Communication are your most important asset. When you have a great customer experience, you’ve just created the gold mine that leads to greater loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing that can drive brand recognition and sales for your entire company. However, when the customer service experience isn’t so great, it can lead to your customers not wanting to return again or spread bad news about your brand. Great communication is crucial in every business, but it can be especially challenging in customer service businesses due to the unique challenges these companies face in working with irate, impatient and often emotionally-charged customers. This article will provide you with 5 effective ways to improve communication with your customers so they feel like valued customers instead of a number or inconvenience.
Create a culture of communication
The most successful companies know that the key to a great relationship with your customers is excellent communication. These companies are conscious of the fact that customers are looking for more than just the product. They want to feel heard, respected and like they are important to the business. In order to create a culture of communication, one of the most important things you can do is build a system of communication that spans the company. This communication should be centralized so that it doesn’t become siloed or silo-ed throughout the organization. If communication is siloed, you can’t get the full story on what’s happening and you’re missing opportunities to improve. Centralized communication can help you hear the customer voice and read their tone so you can respond appropriately.
Track the conversation
As a business, it is important to note how customers are responding to your messages. You don’t need to do this in real time, but you do need to be tracking how customers are responding to your communication. Throughout your daily communications with customers, take a moment to note something like “customer didn’t respond to my email” or “customer didn’t return my call.” You can also use tools like Sprout Social or Simplify Social to help you track these moments so you know what’s happening with your customers. At the end of each day, add up how many of these moments you saw. You can then use that as data so that you can see what areas you may need to improve on.
Ask for feedback
Every business should be trying to get customer feedback. If you’ve got a product or service that is being used by your customers, you want to know what they think about it. The best way to get customer feedback at a company-wide level is to ask your customers what they think. Put the following question at the end of every communication you send out to your customers: “If you could make one suggestion to improve our product, what would it be?” You can also use surveys and exit surveys to get customer feedback because customers are likely to express their thoughts in these ways. Start making a habit of asking your customers for feedback and you’ll quickly get a better view of the problems your products and services are facing and what customers would like to see changed.
Finally, wrap up the conversation
At the end of each communication, take the time to say something like “It was great talking to you today, please let us know if we can help you with anything else.” You can also add a “thank you” or “you’re welcome” at the end of your communications to show you’ve heard what customers are saying. These simple actions will help you close out the conversation with your customers. Again, it is important to close out each conversation with your customer with a positive note. If you keep the conversation positive, you’ll create a great impression so they’ll want to return to buy again.
