Customer connection goes beyond providing a product or service. It involves building a relationship with your customers that goes beyond the transactional aspect. 

Customers seek more than a solution to their needs, they also expect your team to provide support and assistance when needed. 

Your customers want to feel valued, appreciated, and recognized as individuals rather than just a number in your revenue books. Building a personal connection with them is a critical part of their overall journey with your brand.

This doesn’t magically happen in business. It needs to be intentional. In this blog, we will talk about 5 strategies to connect with your customers.

Are you ready? Let’s go!

Why is Customer Connection Important?

Customer Connection goes beyond mere communication. It involves a deliberate strategic effort by firms to foster strong relationships with their customers. Connected customers are more inclined to make repeat purchases and spread positive word-of-mouth referrals. Building a customer connection is a critical step toward customer retention and accelerating the growth of the firm. For the connection to be effective, it must be a two-way street where both the customer and the firm exchange information. A healthy relationship will drive profitable sales, customer loyalty, and referrals. Additionally, it’s crucial to deliver quality, support, and value to customers

What is the main problem with customer connection?

When a client needs help, nothing is more frustrating than a hard-to-find contact link and a slow-to-respond company. Six in 10 consumers have decided against an intended purchase or business transaction because of poor customer service, according to a report prepared for American Express.

These days, customers expect more from every interaction — and they’re not afraid to take their business elsewhere if they don’t get it.

How to overcome this?

Make sure your business meets—and exceeds—the client’s expectations every time by automating a process for responding to help inquiries.

Include a “contact us” link in every email to spare clients the task of locating it on your website. When a client clicks the link, automation software tells you, or a predetermined staff member, to follow up.

How does it work?

With an automated process, the client receives a better, faster, and more personalized answer than they would have by contacting a general phone number or email address. In the software, employee names can be added to a contact drop-down menu to ensure that to-dos are routed to the appropriate people

What are 5 strategies for customers to connect with your business?

1. Acquire knowledge about every individual customer.

This is an important step in customer connection. It’s time to commemorate the weeks or months of effort that went into cultivating a prospect relationship, which has now resulted in them becoming a customer.

A comprehensive onboarding experience should achieve two goals:

Firstly, it should affirm to your customer that they made the correct decision in partnering with your agency.

Secondly, it should eliminate any uncertainty by explicitly defining what the client can expect from the relationship.

The first objective is usually accomplished by sending a token of appreciation to your new customer, which is enjoyable.

Although it may seem unnecessary, such acts of goodwill position you as a partner rather than just another vendor to new clients.

To attain the second objective effectively, it is advisable to compose an introductory email that explicitly delineates the services your agency will provide to the client. This email should establish the client onboarding process, introduce your points of contact, provide a clear timeline of the upcoming steps, and offer a client onboarding checklist.

This level of transparency reassures your new clients that they have made a sound investment and bridges the gap between conversion and the onboarding process, so they don’t feel abandoned.

2. Attend to every customer issue.

It may seem like an obvious point, but your customers crave an exceptional experience when they reach out to your support team. They desire swift and seamless resolution of their issues.

To truly impress your customers, promptly address the root cause of their problems and offer speedy solutions. When setting your goals, aim for metrics such as speed of response, handling ratio, and handling time that exceeds industry standards, and ensure that your team is held accountable for achieving them.

If achieving this seems daunting, consider seeking assistance from a professional outsourced support team to help enhance your customer service as you expand.

Establishing a sense of partnership and camaraderie between your sales and support teams can also foster consistent positive experiences and strengthen connections with your customers.

3. Surpass your customer expectations

Surpassing the expectations of your clients is a top-notch strategy for establishing a strong bond with them. Contrary to popular belief, the first impression isn’t always the last impression. Every interaction with your customers presents an opportunity to create a positive and lasting impact. The accumulation of all these interactions forms the overall customer experience with your brand.

Hubspot highlights a personal experience of a frequent diner at a Mongolian Grill. On one occasion, the customer forgot their wallet and was unable to pay for their meal. The restaurant recognized their regular patronage and graciously offered to waive the fee for that day. This act of going above and beyond exceeded the customer’s expectations, resulting in greater brand loyalty.

Consider how you too can exceed the expectations of your clients. For example, you could empower your support team to pleasantly surprise customers with a complimentary month of your product or service.

4. Arrange a follow-up internal meeting after the kickoff.

Understanding your customers’ values is an essential part of building and maintaining strong relationships with them.

By understanding your customers’ values, you can tailor your interactions with them to their specific preferences.

For example, if you know that a customer values convenience above all else, you can make sure that your product or service is as easy to use and accessible as possible.

Alternatively, if a customer is primarily motivated by cost savings, you can emphasize the financial benefits of your offerings.

Overall, gaining insight into customer values is essential for building strong customer relationships.

By understanding what your customers find valuable and tailoring your interactions with them accordingly, you can create a positive and personalized experience that fosters loyalty and satisfaction.

5. Don’t forget to follow up.

Effective communication with clients is crucial for building a healthy and productive relationship, especially during the client onboarding process. However, it’s important to ensure that these communications serve a clear purpose, whether that’s making the client’s life easier or adding value to the project.

To facilitate this, it’s recommended to schedule regular monthly client meetings as part of the onboarding process. These meetings provide an opportunity for your team to address any concerns upfront as you work together. It’s also a chance to update clients on strategy developments and report on service outcomes, thereby reinforcing the value you are delivering. By staying top of mind for your clients, you increase the likelihood of referrals, more opportunities for upsells, and ultimately more profits.

To ensure that everyone is consistent, it’s a good practice to send a follow-up email after each meeting summarizing what was discussed and highlighting any action items for each team. This way, the customer has a concrete takeaway from the meeting and can track the progress of the project more easily.

These updates not only keep the client informed but also provide an opportunity to address any questions or concerns they may have and get ahead of potential roadblocks for the coming week. Furthermore, these updates serve as a reminder of the value that your firm is delivering to the client.

Conclusion

There are always new ways to connect with your customers, so it’s always a good idea to try something new. What we’ve discussed in this blog post are 5 really simple, yet effective ways to connect more with your customers. The key is to make sure your customers know you are truly listening to them and that you care about them. At the end of the day, your customers will realize that you care about them and that’s what really matters!

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Now, I’d love to hear from you.

Did you find these steps in small business marketing helpful?

I want to know about your journey. Let me know in the comments below and as always feel free to contact me!