Building Business Relationships: Improving Customer Communication
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. — Sam Walton
When it comes to growing a business, it’s not always about having the best marketing tactics or planning the most expensive ad strategy. It may seem too simple, but building relationships with customers firsthand is one of the most effective strategies to grow any company. Even if it’s a complaining one, you should always treat every feedback as a way to reach out to your customers, and possibly do more business with them in the future.
Building business relationships will require making use of various communication platforms to reach your target audience and help them reach you easily. Having open communication lines is always essential to foster relationships and make each feedback or opinion heard and addressed. Below are several tips on how to improve on your customer communication:
Provide employee training
While there is usually one department that’s assigned for customer service, every employee should be trained the “how to’s” in providing excellent customer service. After all, each of them is a part of the sales organization, and everyone should be making critical contributions in the continuous sales process. Providing employee training is highly recommended to help your employees address and handle concerns better, depending on different personality types of the customer and the nature of the problem.
Make your website user-friendly.
Maintaining a website is a norm for companies these days. However, apart from the content you put in it, it’s also essential to make it easy to navigate for any user. It’s generally about the overall design and layout of the site – it’s recommended virtual roundtables to follow conventions or at least provide a clear layout of your site categories and pages for good website usability. This means that the user can easily see the Contact Us page, or the pertinent information about your business or products.
Go for simple contact forms.
Whether it is via online or offline, make sure you provide short forms for customers to reach you faster and with less hassle. If it’s an online form, for example, many users will find a lot of boxes or questions intimidating, leading them to hesitate or stop contacting you altogether. The goal of your company’s contact forms should be to eliminate as many obstacles as much as possible.
Explore modern communication tools or avenues.
Aside from your website and the usual business numbers, you can reach more of your target audience (and vice versa) if you explore more avenues to communicate with them. Maintain social media profiles for your business in Facebook or Twitter, for instance, or make your services available via email or instachat. This way, you are more visible on the web, and your customers and prospects have more ways of reaching you faster.