7 Ways to Better Connect with Your Customers

Connecting with your customers is a lot more than simply identifying your target market and tailoring your product for that. Connecting with your customers means really delving into who they are on an individual level, what they need from you, and how to provide an exceptional service every time.

When it comes to connecting with customers, it’s an ongoing process; and, as your business grows (and your customer base grows), you’ll need to make sure that these connections grow along with it.

Better connections with your customers may take time and a lot of research, but any step towards fostering improved relationships is going to be a win.

Here are seven ways to better connect with your customers.

1. Engage in Social Media

Your customers are active on social media, and this means more than simply having a profile; customers will be browsing, commenting, liking, and messaging, so why not do all that, too? Engaging on social media means extending a hand and showing yourself to be a living, breathing identity rather than a static business profile.

Get involved in conversations that your customers are having, respond to comments and messages and even like or comment on your customer’s posts where applicable. You may not have the time to reply or interact with everything but every little helps. If other customers can see you publicly interacting, too, this is also beneficial.

Customers may also ask product- or service-related questions through social media too, so be sure to try and respond to those. If you’ve just made a post about a new product, for example, and your customers are showing interest in it by asking questions, it’s in your best interests to engage and interact.

2. Send Personalised Mailers

If your customers have signed up to a mailing list, or if you’re just sending out general mailers, it’s always good to make them as personal as possible. Use your customer names and use their previous buying habits or inquiries as a foundation to tailor your mailers.

This can make them feel less generalized and help to connect better with the recipient.

3. Tailor to the Individual

Even if you have one set target market, every customer is going to have a unique personality or need something different from you. Trying to tailor to the person as much as possible will help you to connect on an individual basis. While, in some cases, you won’t be able to mold your product or service for each and every customer, you can certainly adapt the way in which you provide customer service to the individual and enhance their experience.

4. Use the Same Methods of Communication as Your Customers

If you aren’t using the same channels as your customers, then your deeper connections are going to take a hit. Being sure to communicate and connect through all channels — and, most importantly, the channels your customer base is most active on — will make sure you’re always available to develop relationships and be present where you’re needed.

With so many platforms and communication channels out there, like all social media and messaging services, it may feel difficult to keep up; that’s why chat software like JivoChat can be a huge help in keeping all channels of communication linked to one place.

5. Reward Loyal Customers

To foster better customer relationships and connections, it’s about more than your product or service. You may have delivered an exceptional product with no problems, but your efforts shouldn’t end there. Showing your appreciation and rewarding customer orders and loyalty can be a significant benefit to relationships — as well as increasing the likelihood of customers remaining with you.

Showing your appreciation for your customers can be done in many ways, and it doesn’t only have to start and stop with long-term loyal customers. Some ideas include:

— Offering discounts to new customers if they place their first order (or return for their second)
— Offer membership discounts for long-term loyal customers
— Sending appreciation gifts around the holidays or other times of the year when applicable
— Acknowledging customer birthdays to send treats or discounts

6. Conduct Surveys

Learning more about your customers is essential for connecting with them in a better way. Surveys and gathering feedback are key areas for learning what you need to know and where you might need to improve.

To garner the best results, try to avoid surveys being too long or ambitious. Customers may not want to spend time filling out pages and pages of feedback forms. Read the room and tailor your surveys to make them easy and relevant.

You may want to post surveys or votes to social media, email out quick feedback forms to new and existing customers or provide an opportunity for feedback through your business website.

Not only that but if customers can see that you have taken their feedback on board and actually acted upon it to improve your business, this will be received well and can increase the likelihood of them doing business with you.

7. Create an Engaging Blog

Having a high-quality blog for your business is a must for marketing and for creating connections. If you provide an engaging blog, your customers are more likely to read it. The more top-quality content you can provide, the more your customers will respond well to it. Connecting to your customers through your blog can be done through relevant topics and using your established brand voice.

It can also be beneficial to provide a comment section with each of your blogs. This can allow customers to interact with you and leave their comments; this may simply be a review of the blog or may even be constructive criticism that can help you learn.

How are Your Customer Connections?

Are you creating better connections with your customers already by using these points, or are there any areas you can improve on? Are you ensuring to connect with your customers on every level and through every platform?

Use these seven ways to make sure your business is always on top when it comes to better connections.