The relationship you have with your customers heavily relies on your ability to communicate. Whether you’re sending an email or speaking directly to them at the register, the impression that you make depends on your ability to communicate. Effective communication is necessary to conquer to ensure you can meet your goals and attract more customers over time. There are a few key dos and don’ts to be aware of as you continue to maintain and form relationships with your clients.
Remain Empathetic
Empathy is everything when relating to your customers. It shows that you truly care about your customers, especially when problems develop. It’s important to remember that customers won’t always have a great experience, whether they had a late delivery or weren’t satisfied with the services.
Listen to their complaints, avoid becoming defensive, and show that you understand their frustration to ensure they remain loyal to your organization. Take the necessary steps to ensure they’re satisfied and to appease their anger, whether it’s a full reimbursement for the goods or services or you provide them with a gift card for their next purchase.
Remain Prepared
Preparation is critical to ensure you develop a solid relationship with your audience and earn loyal customers who trust you. There will be times when your customers unexpectedly ask questions about the product or service, making it necessary to be prepared to prove you understand what you’re selling. Having deep knowledge and expertise about the products will prove that you believe in them and will earn the trust of potential customers.
Preparation requires showing that you understand the customers’ problems and have a solution. This also requires having knowledgeable experts on your team to ensure all questions are answered correctly.
Set the Correct Tone
Although many companies have various style guides they rely on with the operations of their business, they often fail to have a style guide for how they communicate with customers. You should plan ahead with what you want your tone to be when working directly with your customers, whether you want it to be friendly or conversational. This is one of the main factors that will determine how your audience perceives you and if you’re approachable. The voice you choose to adopt should be consistent with your web copy, emails, and even with your customer representatives when they spend time on the phone each day.
Don’t Be Hard to Reach
You can’t expect to develop a great relationship with your customers if you’re hard to reach. Your contact information should be clearly listed on your website, social media platforms, and on the packaging of your products to ensure your customers don’t have difficulty reaching out to you if they have a complaint or question. If you’re hard to get ahold of, customers will have less trust in your brand and may assume you have something to hide. It will also tell them that you don’t want to hear from them at any point.
Don’t Have a Difficult Vocabulary
Whether you’re communicating with your customers via email or texting online, they should be able to understand what you’re saying to avoid confusion. Avoid using difficult vocabulary words that the average person isn’t familiar with, which can be intimidating to your audience. Although it’s important to prove that you’re an expert, it doesn’t mean that you need to use big words to earn the trust of your customers. If you have to use any industry-specific words at any point, quickly explain them to ensure it’s easy for the other person to follow.
Avoid Making Promises You Can’t Keep
Although you likely want to do whatever possible to keep your customers happy when speaking with them, it should never come at the cost of your honesty or integrity. Avoid making any promises you can’t keep; otherwise, you’ll quickly lose their trust and will also make them unhappy. This will prove to backfire on the interactions you have with the audience.
Knowing the right rules to follow when it comes to effectively communicating with your customers is one of the stepping stones to growing your business. You’ll stand out amongst the competition and can grow larger following over time.
