How to Make Every Customer Interaction Enjoyable

For companies trying to improve their brand image, having positive customer interactions is critical. When your business gets brought up in a conversation, are people saying positive or negative things about you?

Every conversation with a customer is an opportunity to deepen an existing relationship, improve customer engagement, or gain loyalty. All parts of an organization play a role in redefining the experience for the customer.

As you read through the best ways to make every customer interaction enjoyable, visualize how you will implement this at all levels of the organization.

Use the Customer’s Name

A person’s name is the most important word in the English language. Any time your customer service team calls a customer by their name, it has an extraordinary impact. The person is likely to respond positively when the customer service team member says the name multiple times through the interaction.

Using a customer’s name also builds trust. The person on the other end will feel a sense of connection knowing you took the time to learn the name. It is critical to train your customer service team on using the customer’s name at the beginning of the call, once or twice in the middle, and once at the end.

Let Empathy Be Your Friend

No matter what the customer’s outcome is, they simply want to feel understood. When a customer brings an issue or question to your team, make sure you hear them out. Seek to understand the customer’s point of view before offering any solution.

If a customer complains about an issue, tell them you are sorry that they must deal with the matter. Tell them your company is not perfect, but you will do whatever it takes to resolve the issue quickly and effectively. Customers will understand, and they will be thankful that you work hard to fix the problem.

Showing empathy starts with gratitude. Every customer interaction is an opportunity to deepen your relationships with the most loyal stakeholders for your business. Make sure each customer knows that you are happy to hear from them. The customer should also sense that you are fully engaged in the conversation.

You can show your gratitude to customers in multiple ways. Thank customers for their patience at any opportunity. Thank them for their continued loyalty toward your product or service. You should also thank them for their time. We all only have 24 hours each day, so make each second count on the call.

Seek Valuable Feedback

Growth-minded companies always look for ways to be better. Process improvement starts with customer feedback. Insights from customers allow the company to improve sales and marketing training programs. Feedback can also be a critical tool to improve the product trust or service offering.

Customers are always right, especially when it comes to feedback. Customer interaction is a perfect opportunity to ask how your company can be better. If you seek feedback from your customer, they will be thankful that you value their opinion.

Here are a few ways in which you can seek feedback throughout the interaction:

• Publish a survey link on a social media post
• Utilize Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat stories
• Organize a social media contest that collects customer feedback
• Offer an incentive, award, or prize for someone who gives feedback
• Launch email survey campaigns to new or prospective customers
• Build an online forum or community of customers to share experiences and feedback
• Encourage customers to leave a review on your Google page

Be Responsive

It is vital to maintain consistent communication with your customer base. When customers contact you, they should know that you will always be there for them.

Responding quickly is especially important when you need to fix a product or service issue. It may be easy when things are going smoothly, but your customer service skills shine through when you address a problem quickly. Among customers who contact a brand for support or just ask a question, 32% expect a response within 30 minutes.

AI Chatbots for Customer Interactions

Implementing artificial intelligence-driven chatbot systems can increase operational efficiency by reducing the typical cost of customer service. IBM stated that chatbots are capable of reducing 30% of customer service costs by answering 80% of routine questions and speeding up response time. Due to the latest advances in AI technology, chatbots are becoming smarter and more helpful. Though chatbots still cannot replace human workers, they can help optimize multiple organizational procedures.

When you address a customer issue during the interaction, try your best to use gratitude and empathy. Let the customer communicate their concerns, and then it is your turn to highlight the situation, apologize for the problem, and explain why it happened. More importantly, convey to the customer why the problem will not occur again.

There are multiple ways to instil a responsive culture with your sales and marketing teams. Envision what it would be like if you had an emergency and someone did not respond right away.

In a shift towards the logistical, machine learning apps have also been used to automate and perform the basics of product shipping and addressing. Machine learning bots can instantly respond to any action on your storefront and transmit the order form to a drop shipping location where it can be sent on your behalf.

The company employees should respond to customers as quickly as they would respond to a loved one. Make sure your company has a solid communication plan, including how to react in certain situations.

