-so-good-looking facility can still cheer its customers up with a jolly voice saying “Hello! What can I do for you?”

So the message is loud and clear here: create an environment within your establishment where your employees practice positivity. A hospitable bunch of staff will make people forget about spending the extra bit of money.

Also, train your staff to manage customers’ expectations about how their support experience will play out to avoid frustration down the road. Let’s explain this point further. Brian Reuter, former director of customer success at Zendesk, believes that it’s best to tell customers when they can expect to hear back from the company, during the customer support moments.

“If you send an email to my support team or my success team, and I give you an immediate response that says, ‘We typically get back to customers within four hours,’ you’re much less likely to get frustrated,” says Reuter.

In the fast-paced 21st century, customers expect immediate replies to their concerns/queries and a business needs to train its staff to handle this urgency in an utmost friendly, proactive and honest manner.

“A customer might expect a reply immediately and become annoyed the longer they wait. Send automatic emails establishing clear timelines for support responses, and tell on-hold callers how many customers are ahead of them or how long they may need to wait. If you have to get back to someone with a follow-up call or email, let them know when they can expect an update,” Reuter commented further.

Empower Your Employees

American Entrepreneur and investor Timothy Ferriss, in his book “The 4-Hour Workweek,” has described how he got out of the day-to-day management of his vitamin business and dramatically improved the customer experience by giving his employees authority to fix certain things on the spot. Employees were allowed to authorise any action that cost the company less than USD 100, as long as it made the customer happy.

The lesson learnt here: empower your staffers to make decisions on the go that will benefit themselves and the company. Not only will their leadership skills improve, but they will also feel emotionally invested in their company.

If your staffers want to keep the store open 15 minutes longer so a customer can pick something up, place a special order, or even wrap a gift, let them do it if they are professional and proactive enough. If these extra efforts are making the customers happy, it will boost your business prospects and brand value further.

Ask Your Employees To Engage With Customers

When it comes to gathering customer feedback, the prevalent practice among businesses is to commission studies by outside agencies. However, it can be avoided, since your staff can gather most of the insightful data by proactively engaging with the customers. They can learn about the common customer complaints, and the main reasons customers churn. So, you should instruct your employees to gather qualitative customer feedback on a regular basis.

“Your customer-facing teams are going to have a good feel for what the biggest customer pain points are. Do a stand-up and ask, what the worst part of our customer experience is?” says Dave Dyson, manager of community engagement at Zendesk.

“The problem may not have an easy fix, but talking to your team can at least help you understand what’s really at stake and what must be done about it. Of course, it’s important that you follow through—either by acting on your agents’ advice or informing them why you’re not able to implement changes at the moment. Your team needs to know that you value their opinion and appreciate their insights,” Zendesk commented further.

Keep Things Clean

First impressions and face value matter. Having clean windows, clean counters, and orderly spaces helps businesses not only look neat and nice, it also improves customers’ perception of the place by leaps and bounds. Add an energetic and hospitable bunch of staffers, and overnight, the brand value achieves newer heights.

And yes, keeping the place clean doesn’t cost much effort. For example, if you are running departmental stores, put an instruction for your employees to keep things clean and organised before and after the operational hours.

Work On Your Visibility

It’s 2024, and you still don’t have a basic website for your business? This is a big mistake for several reasons: You are making it difficult for people to learn about your business, neglecting the most effective marketing tactic, and, last but not least, giving your competitors an edge in terms of overall visibility.

Tech-savvy customers now prefer smartphone-friendly websites over fancy or expensive ones. More than half of a business’s visitors will access its website from a mobile device. In terms of online visibility, it’s important to be listed on Google Maps and other relevant platforms.

On the above point, United Kingdom-based software firm BrightLocal states, “Around 34% of consumers think a smart website gives a local business more credibility.”

Get your official pages on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) as well. While you have to pay money to X for this activity, on Facebook, it’s free. So the final choice is up to you, but the message here is that: give utmost priority towards the task of having a prominent presence in the social media space.

Also, try to include some basic artificial intelligence-powered elements like chatbots. In fact, chatbots will help your business to stay in touch with your customers 24*7, answering and attending to their concerns immediately.

“If your business is still on the fence about the benefits, you may be missing out on a big opportunity to provide excellent CX. Roughly one in five business leaders say they get a ‘very high’ return on investment from using AI or automation,” says Zendesk.

The post Want to improve customer experience cost-effectively? Here are the tips appeared first on International Finance.

December 7, 2016: “Iran stands at the heart of the PSA Group’s development strategy in the Middle East and Africa, and is one of the pillars of our international growth,” says a spokesperson of PSA Group, a French multinational manufacturer of automobile and motorcycles sold under the Peugeot, Citroën and DS Automobiles brands.

The statement probably explains how Iran stands as an important cog in the wheel for most auto companies in the world. Its importance can also be explained by the fact that it happens to be the first automotive industry in the Middle East and Africa region.

