4 Ways To Improve Customer Relations
Today, building and maintaining a solid relationship with your customers is more important than ever. Due to the large number of companies present on the market and the strong competition, consumers are more demanding and less brand loyal. With so much choice, there’s less need for them to stay with one company. This is the reason why building a strong relationship with your clients is a key to success. This might sound straight forward, but when it comes to putting it into practice, it’s not as simple as that.
At Sierra Marketing, we aim to simplify your Marketing strategy. So, here are 4 ways to improve customer relations. Get in touch to find out more!
1. Communicate as a person
Every interaction with a customer is a great opportunity to focus on building customer relationships. The common mistake that is made is to transform employees into robots that will say exactly the same thing to every client. The truth is, customers hate that. They are looking for individual support and tailored communication, not toneless, cookie-cutter customer service. This kind of customer service is all the more incredible because there are only benefits to being understanding and acting like a friendly human-being with your customers. When you’re communicating with your clients, make sure you use their names, make jokes, and be polite but conversational.
2. Know your customers
Building a strong relationship with your customers is like becoming friends with someone. You spend time with them, you remember their name, their needs and wants, how many children they have and where they went on holidays. It can seem excessive but nowadays, the easiest way to differentiate your business is by the customer experience you deliver. If you want to go further, and depending on your business, you can even do a little bit of research on your favourite clients and connect with them on LinkedIn.
3. Handle customer complaints
Critics and complaints can be difficult to accept, but they are actually a perfect opportunity to improve your business. It’s hard to do but try and see customer complaints as a positive. Obviously there will be times when you are met with unrealistic requests/complaints, however a lot of the time, the root of the customer complaint is an area that can be improved. Also, remember that it is much better to know what your customers’ issues are, rather than have them speak ill about you to their network and post negative reviews online. Having an open line of communication between your customers and your business is best so your clients know that they can come to you as issues arise. An important thing to remember here is to offer realistic solutions. Don’t offer a solution that you’re not sure of, or that won’t resolve the issue. After you resolve a customer complaint, your relationship with that customers will be significantly improved as they will know that they can rely on you, and that they can trust your brand.
4. Keep in touch
An important part of any relationship is to keep in touch. This is especially true for business relationships. Even though communication and relationships are a two-way street, you have to make the most of every opportunity to strengthen customer relations. Here again, the benefits of this practice are numerous. Staying in touch gives you the opportunity to track your customer’s sentiment towards your business and their experience with your business, as well as resolve any issues before they become too large. Keeping in touch with customers can be quite straight forward. One of the best ways to regularly touch base is by sending a monthly newsletter, or organising regular meetings with them.
As you have just read, there is no doubt that building a strong relationship with your customers should be one of your top business priorities. This will differentiate you from the crowd and will help to improve your business. For more information on how to improve your customer relations, get in touch!
Clémence Barthélemy
Clémence is a Junior Marketing Assistant at Sierra Marketing. Joining the Sierra team, Clémence got to experience the various facets of marketing. Her work at Sierra Marketing mostly focuses on online marketing, social media and community management. Through Clémence’s work for different clients, she found a passion for digital marketing.
