Customer relations management is perhaps the ground rule to any successful business. Even new companies with significantly fewer resources than their counterparts can blossom quicker if they adopt good customer engagement programs. Much like other aspects of a business, customer relations will cost you money – however, new technology offers cost-effective options that you’ll find worthwhile.
Live Chats
Think about it, when you clock out of work or take a long holiday, you’ll want your customers still to have some kind of communication with your office. Customers don’t have a schedule when they’ll want to interact with your company; they’ll unpredictably go to your website or social media looking to speak with someone.
So how then can you ensure your customer service levels are better? It’s simple; you should be looking to integrate chatbot to website that allows your business to service customers anytime, anywhere. No longer will your customers have to wait to get responses because live chats are quickly responsive.
It’d be wise to program your live chats to questions customers are likely to ask. Even better, you could canvass a few customers to gauge what they’d be interested in knowing about your services/products. Over time, you can add more information to your live chats to cover broader customer queries.
Live chat tools are business efficient and a cost-effective way to run your company – you’ll spend less money installing this software yet benefit significantly in the long haul.
Besides, live chats have more advantages than quick responses – they gather valuable information about your customers and business performance. Because live chat conversations are real-time, you’ll acquire factual data to enhance customer experiences and transform your business.
In many ways, your business can use this data to deliver products/services that suit customer demands and requirements.
Social Media
Today, companies from small, medium, to large enterprises find social media an invaluable tool for their businesses. Not only does social media boost customer relations, but it helps firms predict customer behavior for future product/service improvements.
Before creating social media accounts, mull over what your online personality or voice should be. A suitable personality will help you relate better with your customers and eventually build a recognizable online brand.
There are numerous ways you can use social media to grow your business, specifically to lure users to your website. For instance, videos; posting exciting and engaging videos entice online audiences to click on the posts and read more about your company.
Keep in mind that each social media site has its unique function. Because of the audience dynamics, you’d benefit more from posting videos on YouTube and Twitter than you would on Facebook.
Another way to leverage social media is to write informational blog posts for brand awareness or provide more information about your products/services. Blog posts are a great way to create engagement because they allow customers to comment, share, and like your posts, increasing visibility and engagement.
No longer do you have to retain traditional marketing strategies like brochures and email marketing. With social media, you can create powerful ad campaigns to amass relevant attention from customers. More importantly, you can customize your campaigns to target specific groups. This way, you get to maximize your marketing resources on your target audience and fulfill your marketing goals.
Moreover, it’d be helpful to take advantage of existing hashtags and communities online. Narrow in on relevant communities where you can market your business, get insights and build relationships with similar companies.
Hashtags are a great way to get your posts noticed quickly, so when you post on Twitter or Facebook, use hashtags for your posts to pop up on relevant users’ pages.
As a small business owner, you must protect your business from competition by leveraging tools and platforms your customers use to find, engage and do business with companies. This will enable you to get ahead in the industry and build a substantial online following that’ll bolster your sales.
SEO
Often, when companies first create a website, they neglect to optimize their pages, losing sales in the long run. Customer experience is all about platforms clients can conveniently use on various devices, anytime, especially when on the road.
To improve customer experience, your business will have to develop user-friendly websites and apps through SEO strategies like the ones below;
Keywords
Consider using keywords on different pages on your website – these are words that customers use to search your business. By doing so, search engines will index your pages to appear on the first page, increasing your visibility.
An excellent way to go about choosing keywords is to use resources like Keyword Tool and Google Analytics. These tools will give you valuable information to create powerful Google Ad campaigns that resonate with customers.
Backlinks
Another common strategy is to use backlinks on your website, particularly if you have a blog section. Using backlinks allow customers to have different perspectives about a particular topic instead of relying on one source.
When it comes to backlinks, quality is always better than quantity. It’d be best to use backlinks from relevant websites to avoid saturating your blog and making it irrelevant.
Additionally, each backlink should have a unique function in your posts; if not, search engines will mark your pages irrelevant for searches.
Meta Tags
Using tags and tag descriptions increases your pages’ relevance to searches. In return, search engines will flag website pages to match searches, allowing users to find your website quickly.
For each blog post, consider using unique title tags. Start your title tags with the main keyword and use keywords interchangeably on your Meta descriptions to improve your SEO.
Also, ensure that your Meta descriptions provide a succinct description of your title. Use keywords interchangeably with the option of keyword synonyms.
Lastly, if you wish to use images, use image tags that describe the pictures so customers can know what your post is about.
Outsource IT Function
If you have no clue about optimizing your website, look for an IT expert, preferably an outsourced IT company, to help you out. Outsourcing such a function is cost-effective because you get expert advice to improve the website’s efficiency for customers.
Incentives
Businesses reach a certain point where they opt to rely on customers for sales. Mainly, when sales take a dive and all your marketing strategies prove futile, you’ll find customer referrals an essential way to boost sales.
The beauty of referrals is they are as effective as they are cost-efficient. Yet, many companies still don’t use them to drive sales and boost customer experience.
Existing Customers
Even before you think about offering incentives for referrals, it’d be best first to take care of your existing clients. You can do so by providing valuable incentives that strengthen relationships with the customers.
Obviously, incentives will depend on your type of business and available resources. However, contemplate incentives such as bonus upgrades, reward points, and free products that prove valuable to your customers’ experience. Eventually, you’ll retain your current customers and strengthen your brand.
Remember, your relationship with your current customers causes a ripple effect in how the public, media, and even the industry views you. So, it’d befit you to promote positive customer relationships early.
Referrals
Customers need the motivation to refer their circles to your business, and there are several factors that’ll influence this. One, is the kind of service they encounter with your business online and offline.
Lousy customer service leaves a bad impression of your brand, driving customers away. Good customer service builds trust and loyalty that allows your customers to refer your company confidently.
The same case happens with investors and business partners. When you deliver efficient customer service, major shareholders will feel confident to talk about your business to their friends and family.
Eventually, you’ll amass a strong following of stakeholders willing to speak positively about your business to their circles.
Incentives are vital motivators you could use to show appreciation to your customers and reward those that refer new clients. Tangible incentives such as gift hampers or cash backs give customers a sense of purpose, knowing they’ll get rewarded for their efforts.
Because your customers will equate these incentives to rewards, they’ll talk about your business in hopes that they convince their listeners to do business with you.
On the flip side, intangible incentives like discounts or a paid trip allow customers to save big on purchases. Consequently, they’ll be significant motivators for customers to vastly refer your company on multiple platforms like their social media, workgroups, and so on.
If you’re still unconvinced about incentives, bear in mind that referrals have high retention rates. You’ll be able to acquire and retain new clients every time your customers refer people.
A possible explanation for this is that because of the trust and bond between customers and their circles, these referrals influence confidence and loyalty with your business.
All in all, customers are the driving force of any business. How you treat your clients will set the pace for how others will perceive and relate with you. If you want to build a successful company, realizing that your customers are your most significant asset will enable you to scale up your business. Therefore, it’d be wise to adopt effective customer relations like those mentioned above to better customer experience.