LAST UPDATED ON April 3, 2024
Don’t make the mistake of focusing solely on acquiring new customers; nurture your existing customers who are spending their money with you. It won’t be easy though, healthy relationships require time and effort to maintain.
Few things will help your company more than building long-term, positive customer relationships. Show customers you genuinely care and see them as more than just an avenue to profits and good things will happen. This high-touch approach may seem costly upfront, but you’re likely to make that money back (and more) as a result of building genuine relationships with your customers. In fact, increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%, according to Bain & Company.
Don’t make the mistake of focusing solely on acquiring new customers; nurture your existing customers who are spending their money with you. It won’t be easy though, healthy relationships require time and effort to maintain.
In a way, customer relationships are similar to romantic relationships. Imagine that you won over a potential love interest with flowers, fancy meals, and exciting dates. But then, once you’re in a committed relationship, you stop trying to please them. You start phoning it in and acting neglectful. The odds that relationship survives are slim to none. Well, the same thing is true with your customers; the more you communicate with them and show them you appreciate them, the more likely you are to keep the love alive. Read more about the importance of long-term customer relationships here and how to build long-term customer relationships (and the tools that will help you do it).
So what are the best ways to build customer relationships? Let’s explore…
SECTION 1
The transaction is just the beginning
The purchase is only the start of your relationship. The service and aftercare you provide is often what makes or breaks how people feel about your company. Customer acquisition is important but so is customer retention. What happens after the sale is where you can stand apart from competitors.
Speak to customers wherever you can. Respond to emails, answer support queries, reply to social media posts, and maintain an active presence online. You want a steady pulse of interactions with customers.
Tool Tip
SproutSocial: “Understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.”
Keep customers notified about the products you offer, new releases, articles/links of topic-specific interest, and anything else that might entertain them. An email newsletter is a great way to do this. That way you don’t have to rely on customers following you on social media since you wind up directly in their inboxes. Also, reply to comments at your blog or online whenever possible. And you can never go wrong with an old fashioned thank you note.
Tool Tip
Mailchimp: “Bring your audience data, marketing channels, and insights together so you can reach your goals faster—all from a single platform.”
Live assistance tools like co-browsing & video chat will enable you to assist your customers in real-time and identify problem areas quickly. This sort of direct communication lets you deliver effective, personalized solutions immediately.
Tool Tip
LiveHelpNow: “LiveHelpNow a simple customer support tool which facilitates real-time customer service communications via live chat, chatbots, SMS/Text, Email, and FB Messenger.”
Communities make your customers feel like part of a family and can have a notable impact on customer satisfaction. So provide a way for your customers to communicate not just with you, but with each other. This can turn your customer base into a tribe of like-minded fans.
Tool Tip
Vanilla: “Engage with Community. Cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs.”
Send newsletters regularly. Showing up in a customer’s inbox means you don’t have to worry about social media algorithms or platforms that may collapse. Talk about your products but also offer content that’s genuinely interesting and/or helpful. If your newsletter adds value to their lives, customers will look forward to opening it.
Tool Tip
Constant Contact: “Create branded emails, sell products, build a website, and make it easy for people to find you—all from a single platform.”
SECTION 2
Poor customer experiences may seem disastrous, but they also provide you with the chance to win over a customer for life. What matters isn’t the specific issue your customer is facing but how you respond. Dig deep into the issue, take steps to recover (perhaps a rebate, discount, replacement, or gift card can help?), and ask what you can do to repair the relationship. Handle these crisis points effectively and you’ll turn a disappointed customer into a lifelong evangelist.
“96 percent of dissatisfied customers don’t complain. They just walk away, and you’ll never know why. That’s because they often don’t know how to complain, or can’t be bothered, or are too frightened, or don’t believe it’ll make any difference. Whilst they may not tell you what’s wrong, they will certainly tell plenty of others. A system for unearthing complaints can therefore be the lifeblood of your business, because customers who complain are giving you a gift, they’re still talking to you, they’re giving you another opportunity to return them to a state of satisfaction and delight them and the manner in which you respond gives you another chance to show what you’re made of and create even greater customer loyalty.”