If you oversee customers’ private information, you need to take your responsibility seriously. Customers should trust in you to address any hiccups along the way.

Have a Strong Online Presence

Online customer interactions are just as important in creating a meaningful experience. Social media comments and messages will also provide much more accurate, unfiltered feedback for your company. A responsive company has team members monitoring online channels and what key external stakeholders are talking about.

Businesses with a strong social media following have a responsibility to strengthen customer relationships. For every comment on a post, there should be a response from the social media manager. Each time someone interacts with your brand online, your social media team should address it.

Another useful way to engage with your audience is through direct messages. Some customers may use this channel to ask product- or service-related questions.

Ideally, you want to address direct message questions within one hour of receiving them. No matter what day it is, 24/7 response time is something customers will appreciate.

Offer Promotions and Free Giveaways

People love free things, but they also love the feeling of winning. As you interact with every customer, try to find opportunities to communicate any upcoming sales, discounts, or promotions.

People will appreciate your transparency and give them “insider information” about potential cost savings. The more you look out for customers with future deals, the more they will trust you.

Find out what is important to your customers, and then offer unique cross-sell and upsell solutions that satisfy those needs. Loyal customers will commit to you for the long-term if you consistently bring new, unique insights to them.

Provide Extra Value-Added Solutions

You might solve the customer’s issues immediately, but do you go the extra mile? You can bring a surprising delight to customers by offering extra value. Once you address the initial question or issue, offer up things like a free trial on a new product, additional insights on using the product, or a free product giveaway.

When customers receive more value than what they expected from the call, you will earn their trust for the long term. They will be more likely to bring your name up in their inner circles. More importantly, they will trust that you care about them.

Not sure how you provide additional meaningful solutions to customers? Try out the below suggestions to boost overall customer retention:

• Share a social media post with them via direct message on how to use the product properly
• Make known to the customer that you ran (or will eventually run) a social media contest for a free product
• Recommend a podcast, article, e-book, or video that further explains a topic or issue related to the customer
• Offer to send the customer a trial product via mail

Don’t Forget to Follow Up

Once you solve or address an issue for a customer, the follow-up process is just as important. Some projects might be different from others, but every follow-up interaction will show the customer you care.

Make a note to follow up with a customer within a week of talking with them. Offer up any additional services or resources to make sure they are set up for success.

Have Regular Check-Ins with Your Team

Monitoring customer experience and customer service progress are critical for the success of your team.

Building culture in remote teams involves defining a meaningful customer experience, sharing best practices, and outlining ways to improve customer interaction. It would be best to schedule regular meetings or workshops to apply some of the customer feedback you gained.

Use customer relationship management tools

Customer relationship management is a relatively new kind of marketing tool. Customer relationship management tools allow marketers and salespeople to make data-backed decisions based on data collection, behavioural analytics, and predictive machine learning technology.

CRMs can help salespeople connect with customers in a way best suited to them. They can recommend marketers try a different approach to attract, retain, and engage customers, such as email campaigns, organic keyword strategy, and retargeting.

Customer service chatbots

Communicating with customers has never been so easy and so complex as it is today. With so many channels for social media, marketing, and sales transactions, making sense of them can be quite a difficult endeavour.

Customer service chatbots make it much easier to interact with customers by automating just a bit of the process. On your online storefront or customer service website, customers can immediately access a chatbot that can store information, explain business services or products, answer frequently asked questions, and provide a tailored online experience.

While chatbots can’t replace a sales team, they can help your customers better navigate your brand online.

Final Word

As you see, every meaningful customer interaction starts with providing value. Make life easier for your customers by being proactive in resolving issues, being responsive in times of need, and being knowledgeable about your industries. People do not buy your product, service, or company, but they will always buy how you make them feel.

Your customers are your most valuable key to long-term business growth. Not only do they provide you with repeat business, but they tell the good news about your business to their friends, family, and colleagues. Utilize any of the strategies on this list, and then watch your brand image soar.