Efficient and positive communication with customers is something that all business owners should strive to accomplish. Good communication will help you stay in business while poor communication will likely break you. If you want to increase sales and boost repeat business, you should concentrate on improving customer communications. The following recommendations will help you enhance customer experience through basic communication principles:
Always Make Great First Impressions
One of the best ways to turn prospects into customers is to succeed with the first impression. If you have a call center, try to allocate your best agents to new customers. This does not mean assigning your best salespeople, it means giving your best communicators an opportunity to shine for the company. If your business gets a lot of calls, you may want to install an auto attendant system that delivers a professionally recorded greeting on every call.
Inject Reality into Your Conversations
There is no need to be overly obsequious when talking to your customers. Your staff members should be respectful and motivated to serve customers, but they should not grovel when talking to them. Treating your customers like real people should always be your top communications goal. If following scripts is part of your company’s business processes, make sure that the language is friendly and casual. Your customer service agents should only use jargon if they clearly explain terminology beforehand.
Be Positive and Listen Actively
Emails from customers should not be skimmed. If a kind customer includes a clever or inspirational quote on her message, be sure to acknowledge it. When talking to customers, your agents should practice the art of active listening, which goes beyond empathy. There should always be a smile in your voice when talking to customers.
Make It Easy for Customers to Reach You
Prospects and existing customers should not have to jump through hoops to contact your company. Take a look at this web page for Logan A/C & Heat Services Inc., an Ohio business. Notice the simple “Contact Us” form on the right sidebar, which appears on every page. This makes it really simple for potential customers to direct their questions or concerns to them.
Merchandising items such as key chains and refrigerator magnets never truly go out of style. If you add them to your marketing efforts, then you should make sure that they include telephone numbers, websites and social media profiles. They should also look attractive, otherwise nobody will want to display them.
When developing your mobile websites, be sure to use the “tel:” feature on your href tags so that customers can tap these links to call your company. Along with that, pay strict attention to your SEO strategy. If you are able to get on the first page of common search keywords, people will be able to reach out to your business for their needs.
You should never underestimate the power of effective business communications, particularly with your customers. The recommendations listed herein are just the beginning. You may want to read “The Starbucks Experience” by Joseph Michelli to gain a greater understanding on this topic.