Your existing customers are the foundation of your reputation and your business, so making sure they’re in the loop is a must.
They’re the ones making purchases, spreading the word and giving you feedback on what is and isn’t working. If your marketing plan doesn’t include circling back around to touch base with them, they may feel forgotten.
Don’t open the door for the competition to swoop in. Keep customer communication at the front of your marketing plan.
Remember your customers are more than names on a list. Once a site visitor converts to a customer, don’t be the business that says “Sale made? Check and done.”
While having a CRM that will automatically shift that person from a lead to a customer is a great timesaver, you can’t shortcut your way out of building a relationship with your new customer.
Keep Communication Consistent
Interacting with your clients regularly is a winning customer communication strategy. Plan when you’ll reach out to customers and make sure to stay on top of it.
How often and where you’d like to communicate is dependent on your audience. You don’t want to bombard your customers’ inboxes because they’ll go from feeling forgotten to quickly feeling like just another name in the email pool. Try sending emails a least once a week.
If you’re wondering how customers will respond to receiving more emails, pick a week to try sending 1 or more extra emails as a test to see how they react. With social media, that’ll also be up to you and your audience, but 1 to 2 posts per day is recommended.
Where should you communicate? For a strong presence online and offline, try:
- In-store
- Phone
- Text
- Website
- Social media
Some business owners find that staying in touch is tough because their primary focus is running a business. When Kimberly Whiter, CEO and co-founder at Elder Care Solutions Inc., became a Thryv user, she never anticipated that the communication would be so seamless.
She, like many Thryv users, fell in love with the ability to stay active on social media without being attached to her phone.
“To be able to schedule a post on our social media sites has been pretty great,” she says.
With Thryv, posting and managing posts across your business’s social media sites can be done in a single click. Scheduling posts ahead of time is a great way to avoid seeming inactive.
Thryv offers thousands of unique post captions to get you started, in case you hit a brain block, and also identifies the best times for posting to maximize visibility. By keeping your followers engaged online, you put your business at the top of their minds so your competition can’t sneak in.
Consider Customer Service
Part of making your customer feel like they matter requires providing grade-A customer service. When they reach out, be ready to correct any mistakes, answer any questions or simply say thank you.
If customers leave your business, it’s not because of what went wrong. It’s because of how your company handled it wrong. Listen and have your customer map ready to quickly resolve the issue and reel that customer back in. This simple effort goes a long way and can be beneficial in the future.
Listening to your customers provides insight on information that metrics can’t give. While some questions may result in a FAQ piece, others may turn into blog posts or how-to video content, which can attract more potential customers. Having a healthy mix of content will also help avoid audience fatigue.
Types of content to share:
- Promotions are common in retail but there’s a good reason: They boost sales. Run promotions that are timely and relevant to what your customer needs. For example, back-to-school or Father’s Day.
- Inspire, entertain or educate your audience with your content. Having these goals in mind keeps your content from feeling like a constant sales pitch.
- Customer-created content is great to share on your site because it organically shows your products in use. Of course, get permission before sharing the post on your social media.
Invest in CRM
The best way to tap into your customers’ needs to better communicate is by investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. While the idea of a CRM just seems like another place to dump customer information, the quicker business owners realize it’s more than data storage, the quicker they can use it to solve their marketing issues.
CRMs capture information about your customers’ journey. By tracking a customer’s journey across multiple channels and devices and having access to the purchases and interaction all in one place, you get a 360-degree view of who your customer is and what they want so you can create a successful customer management strategy.
Imagine being able to use what your customers have purchased to better figure out what they may do next. Having a CRM gives you the competitive edge to use your customers’ personal information and behavior to plan the next message you send them.
73% of consumers preferred to do business with brands that use their information to provide a more relevant experience.
Getting new customers is important for growth, but customer retention is key to long-term sustainable success. Keeping timely and relevant communication going is what will build your relationships and keep your business at the top of your customers’ minds.
Looking to start using a new CRM? Schedule your demo now.
