Why connecting with your customers is essential

Customers are the backbone of any company. Being able to successfully connect with a customer can be the difference between losing or keeping them, and customer retention is a crucial part of business practice, as it’s far less expensive than acquiring new consumers and helps build a brand’s reputation.

To help boost your retention rate, here’s a list of ways you can better connect with your customers.

Appreciate the individual

Making the effort to treat each of your customers as an individual will go a long way to inspire loyalty. Every customer purchases your product or service for a different reason.

If you factor this in when you’re marketing, dealing with feedback or improving your customer experience then customers are more likely to feel seen and appreciated. Sending more personalised messages or accounting for differences also allows you to increase upselling and cross-selling opportunities.

Build a relationship

More and more customers are wanting to feel connected to businesses, especially smaller ones, as it helps build a sense of community. This, by extension, helps increase brand loyalty and improves the chances of a customer becoming part of a retention base.

To achieve this, brands are becoming more personable. They’re sharing insights into the company and showcasing employees. This helps break down the barrier between business and consumer by revealing the human element behind a company.

Use social media

Almost everyone has a social media account of some form. Not using social for your business is leaving money on the table. It could be to help build brand loyalty, answer questions or to sell to customers directly.

But while most online sellers have a social presence, not everyone uses those channels to connect with their customers.

According to research by MarketingDive, 40% of consumers expect brands to respond to their query within an hour. So make sure you’re monitoring your accounts and replying to your audience.

In addition, actively engaging with customers on social media is a great way to build a rapport with your audience. You can spark up conversations and connect on a human level, all while steering your brand narrative in the direction you want.

Show appreciation

It’s important to show your customers you know how important they are. By showing your appreciation of their time and money you’re strengthening your relationship with them.

You can show your appreciation in a variety of ways. You can send them money-off vouchers, do competition draws, or involve them in the development of a product. Some companies go as far to have brand ambassadors.

By acknowledging a customer’s role in your business and prizing them, you’re helping to increase your business’s credibility and the likelihood of returning customers.

Consider using a CRM interface

CRM stands for customer relationship management; it’s a system businesses can use to manage interactions with their customers.

Using a CRM, you can record a customer’s contact information, including their email, phone number, social media profile and more (with permission, of course). Having access to this information means you can personalise each customer’s experience. You’re able to send follow-up messages and increase the amount of engagement you have with individuals.

And the best news? CRMs are automated, which means you have more time to work on other marketing tasks and projects.

Prioritise customers over growth

If your client base is happy, then your business should grow at a natural rate. Wanting to grow and expand your business is important, but it should never come at the expense of customer experience. You need to ensure customers are always catered to.

That means you focus on existing customers’ needs as much as your new prospects. Keep in touch and make sure they’re happy. This could be as simple as sending an update email, asking for feedback, or sending out vouchers to incentivise contact.

Check in or follow up

By interacting with customers throughout each stage of their journey, you’re highlighting your level of commitment to them.

It can be awkward to ask a question or launch a complaint sometimes. Whilst customers often expect fast response times, just as many would rather let an issue slide, even if it impacts their experience negatively.

So, ask the customer first. Interacting at every step of the buying journey means you have more opportunities to solve potential issues. Many companies like to send emails about unfinished transactions or ask for feedback even if a customer didn’t purchase a product.

This way you can internalise feedback quickly and improve the customer experience for next time.

In the end, fostering customer connection ensures that you increase consumer satisfaction and business activity. There is no one way to improve customer interaction and often a blend of approaches yields the best results. 

So, reach out to your customers, try to connect, and keep them happy. Such efforts are sure to pay off.