Customers of today have high expectations of the services, products, and treatment they want. The quality of service you provide has a direct impact on your business revenue and learning to communicate more effectively with your customers is now key to success.
In a survey undertaken by Microsoft, 96% of respondents said customer service played a role in their choice of, and loyalty to, a brand.
Satisfied customers
More people now research businesses and rely on customer reviews or word of mouth as a way of foreseeing how they’ll be treated as a customer.
Satisfied customers increase your business reputation, which is a good step towards attracting new business, whilst also retaining your existing customers.
One fail-safe way of ensuring customer satisfaction is through communication.
Customers want instant gratification – they want information and answers, and to receive their products and services promptly when they need it. This makes your job as a business more difficult.
There are countless ways to communicate with your customers including speaking with them directly, via emails, SMS, newsletters, social media, articles and blogs.
Customers generally value open channels of communication, with regular feedback and informative updates and even if it’s relaying something that’s gone wrong, customers don’t want to be left in the dark. The key for effective communication is to tell them what they need to know, when they need to know it.
Businesses that blog get 55% more web traffic.
The right communication at the right time can have a significant impact on your customers
It can leave your customers feeling good about the contact they’ve had with you. Customer satisfaction stems from helping your customers feel listened to, cared for, respected, and included in decision making. Most of all, customers want to feel like they are kept in the loop, especially with anything relating to them personally.
Your customers may one day forget what you said or did, but not how you made them feel
It’s these positive and emotive interactions you need to enforce through every communicative aspect of your business. Knowing when and how to speak to customers is vital, alongside knowing when to automate contact and when you need the personal touch.
Planning your customer journey and marking key touch points would add value to both your business and your customers.
For example, if you have a members’ online area and a customer logs in for the first time, you could send an automatic welcome email, but a more personable touch would be to follow up with a phone call to check everything is working for them.
This shows the customer that you’re making time for them, as well as valuing the feedback they have, and that as a business you care about what they really think. Actions like this would stay in a customer’s mind, giving them a sense of security in knowing that they can come direct to you with any requests in the future.
Find out more: Create a marketing strategy that works for your business.
Automate what you can to free up extra time for meaningful customer contact
There are tools that allow you to keep track of what you send out to customers and when, helping to automate regular communications such as blogs and newsletters, which can contact multiple people at one time. This frees up more time for you to create bespoke communication opportunities for one-to-one contact with your customer, when needed.
If you’d like some advice around how to create an effective customer journey to increase customer satisfaction – then we can help.
