Businesses that succeed do one thing consistently that sets them apart: they engage their customers in meaningful ways. Great companies are willing to go beyond transactional communications to connect with customers in a way that leaves a lasting impression and enhances the customer experience.
Given that customer experience plays a large role in distinguishing a successful business from an unsuccessful one, meaningful interactions are key to your success.
Identify Your Customer Touchpoints
If you wish to hold meaningful customer conversations, the first thing you should do is audit all your touchpoints. It is easy to take a narrow view of things and think of touchpoints as merely the billing counter or your social media handle. However, touchpoints are any points of contact throughout the buyer’s journey.
By this definition, everything from your storefront banners to pop up displays to customer service email, comes under the definition of touchpoints. Make a list of your business’s touchpoints and find ways to use these touchpoints to further the customer-brand conversation.
Capture Maximum Information on Your Customers
Personalization can help you genuinely connect with your customers. While 92% of marketers report using personalization techniques, a massive 55% of these feel like they do not have sufficient customer data to facilitate meaningful personalization. As such, you should find ways to encourage buyers to share personal information so that you can leverage it while communicating with them.
Referral programs, customer feedback surveys, and product reviews are great avenues for procuring this important information. You can use a CRM software to record important information like birthdays, product preferences, and addresses so you can send personalized packaging, coupons, and promotional items to your clientele.
Address Real-Life Customer Pain Points
Have you ever come across outdoor vinyl banners that appear to be speaking directly to you and your problems? What have you done then? Gone straight ahead and looked up the business, right? What you have experienced is the power of solving real-life pain points!
Understand your target audience and what plagues them. Then, rather than making grand promises, ground your offerings through practicality. Remember, it is always better to underpromise and over perform than vice versa. Focus on authenticity and practical product recommendations or directions to alleviate customer confusion.
Set Timelines to Respond to Customer Interactions
In the age of instant messaging, customers expect every bit of information to be handed to them instantly. Getting back to your customers too late or forgetting to respond to them entirely can cost you business. Setting clearly defined timelines (and communicating these to your customers) can avoid embarrassing situations and missed opportunities.
Apart from digital communications, where you can deploy tools like chatbots and autoresponders, you can consider circulating flyers and brochures containing FAQs to address pressing issues in the offline environment.
Maintain Brand Voice Consistency in Communications
Voice and tonality are critical elements of any form of communication. These gain more value for business communications as they lay the foundation for brand-building. Use the same brand voice and tone consistently to create familiarity between your business and customers. With this in mind, you need to establish guidelines for maintaining that level of consistency, whether your message is printed on decals or emails!
Keep Training Your Support Teams
A properly trained team of staff should be an integral part of customer experience management, regardless of the size of your support team. Since you will be making several policy decisions, such as your communication timelines, brand voice, etc. (all while reevaluating how you communicate with your customers), your support teams must be competent so that they may execute what you implement.
Meet Customers on Their Turf
You cannot expect to connect with your customers over the telephone if they are standing right outside your store and staring at your window display! What you will need, in this case, would be some window decals. In other words, you need to be where your customers are so that you can connect with them.
If they prefer online promotions, use targeted ads via social media. If they prefer offline advertising, use spaces for vinyl banners, window decals, and flyers. Knowing your target audiences and their communication preferences can help you in more ways than one in aligning your touch points as per their expectations.
Go Above and Beyond in Serving Your Customers
You can put several banners claiming to be the most customer-friendly business in the world, and you would still not be perceived as such if you fail to act that way. Showing instead of telling will help you add meaning and action to the words that you convey to your customers. Such positive interactions will accrue and earn you customer goodwill.
Show a Genuine Interest
Whatever you do, remember to build authentic connections. Talking to your customers about their experiences is a great way to flow the conversation and lend insight into the customer pain points, expectations, preferences, and more.
This allows you to display empathy and connect on a human level. Let your personality shine, even if you are dealing with a disgruntled customer, and you will achieve customer success.
Ask for Feedback and Suggestions
Ask your customers for their inputs and opinions to let them know that they matter. Respond to their comments, positive or negative, to show that you are listening and acting on them.
Apart from making them feel valued and special, the feedback, reviews, and suggestions that you capture can help your business improve on various fronts. Share messages of customer appreciation, invite them to be a part of your brand narrative, and provide content that alleviates their pain points. This formula is the recipe for meaningful customer conversations and marketing success.
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