As a business, it’s important that you’re connecting with your customers regularly, building up a relationship with them. Why is this so necessary? Well, without that relationship, there’s no trust or loyalty there and that’s useful to have if you want to hold onto customers for the long-term.
It’s less about singular transactions nowadays in business and more so about retaining your customers for as long as you serve a purpose to them. However, achieving that is challenging because there’s so much competition out there. It’s not as easy to just create the connection and for it to remain strong for a lifetime.
Chances are, you’re going to be proactively working to stay tight with your customers as a business in 2023. With that being said, this guide should give you a bit of an insight into how to connect with your customers as a business this year.
Don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach
First and foremost, every customer is going to be different from the next. That’s why it’s worth creating buyer personas when it comes to your customers. As a business, you’re more than likely to have more than one type of demographic. For example, you could sell products or services that attract both family households and single households.
These buyer personas are useful to have because they prevent your marketing and communication efforts from being tailored to just one type of audience member. By trying to fit everyone under the same umbrella, you’re likely to not hit the target audience you’re reaching effectively. Sure you might appease some audience members but that might not be the case for everyone else. With that being said, it’s worthwhile thinking about how you could create a tailored experience for each user that helps them feel more connected and seen by the business. Remember, that a customer-centric experience is often a preferred approach to customer interactions for 2023. Be proactive in responding to concerns and feedbackYour customers are the ones who are engaging, interacting, and using the products or services you sell as a business. Sure, you can do a lot of A/B testing, and market research and use the products/services yourself. However, those that become experts in what you sell, are your customers.
Why does that matter? Well in order for your products or services to be successful, they need to be enjoyed and have purpose to those that buy them. If there are problems or pinch points with those products or services, surely it’s better to know what they are. That way, you’re able to improve them.
It’s useful to be proactive in responding to concerns and not allowing these concerns to fall on deaf ears. The same goes for feedback. There’s likely a lot that your customers can share with you in order to help improve your services and communication in general.With that being said, think about feedback forms and other ways of communicating with your staff that might be helpful in getting a good understanding of how well your business is performing.
There are a lot of applications and tools that you can use within your business to help gather feedback and insight into how your business is performing. A few examples include:Typeform
Hubspot
Qualtrics
Keep communications personal
Communications should be as personal as you can make it but still remain professional to some capacity. As it’s been mentioned, a transactional relationship isn’t going to hold much loyalty and personalization that your customers might be after from you.
How do you make your communications personal with your customers? Well, perhaps you could consider a number of options. Here are a few ways to get started:
Ask for their preferences in communication
Not all customers are going to appreciate being phoned up or contacted in a more abrupt manner. Some might want communications only through the post or via email. Others might like to be prompted through social media messaging. Asking for their personal preferences when it comes to communication means your comms won’t come as a surprise or as invasive.
Personalize marketing correspondence
Have they signed up for your email newsletter? A good way to make it a more personable form of communication is to use their first names in the content of the email when introducing them to it.
You could also give them exclusive discounts with their name within the code. These little touches to your communications can make all the difference.
Create content that’s personalized
Of course, it might be a little more challenging and time-consuming to make personalized content for each and every customer.
However, you could take one of your buyer persona types that they sit under and use this to create content that’s personalized to that demographic.
Use live web chat services
If you’re accustomed to using the internet nowadays, chances are you’re going to come across a lot of websites that have live web chat services. They might not be manned by real people all the time and instead use chatbots for out-of-hours queries. However, a live web chat service is a great way to improve communications.
Like communication preferences, not every customer is going to want to use one specific type of communication line when interacting with your business. With a live web chat service, they may be able to get answers to their questions without needing to be on the receiving end of a phone call.
Even chatbots, with the use of a rich knowledge base, can use this information to help answer questions that customers might frequently ask about the business. A live chat for website business owners might be worth investing in and it’s not something that has to cost your company a fortune.
It’s another line of communication that comes in really handy for interacting with your customers on a regular basis.
Be active on social media
Social media continues to be a hive of activity and one that many businesses can make use of when it comes to connecting with their customers. If you’re looking to connect with your customers on a more personable level in 2023, then being active on social media is a great way to do so.
However, not all businesses are proficient when it comes to knowing truly how to exploit the benefits that come with social media. With that being said, here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to make the most out of social media.
Claim your brand or business name on all social media platforms
Do the research to understand where the majority of your audience is
Use one or two platforms, to begin with
Outsource your social media needs if needed
Create and generate regular content on the platforms
Being active on social media is challenging, especially when it comes to churning out regular content. However, there are plenty of agencies and marketing companies that will be more than willing to help with your social media needs, should you want to outsource them.
It’s important not to be afraid of social media because it can help with the communication of your customers more so than any other form of communication method. Maximize your use of it, whether it’s done in-house or you outsource it.
Use a CRM for nurturing all of your customers
Sometimes, communication efforts can get lost on certain customers. It’s an easy thing to do, especially when you don’t have any software to actively monitor and track your customers.
With that being said, using a CRM is a great way to nurture all of your customers and to understand where you might be going wrong with some.
A CRM, otherwise known as customer relationship management software is a great way of collecting all the data you have on your customers currently. It can identify where certain customers are within the sales funnel whether they’re merely leads or they’ve converted, becoming regular buyers of your products or services.
It’s a good way to track your marketing and sales performance, as well as note where the correspondence needs to be picked up between your business and the customer. There are lots of CRMs out there, so you’re spoilt for choice on which ones you choose to implement into the business.
They do range in price though so it’s good to get an idea of which ones will be the most effective for your business while remaining within budget.
Always go above and beyond
When it comes to connecting with your customers, always try to go above and beyond. That could look different from one business to another. However, in general, look at what you’re delivering to your customers currently and if there’s room for improvement, improve those communications.
It’s definitely important to do more where you can for your customers, especially as it can influence their experience and their willingness to come back for more. Not only that but their experiences might influence them to share their experiences with others who may also want to make use of your business offerings.
Connect with your customers more where possible, using these tips to help!