–Robert Clay
Online tools help support teams understand their customers’ needs and monitor customer satisfaction based on factors like number of open tickets and average resolution time. This keeps everyone on your team informed so clients aren’t frustrated by mixed signals and poor internal communication. You should also monitor social media, Amazon, Yelp, and industry forums to find and interact with dissatisfied customers. Wherever you encounter distressed customers, be calm and courteous and work overtime to repair any damage.
Tool Tip
HappyFox: “Meet HappyFox, a practical help desk and customer support software solution. Reduce chaos and bring order to your support process with a robust support ticket system, self-service knowledge base and community forums.”
Self-checkout is a big hit at supermarkets and a similar approach to support can help customers solve their own problems. 24 hour personal support may be ideal but it is a tough trick to pull off; so offer a knowledge base/FAQs at your web site and consider investing in a chat bot that can guide visitors to the right areas of your website. You’ll most likely still want to offer personalized support options, but this can help customers who are self-sufficient or need immediate assistance during non-business hours.
Tool Tip
Helpjuice: “Helpjuice’s easy-to-use and most powerful knowledge base software is designed from the ground up to help you scale your customer support, and, collaborate better with your team.”
To provide an excellent customer experience, your support team needs to be accessible. In surveys, many customers report their biggest complaint with a company is not being able to get help from an agent when needed. A real conversation with a human being can be crucial to creating a meaningful relationship between a company and its customers. The success of the Genius Bar at Apple Stores is a great example of how the human touch can make a huge difference.
Tool Tip
LiveAgent: “LiveAgent combines excellent live chat, ticketing and automation that allow us to provide exceptional support to our customers.”
SECTION 3
Making the other person feel special and appreciated is the key to any relationship. Set up a customer service system, even if you’re a small business. If it’s your company, you may need to man the front lines of support queries. What may seem like a pain is actually a great way to gather feedback about what’s right and wrong with your product. Also, get personal with your customers. Call them by their names, track their interests, and be proactive about making sure they’re happy.
Tool Tip
Helpscout Helpdesk software: “Helpscout makes support, sales, and customer engagement software for everyone. It’s quick to implement, easy to use, and scales to fit your needs. ”
Casinos will offer “whales” (i.e. high rollers) special perks in order to get them to stay/bet at their hotels. What can you do that shows your best customers you care about their needs? These big spenders are the foundation of your business’ future so show them you appreciate them. A holiday gift, a handwritten note, personalized service, or a special preview of a new product are just a few ways you can show you care.
Hosting live events can be a highly personal way of engaging with customers. Put together an event to say thanks or organize a retreat for some of your best customers so they can give you feedback and get to know you better.
Offer loyalty rewards, an affiliate program, thank you notes, and surprise gifts as ways to keep your customers excited about you. Use a loyalty program that lets customers earn points for buying your products. After earning a certain number of points, the customer gets a reward (discount or free product usually). It’s a win-win scenario that leaves customers ecstatic.
Tool Tip
Stamp Me: “Stamp Me is a digital loyalty platform that makes it easy to connect with your customers, reward loyalty and drive repeat purchases.”
Give away products with your company’s logo. Pens, notepads, mugs, shirts, hats, etc. Customers will be delighted with your gift and you’ll get free promotion out of the deal when they wear your company logo in public.
Tool Tip
Merchology: “Merchology is the number one provider of unique, high-quality corporate branded apparel & accessories in the world.”
SECTION 4
Happy employees result in happy customers. Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines said, “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Plus, studies have shown happy workers are also significantly more productive. That means support reps will solve problems faster which in turn increases customer satisfaction. So promote and take care of your best employees, the ones who go above and beyond the call of duty to please customers. At the same time, watch out for poor performers who turn off customers or leave other employees to pick up the slack. You want to incentivize your team to keep customers happy and be stellar representatives of your company culture.