To give a little background, just before the sanctions were imposed in 2011, Iran had reached a peak of around 1.5 million units of vehicles annually — 11th largest in the world according to data by Atieh Bahar Consulting, a member of Atieh Group. However, after sanctions were imposed, foreign auto partners like Peugeot left Iran. This forced Iran to import. In 2012, the sedan car import rate, for example, showed 75% increase in comparison with the previous year.

According to data by International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), in 2014, the total sales, including that of commercial vehicles, put Iran as the 14th largest market in the world. This probably explains the renewed interest in the region for automakers of the world.

The lifting of sanctions has prompted talk of a market worth anywhere between two and three million units of vehicles annually. Hence, not surprisingly rival French car makers — the PSA Groupe and Renault, German automaker Volkswagen, Thai Summit group from Thailand and Bentley from the UK are stepping into the market. PSA Groupe and Renault have already announced some details of their plan for the Iran market, while rest are in negotiations and reaching agreements in the form of MOUs.

For instance, Peugeot has announced joint venture with Iran Khodro Group — Iran Khodro Automobiles Peugeot. It will invest up to €400 million within the next five years in industrial capacities as well as R&D. Last generation Peugeot vehicles will be produced (starting 2017) on a platform which Iran Khodro will also use to develop its own vehicles. Iran Khodro is an Iranian multinational automaker headquartered in Tehran.

“We have also got into a joint venture with the SAIPA group for the Citroen brand and commercial agreement with ARIAN Group for the commercialisation of the DS brand in the country,” says the spokesperson for PSA Groupe.

Maryam S. Taghavi Ahrami, manager of strategic intelligence unit, Atieh Bahar Consulting, says the industry is looking for an even development of value chain from part production to after sale services. “The government has put an emphasis to upgrade technological capabilities, changing management practices, and encouraging exports by strengthening cooperation with the world’s leading companies and finally aims at extending localisation of the auto industry,” says Ahrami.

Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade requires foreign firms to start their production with 40% of localisation. The ministry also looks for export of 30% of the cars produced by Iran and foreign side ventures to the target export markets.

The local companies are upbeat about the developments. One auto industrialist said, “Iran auto market enjoys undeniable potential and in case of the financial limitations termination, more top-tier companies from around the world would be willing for cooperation and the auto industry growth and development would accelerate. Furthermore, I believe the car demand is expected to increase to over 3.2 million units per year by 2035.”

Though the sanctions did put brakes to the otherwise growing industry, it has been a blessing in disguise for auto part makers. According to another auto industrialist, “Sanctions had paradoxical effects on the Iran auto industry. On the bright side, it led to self-sufficiency in auto parts making, which caused the engineering empowerment and boosted the learning spirit as well.”

The post Iran auto market up for grabs appeared first on International Finance.

IFM Correspondent

September 11, 2015: The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. This quote by Mahatma Gandhi is something that inspires Al-Jabri sisters Shatha and Wafa, founders of Meshan Dates and Sweets in Oman.

Their love for Oman’s treasured fruit gave birth to a unique range of refined dates and sweets in their mother’s kitchen. “The idea of Meshan Dates and Sweets came up a long time ago when my sisters and me decided to follow His Majesty’s call and give back to this beloved country by utilising the resources of the land,” says Shatha Al-Jabri.

Prior to launching Meshan, Shatha and Wafa were employed in public and private sectors. “We really wanted to give something back to our country rather than just be another number in a big organisation. And we had the feeling that we can turn our creativity into our business,” says Shatha.

We quickly identified that a powerful opportunity existed to create Oman’s first refined brand of dates that not only boasts exquisite flavour but also impeccable presentation. It was with this vision in mind that my sisters and me sought to elevate the Omani staple to its rightful place in the market by integrating a mix of traditional and modern flavours with innovation and artistic flare,” says Wafa. In 2011, they quit their jobs. Though they had the idea of the line of business they wanted to be in, they lacked the required practical training to start one. Hence, they joined a training course in preparing sweets and chocolates. They further honed their skills at home wherein they created different kinds of date-based sweets.

Shatha Al-Jabri

Wafa Al-Jabri

As the idea is revolutionary in how dates can be introduced and presented creatively, our first challenge was to educate the local market that dates can be an exquisite luxury gift,” Wafa says adding that besides the financial challenges, there were technical challenges, like lack of packaging suppliers and required skills such as marketing and finance skills. As their small business grew, their younger sisters, who studied hospitality management, also came on board.

According to Wafa, as a woman entrepreneur, she never faced any difficulty.

Shatha says that Oman provides a huge opportunity for women keen to start their own venture. “Actually, Omani women are privileged as they are empowered by His Majesty, who has selected October 17 as Omani Women Day. In Oman, women have good representations in all walks of life and hold important positions as minister, under secretary, ambassador.”

Today, the sisters are a dynamic force in Oman’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and an inspiration to other young Omanis who aspire to start their own business and leave a legacy of economic and social impact.

“Our vision is to become an iconic supplier of exceptional products that preserve local traditions, reinvent contemporary interpretations of date sweets and whose impeccable presentation and flavour fosters a love of dates that grows and matures, as a true love should,” says Wafa.

The post Taking Omani tradition to the world appeared first on International Finance.