Communication in business is a skill and art. Good communication makes customers feel valued which can boost revenue. Communicating with customers strengthens relationships and is necessary for business success.
But how to communicate with customers is a problem for many companies. So what are some tips? This guide explains seven tips for effective customer communication.
1. Understand Your Customer
You can’t create an effective communication strategy if you don’t understand your customer. Your message is for the customer. You must know how they think, behave or act about your communication strategy.
Understanding your audience allows you to create a message that resonates with them. It also allows for better targeting efforts. Also, it further adds more fuel power to your customer communication strategies.
Make sure you find out the channels that your customers often frequent. That way, you can position your strategy so it’s likely to reach your customers.
Thinking about how your persona talks can help you adjust your tone for better results. Create communication strategies that center on a persona-representative of your entire audience.
2. Create a Consistent Customer Communication Strategy
Without consistency, customer service communication can damage your brand. Customers getting a different message from your departments ruins the customer experience.
Confusing internal processes can mislead or annoy customers. Think of your teams using different software or language to reach the same customer. The result is you incurring tons of costs but not leaving any desirable impact on customers.
To keep communication consistent, define clear communication guidelines and centralize customer communication. Determine the channels, language, tone, voice and terms you will use for communicating with customers.
If you’re creating automated greetings, make sure the presentation is consistent. Consistency is not only professional but also boosts recognition of the message. It would always be best to use professional voice recording in this case.
3. Personalize Customer Service Communication
Personalization is a great tactic to improve how to communicate with customers. 61% of customers expect brands to tailor experiences based on their preferences.
Personalization in customer service communication involves individualizing interactions and messaging. Your message shows that you know who you’re talking to. It also shows you can remember a customer’s history with your business.
An example of personalized communication is automated product descriptions. For example, messages like “people who bought this product also viewed this product”. You could also try a personalized email that reminds customers about an incomplete transaction like an abandoned cart.
4. Follow Customer Communication Best Practices
Customer service communication is about making customers like you. If your team is unprofessional, customers will move to other brands. 85% of customers improve their brand commitment after a positive customer experience.
Here are some best practices to improve customer service communication:
Active Listening
Practice active listening to figure out customer wants, questions, opinions and feedback. Customers want to know you’re paying attention to their interests. Focus on what they say before asking questions or providing solutions.
Be Friendlier
Improve customer communication by adding a personal touch. Address customers by their name, be conversational and add some humor.
Use Positive Language
Use positive words and gestures when communicating with customers. Make customers feel safe and reassured when working with you. Affirming phrases sound best and are more reassuring.
Avoid Jargon
Avoid complex terms and terminologies that most customers may not understand. Use simple words and phrases to ensure customers don’t miss out on the intended meaning.
Be Empathetic
A study showed empathy can boost interpersonal trust and partnerships. Put yourself in customers’ shoes. Always try to understand the situation from their perspective.
Set Customer Expectations
Can you go over and beyond the call of duty to impress your customer? Exceed customer expectations by under-promising and over-delivering. This is the way to win a lifetime customer.
5. Provide Real-Time Support
Effective customer service communication is tied to how fast you respond to customers. People want instant responses. 73% of customers say valuing their time is the best thing you can do for good online customer service.
Enable real-time support to stay ahead of your customers. Get to know which channels your customers use the most and at what time. By doing this, you can know which channels need 24/7 customer service agents.
Have someone responding to social media messages, SMS or chats 24/7. Also, make sure customers always find someone to pick their call during working hours.
Another strategy is to use automated customer communication chatbots. Chatbots can provide 24/7 support and ensure customer satisfaction during non-working hours. They can also provide real-time answers and help customers make informed buying decisions.
6. Enable Self Service to Speed up Customer Communication
Enabling self-service also helps provide 24/7 customer service communication. Customers can use self-service to find answers to their problems. You also improve productivity because your agents don’t spend answering routine questions.
Use digital tools to create a self-service solution for your customers. Create a knowledge base comprising videos and texts to answer FAQs. This not only boosts service but also expands customer’s knowledge about your products.
Also, set up forums and support groups to enable customers to help each other. Sometimes, customers who have experienced a problem will want to share.
7. Seek Customer Service Feedback
To improve customer feedback quality, find out what customers think about your service. You can do this by collecting feedback from your customers.
Knowing what they think and come up with improvements. This is often one of the best ways to improve customer communication. You can’t rely on sales results because they may not show the current state of customer service.
Create questionnaires, polls and surveys to collect feedback. Also, ask customers to give suggestions on what areas of customer service to improve. Most customers are honest. They will provide you with an honest review of your agent’s attitude or the quality of your services.
Get Customer Communication Right to Improve Your Business
Customer communication can sometimes make or break your business. Excellent customer service communications grow a happy customer base. If you slip up on providing good communication, customers will look for better service elsewhere.
Be proactive in how much you extend great customer service communication in your business. For more tips on nurturing customers and effective communication in business, read the rest of our blog.
