The Complete Guide To Amazing Customer Interactions – Part 3
Redefining What Customer Interactions Mean To Your Business
Welcome back to Viewabo’s Complete Guide to Amazing Customer Interactions, Part 3 of 3. If you missed Part 1, click here, and for Part 2, click here. The third installment of this blog series will cover why customer interactions are essential and multiple ways to improve them.
The 7 Reasons Customer Interactions Are Important
Customer interactions allow a business to understand and address customer issues to guarantee a better experience. As a result, a brand can develop a loyal customer base that will remain with the business, thus improving its profitability and brand power. The importance of customer interaction cannot be overstated, as every small good or bad customer interaction adds to the whole customer experience. Below are 7 reasons why customer interactions matter:
Improve Customer Experiences
By gathering information from customer interactions, businesses can improve the customer experience along the customer journey. In addition, such data can be collected, examined, and analyzed to highlight problem processes and areas for improvement.
Related Post: 9 Steps To Building A Customer Journey Map and 3 Tips To Make It Great
Lower Customer Churn
Bettering customer interaction reduces customer churn, which will help retain customers longer with the business.
Increase Brand Value
Brand loyalty will also be impacted as customers become attached to the brand’s offerings and help generate steady high-margin sales for the business.
Promote Word-of-Mouth
Words of good experiences tend to spread among friends, family, and coworkers. Better than any marketing campaign, word-of-mouth recommendations are of high value to your brand and referral sales numbers.
Develop Better Products
With better customer interactions comes an improved understanding of customer preferences and needs. From this closer understanding of customers the business can build better products.
Win Back Customers
Bringing back lost customers from past mistakes can help the bottom line. Amazing old customers with more profound and engaging customer interactions will help win back their hearts and wallets.
Boost Employee Morale
Through improved customer interactions, your sales, marketing, and service team members can do their job better and with less friction. With this, they can enjoy more of their work.
The 5 Step To Build A Customer Interaction Improvement Plan
Like all organizational change, there are many stakeholders, engrained company culture, and old processes to deal with. Improving customer interaction strategies requires getting the buy-in from your teams at all levels of the business. Below is a series of steps that will help guide you on your journey toward customer interaction improvement:
Step 1
Start your plan by bringing in customer-facing teams, such as sales, marketing, customer success, and customer service. Understand how each team member impacts the customer experience and what interactions they deal with, as described in Blog Part 2.
Related Post: 9 Steps To Building A Customer Journey Map and 3 Tips To Make It Great
Step 2
Segment your customers into categories as described in Blog Part 1. Gather information on everyday situations and scenarios that team members encounter with different types of customers. Use this to draw out processes, problems, and best practices. Take this opportunity to review how individual interactions can affect other interactions down the line.
Step 3
Determine if there are easy and hard changes that can be made. Are there things that can be streamlined? Ask if possible automation or digitalization potential exists to solve recurring and minor issues.
For bigger issues, always encourage personalization. Refrain from using scripts or checklists in place of genuine interaction and attention. One of the highest-valued items customers seek is the human touch and attention. Empathize through your training that you are building a framework of expected interactions strategies, but applying strategies need to be individualized and practiced.
Related Post: Top 10 Tips To Improving Your Customer Service Training
Step 4
Next, design a training program to improve your customer interaction process moving forwards. Start with conducting workshops in different ways to make them memorable. For example, the workshop can be done via expert lectures, role play, recording reviews, and real-world practice sessions.
Step 5
Finally, have a plan to collect feedback and review in cycles. Draw out timelines with milestones and where you can set review sessions to make adjustments as needed.
Pro Tip: Customer Interaction Management Software (CIM)
Customer Interaction Software (CIM) can help manage and document some of a business’s customer interactions. This kind of software tracks all customer data through various digital and physical channels from the start of a customer journey to its conclusion. Some well-known CIM software includes Zoho Desk, LiveAgent, and Freshdesk.
As there are so many channels for customers to communicate with your business, CIM software can assist in managing these channels, including across:
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Social Media
- Webpage
- Live Video
- In-Person
- Snail Mail
Related Post: How to Elevate Your Ecommerce Business with Advanced Digital Tools
Another 8 Human Behavior Considerations
During training, some behaviors are known to help build rapport with customers quickly. Pick and choose from the suggestions below to help you develop your training courses:
Shake Hands
The first impression is always essential. Creating a physical connection between you and a customer helps break down barriers and establish trust quickly. As touching strangers is not something we usually do, this conditioning takes time to get familiar with.
Avoid the Cellphone
Give customers your full attention. Checking your phone while working with a customer needs to be corrected. Constantly checking your devices makes you seem distracted. Instead, focus on your customer to show that you value them.
Be Empathetic
Everyone likes to be understood and validated. Showing empathy for your customer and their unique situation can help establish a foundation of understanding and trust. Even though you may not have caused the problem, be apologetic and show gratitude to the customer for the opportunity to help find resolutions.
Ask For Feedback
Schedule a time within your conversation to ask for feedback. Ask how customers feel about the product they are using and their overall experience with the business. Use this data to improve your understanding of customer interactions and share it with the team.
Show Gratitude
The business is paying for the time you use to deal with customers, but customers are not getting any rewards. So, remembering a few kind words can show that you are thankful for their time.
Remember To Follow Up
Although the customer may only be in front of you at some times, remember to follow up promptly. Contact your customer in their preferred form of communication, such as texting, email, phone, or face-to-face meetings. If there is a delay, let the customer know when to expect a response.
Have Transparency
You cannot say certain things to a customer about how the business operates, but providing as much information as possible helps tie the customer into understanding your perspective. Use information as a way to get closer to customers and build rapport.
Make It A Delight
When you can, go above and beyond expectations to show that you care and have given your customer the best experience possible. Surprise your customer by taking extra steps beyond their expectations to demonstrate goodwill and create an emotional response that will be remembered.
The End Is The Beginning Of Better Customer Interaction
Although this is the end of this blog series on customer interaction, the Viewabo team hopes this is only the beginning of your journey to improving your customer interaction strategies.
Customers are the foundation of business success, and how you interact with them affects if they will come back and recommend us to their friends. So we hope you take this opportunity at the beginning of the year to kick-start a new resolution to make customers a crucial driver for growth!