Without your customers, your business would fall. If they’re not happy, you won’t make more money. You want to provide solutions to their most pressing needs, so they will continue patronizing your brand. Here are ways to make the modern customer fall in love with your brand:
Gather Feedback and Act Right Away
The number one rule in building lasting relationships with clients is asking for feedback. The problem with most organizations these days is while they are keen on collecting feedback, they fail to act on those concerns right away.
You can take advantage of customer experience management tools that are easy to implement, so you can put the data you gather to work in a breeze. Remember that your response time could make the difference between a returning customer and a client who moved on to the next brand.
Show Your Face
To connect with your customers on an emotional level, you want to avoid being just another faceless corporation. Let them know they’re dealing with an actual person by showing your face or the face of your people. Here are some things you can do:
- When addressing concerns on social media, have one of your team members use their account to reply to customers. Refrain from giving out canned responses to send the message that they’re not dealing with a robot. As a tip, don’t be afraid to speak their language. Skip the formalities and use emojis and internet slang, such as LOL, FYI, and IMHO.
- If you have a blog, make sure the author’s byline, bio, and photo appear on each article. This will encourage customers to leave comments and questions because they will feel confident that someone—a real person—will respond to them.
Build an Online Community
Building an online community is a great way to interact with your customers directly. Encourage them to throw their questions, share their experiences (tip: both good and bad experiences are good PR), and start conversations not just only about your brand or products, but anything that could benefit your business. In no time, you’ll have a group of loyal supporters and followers online.
Make Them Your Brand Ambassadors
These days, getting influencers to review products is all the buzz on social media. While this practice is good for brands, you can try a new approach and focus on your customers. Here’s what you can do: tap your online community to look for ambassadors.
You want to be more inclusive when choosing your ambassadors, not just because it’s the trend, but also to send a message that anyone is welcome. Tap the typical customers: the students, the mothers, the policemen, the nurses—practically anyone who can be a walking testimonial of your brand. Treat them as you would your celebrity endorsers and influencers. Whenever there’s a new product, send them PR kits and ask them to post their reviews on social media.
Make Them Part of the Team
Finally, you want to make your customers feel more involved by tapping them first whenever there’s a new position or vacancy in your company. Naturally, you want to hire someone who’s the best fit for the role. But make sure to search first from among your loyal followers to make them feel more involved in the business. Having someone in your team who uses—and loves—your products can help do market research and surveys.
