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In 2018, Sprout Social surveyed over 1,000 customers to understand their expectations of businesses. It found that 64% of respondents wanted brands to connect with them.
What does this number suggest?
Well, it suggests that –
When customers feel connected with a brand, they show more engagement and loyalty. Connected customers are also more satisfied with the quality of products and services.
In this blog, we will explore customer connection in detail and understand why it’s important for businesses. We will also discuss real-life examples from across industries and share tips to boost customer connection.
But before moving further, let’s understand the basic concept better and in detail.
Customer connection is the emotional and psychological bond customers form with a brand. Such bonds are often built over time through consistent and positive experiences, interactions, and communication.
The quality of products or services a business offers is a big contributing factor in the kind of customer connection it enjoys. However, such relationships often go beyond the transactions and involve a deeper level of engagement and loyalty.
Customer connection can be based on several things, including:
We already know that winning new customers is considerably costlier than retaining existing ones. But have you wondered why? Well, existing customers feel connected with the business and they stick for long as they get value.
There are many other reasons as well that show why customer connection is important for businesses:
Customers today don’t just rely on one channel alone to reach a business. With so many different channels available around, they can use multiple channels for engagement. That’s why it would be ideal for companies to prioritize customer experiences across touchpoints.
Let’s look at the key elements of connected customer experience –
Customers have high expectations. They also want exceptional service at each stage of their journey with a brand. If a business caters to them well and serves their needs, they are less likely to switch to a competitor.
Here are 10 tips on how to connect with customers.
What makes customers happy? This information is something that a business needs to collect to better understand and serve its customers. After all, products, services, and experiences are three key factors that customers cherish the most in their engagement with a brand.
If your product lacks quality, forging connections will be hard no matter how much you try. The same is true with service and experience. So, it’s important to first understand what customers value the most in your products and services.
Giving customers value is one of the essential aspects of building a connection with them. It’s therefore important to know what customers like and what not. Based on that, your business can always deliver value more often and connect with customers at a deep level.
Without a customer-first approach, can your business build a strong customer connection? No, it can’t. Unless your business puts the customer’s interests at the center of attention, it can never win their confidence. This is why developing a customer-centric approach is vital to winning loyal customers.
A customer-centric approach shows you take an effort to understand your audience on a deep level. This approach also prioritizes customer preferences and pain points. You develop a customer-focussed mindset and each department in your organization – from top to bottom – works to delight customers.
Gone are the days when generic messages ruled the marketing landscape. Times have changed, and so do the needs and preferences of customers. Today, customers prefer personalized communication as it strikes them at deep levels. Such communications are tailored based on the specific interests of individual customers.
From emails to social ads, and product recommendations, personalization can take many forms. The focus is to create personalized experiences that fit well with customers and serve their needs perfectly. This strategy is very powerful in building customer connections and gaining their loyalty to your brand.
Customers feel engaged and connected with a brand that understands their needs. They also stick and show loyalty when a business attempts to deliver value to them. Anticipating buyer’s needs is also the key to building lasting relationships with them.
Similarly, the churn rate is minimized when a business consistently delivers on customer needs. However, many businesses ignore customer needs and rather focus more on other aspects such as product development etc. This approach is not right considering how meeting customer needs is the only way to keep them happy.
Addressing customer problems and pain points is the most important aspect of building a connection with them. The more customer issues and concerns you solve, the better connections you will form with them.
When it comes to solving customer issues, the best approach is to be always available for them. It’s equally important to address customer issues promptly and reduce wait times because customers hate to wait.
No two customers are alike. Each of them has unique needs and preferences. It’s therefore essential to understand customer diversity. This approach can help you connect with your customers on a deeper level. It will also help you adopt a more nuanced and personalized approach to building connections with them.
Understanding customer diversity means you need to know how each segment of your customers can have varied preferences. They may also vary based on demographics, psychographics, and purchasing behavior.
Customers look for convenience in every aspect of their engagement with a brand. The more a business makes things convenient for them, the more it gains. When we talk about “convenience”, it means ensuring a hassle-free experience for customers at each touchpoint.
It also means effortlessly guiding customers through different stages of the sales funnel. Make sure all your communications and interactions are aligned with the specific needs of your audience. Convenience also means giving your customers ease of connecting to your business for support.
Feedback is the best way to understand whether customers are getting value or not. It’s also helpful to understand and identify areas for improvement. When you collect feedback regularly, it also provides you with deep insights into customer needs, resulting in opportunities for product or service enhancement.
Collecting customer feedback after every interaction is vital for knowing the likes and dislikes of your audience. It prepares you to anticipate customer preferences better and serve them in the way they expect. Feedback can also serve as a guideline for directing your communication with customers.
Adopting a single-channel approach for customer engagement is not the right strategy in today’s time. After all, customers now use more than one channel to connect and engage with a brand. They also want the freedom to choose the channel of choice in connecting with a brand.
It shows how using multiple channels is the key to a successful customer engagement strategy. If your business does not have a presence across channels, it may risk losing customers to competitors. What’s more, it’s equally important to connect all the channels to offer a seamless experience for customers.
Customer engagement should be an ongoing process for your business. It should never end with the purchase itself. The ideal approach is to keep the door open for future connections. Many businesses make the mistake of not following up with their customers, so they fail to build lasting connections.
Make sure you keep the window open for future engagement. Once you adopt the strategy of reaching out to customers post-purchase, they will also reciprocate and find ways to get back to you. It’s essential to encourage them to reach out to you for any query or concern.
The way a business approaches customers and engages with them goes a long way in creating connections. Being mindful of customers’ problems and offering them help as and when due is essential to creating immediate connections.
Here are phrases that can help you immediately create connections with customers:
It requires a strategic approach to build strong customer & client connections. Your business not only needs to adopt a customer-first philosophy but also ensure value with each interaction.
Here are the best practices for building customer & client connections:
Starbucks is a brand that takes customer experience very seriously. It always strives to forge connections with customers on a personal level. Two of its strategies are particularly noteworthy for customer connections – personalizing its drinks and offering a customized loyalty program. More so, the brand actively engages with customers on social media, shares user-generated content, and promptly responds to comments.
Nike always aces the game of building connections with customers. It aptly leverages the power of storytelling and inspirational messaging through its communication and strikes a chord with customers. Its “Just Do It’ campaign has achieved legendary status in highlighting the theme of perseverance and empowerment. Apart from that, Nike has a “Nike Run Club” and “Nike Training Club” app for connecting with customers and offering personalized coaching and support.
Amazon takes customer service very seriously as it knows the value of providing exceptional shopping experiences. It uses a powerful recommendation engine and algorithms to personalize the shopping experience for each customer. Anyone visiting the Amazon store can see suggestions based on their browsing and purchase history. Plus, there are fast shipping options, easy return policies, and 24×7 support, all of which help it build connections with customers.
Airbnb is known for providing a platform for unique travel experiences. The same platform helps it foster connections between guests and hosts. It also allows hosts to interact directly with guests and showcase their properties. This goes a long way in creating a sense of belonging and community for its customers.
Engagement is always at the heart of meaningful customer connection. The more you engage with your customers, the better you understand them, resulting in improved services and experiences.
At REVE Chat, we realize the huge value of engaging with customers and that’s why we offer a range of tools for the same.
Your business can use our AI-powered chatbot to automate customer service tasks and other processes related to sales, support and marketing.
We also have other tools for visual engagement such as video chat software and co-browsing software.
Our chatbot can be added with the live chat software to deliver hybrid support and enhance customer experience with your brand.
So, you can sign up with us and see how our products can be a great value addition for your business.
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