“There’s a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Happy employees equal happy customers. Unhappy employees lead to unhappy customers.”
–Ashira Prossack
Make sure your employees know that keeping customers satisfied is a top priority. Tell them to follow up regularly to make sure customer needs are met. They should reply to voicemails, emails, and support queries ASAP. Make customer care part of your onboarding process for new employees. Work to improve your team’s active listening and communication style via ongoing training. The result will be a more consistent customer experience.
Tool Tip
Lessonly: “We help customer service leaders take their teams from good to great with powerfully simple training. Empower, elevate, and expand your support team with Lessonly.”
Companies are rightfully obsessed with their products – the design of them, the experience of using them, etc. However, customers often view products as commodities that are interchangeable. But something that’s always specific to your brand is the way you build customer relationships; the way you communicate with customers and offer support can be a key differentiator that helps you stand out from the pack, even if you’re selling a generic product.
“ involves three steps: reflection, validation and empathy. ‘We mirror what the client is saying, so they feel they’ve been heard. We then validate feelings, so they feel understood. Lastly, we use empathy so they feel we’re on their side. Most people just want to be heard and feel understood, even if you disagree.”
–Rachel Beider, CEO of Massage Outpost
SECTION 5
A customer relationship management (CRM) system will help you track all your customer conversations in one place and streamline your communications. At the very least, you should be keeping a record of your clients and when you last checked in with them. If you really want to go for it, record your customers’ product likes and dislikes, spending patterns, location, age, gender, tastes, needs, and buying habits. Don’t be shy; ask if there are problems you can solve for them or anything else you can do to keep them happy. Even if it doesn’t result in a sale immediately, you’ll be first in mind when customers need to purchase again.
Tool Tip
HubSpot CRM: “Everything you need to organize, track, and build better relationships with leads and customers.”
Some customers may want short conversations while others prefer lengthy ones. Some may want to hear from you once a week, while others prefer once a month (or even less frequently). Personalize your relationships by paying attention to their preferences and keeping track of what you learn. Which way do they prefer to be contacted? How do they like to be addressed? Customers will appreciate your diligence.
Tool Tip
Nextiva: “Elevate your customer experience with contact center software. Nextiva’s affordable solution combines voice, video, text messaging, social media, and chat.”
No one will give you a better window into where you’re succeeding or failing than the people who actually use your products. Create a consistent feedback loop that asks customers to give you their opinions, especially after critical interactions like support replies, product demos, etc. After a purchase, follow up and request a review. After a customer support query, reach out and make sure the problem was solved. Emotion may drive initial purchases, but logic is what builds loyalty and keeps customers around for the long haul.
Tool Tip
Nicereply: “Get more customer feedback than ever before with Customer Satisfaction, Customer Effort Score and Net Promoter Score surveys from Nicereply.”
Don’t just listen, do something about it. Discuss feedback received and implement suggestions so customers feel valued and heard.
Tool Tip
SurveyMonkey: “Turn feedback into action. Our survey platform makes it easy to measure and understand feedback so you can drive growth and innovation.”
Every touch point with a customer (or potential one) is an opportunity to build a relationship. Your marketing should focus on the needs of your target demographic and prove you understand its needs. Empower your team to start meaningful conversations and ask sharp questions. And get all members of your team to occasionally spend time on the front lines dealing with customers; it’s a great way to learn about the heartbeat of your company.
“I personally connect with many of our members to get to know them better and get their insights on our service. It’s usually over email, but I have also met with members in person and over the phone. Additionally, I like to reach out when there is a customer service issue. In an age of artificial intelligence and overseas customer service, it’s my experience that people really enjoy a personal touch, and to know that I am truly invested in their experience. We have a very low attrition rate, and are working hard every day to keep it that way,”
SECTION 6
Want to do more research on your own to find the perfect solutions for building customer relationships? Here are links to some of the top comparison platforms that will help guide you toward the best fit for your company.
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Building customer relationships is important because they increase sales, reduce customer attrition, deliver invaluable marketing, boost employee morale and turn customers into your R&D department.
