PureFilters is one of my companies I don’t talk about enough, but it is a business that has received a lot of praise from customers. It was a bit serendipitous how I got into the filtration business a couple of years ago (a story that requires its own blog post), but since then we have grown to become one of the largest online air filtration suppliers in Canada.
If we could get over 250 of our customers excited for something as boring/mundane as furnace filters…you could do the same for your business.
Here is what we did:
1. Find Out The 3 Things Your Customers Care Most About
We figured price, speed of shipping, selection and availability were obvious factors, however there was one other important factor that surprised us.
–> Communication throughout the buying process was very key.
We came to realize that our customer base was much older (which makes sense, as most home-owners in Canada are older, the younger generation are simply priced out of the housing market). As a result, many of our customers just didn’t trust the internet and were hesitant of buying anything online. We realized that in order to build trust, we really needed to “hold their hands” throughout their buying process. This included things like:
- Having someone available to take phone support
- Rapid response rates for email inquiries
- Content which showed customers exactly what to expect, step-by-step
- Email follow-ups after the purchase
- Displaying reviews/satisfied customers front and center on our website
So the first step is to reach out to your customers, don’t be afraid to speak with them over the phone or email. In order to really scale your business and create a loyal following of customers, you need to understand your customers and the psychology that drives their buying behavior.
2. Build Your Entire Business Around These 3 Things
Jeff Bezos figured this out with Amazon a long time ago. His entire business philosophy revolves around optimizing the most important things Amazon customers care about, price, speed of delivery and selection.
Too often I hear business owners claim their business is “customer-focused”, but there is no real follow-through. After defining what the 3 most important things that matter to your customers, re-assess ALL of your business processes and policies. Optimize every aspect of your business around the 3 important factors your customers care about.
3. Make It Easy For Your Customer To Give Their Feedback & Ask For The Damn Review
No matter how much your customers were blown away by your product or service, very rarely will customers actually go out of their way to give you an online review. This was especially the case with our customers, who are older and therefore don’t spend too much time online.
So now we directly ask all of our customers to give us some feedback via online review, and give them a direct link to our Google reviews page. Without this step, your reviews page will remain lackluster, so don’t be afraid to reach out and ask your customers to write you a review.
Hope this helped, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. Until next time!
Hi there! I’m Jay Vasantharajah, Toronto-based entrepreneur and investor.
This is my personal blog where I share my experiences building businesses, making investments, managing personal finances, and traveling the world.
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