Connection with customers is essential. It allows you to get to know the customers, which is important if you want to sell products that meet their needs. It is important to build trust with the customer and cut down the costs of acquiring new ones.
1. Increase Social Media Engagement
Social media has become a part of everyday life, and a great way for business owners to stay connected to their customers, and there are many social media platforms that you can use, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and in many different ways that you can engage with old and potential customers, such as through posts, stories, and reels. You can show them what you are doing, make new announcements, share blogs, and even tiny bits of behind-the-scenes so that customers can feel like they are part of the process, too. You can also engage with your customers in comments under posts and reply to their queries to create good customer service. You can also automate direct messaging so that any queries that your customers make can be answered instantly. You can also establish an integrated customer feedback network so that all complaint channels on all social media are interconnected, and the customer does not have to repeat their story on multiple occasions. 86% of buyers say they’ll pay more for a better experience, which shows how important it is to have good customer service.
2. Send Personalized Email Campaigns
Gone are the days when you could send generic emails to your customer base. Customers now want solutions that cater to their specific problems. If you group your customers, it makes you look disingenuous, so try to make your customer feel special. Do not be transactional; rather, consult the client and try to have a conversation with them so that they can know that your intentions are pure and that you care about creating value with the client. Instead of making a sales pitch and going all out and talking about your product, first try to understand the business of the client and what their needs are.
3. Face-to-Face Time
Due to increased amounts of online transactions, face-to-face interactions have reduced, which are, in fact, the most important channels for engagement with customers, and if you do not have a physical shop, you can interact with your customers at trade shows, industry events, and local meetups. If not, you can also talk to them online via Skype, FaceTime, or host a Webinar. The idea is to basically let them know that they are not interacting with a faceless brand.
4. The Art of Following Up
Following up on your customers is a great way to keep them happy, as it makes them feel acknowledged and lets them know that their opinion matters, and helps them create a connection with you. So, thank customers for their purchase and checkup a few days later to ensure that they enjoyed using the product. You can also send holiday cards or gift cards after a few months so that customers get reminded of your business and consider making a purchase again. You can do this through emails or use an automated texting service to ensure that customers get prompt follow-ups. Following up also ensures that if there are unhappy customers, they are filtered out and their issues are resolved there and then before they end up leaving a review online, which could be bad for your business.
5. Collect and Act on Feedback
Create platforms where customers can easily reach out to you for feedback. For this, you need to first provide them with the ability to easily communicate their feedback to you through forms, portals, and suggestion boxes. You can send them automated emails right after the purchase of a product to gather feedback on how they felt after using it. But collecting feedback is not everything, as you also need to act on it. Constantly go over the feedback that you are receiving and reach out to customers who have filed a complaint. If there is a problem that keeps recurring, try to look for a solution to it.
Conclusion
Ensure that you always keep the door for customer interaction open, and engage with them during all moments of their customer journey to constantly remind them that you are available to help them out and that they can reach out to you if they have any concerns.
