For businesses big and small, acquiring customers is half the battle. To keep business thriving, it’s imperative to have a great customer experience and customer communication strategy.
To retain your customer base, it’s important to build strong relationships through transparent, empathetic, and personalized communications. And there are so many ways to get your message across like face-to-face conversations, email, messaging, and of course, video.
The numbers don’t lie – keeping customers happy can have a measurable impact on your business. For example, a 5% increase in customer retention correlates with at least a 25% increase in profit (Bain & Company). Retaining customers over time can mean additional profits for businesses, but losing customers can erode gains. A report from Forbes stated business lost over $75 billion in revenue due to poor customer service in 2018.
So how do you get started? In this guide, we’ll talk about what customer communications is and a few strategies to implement great communication strategies throughout the customer journey.
What is customer communication?
Customer communications is the sum of interactions between a business and its customers. This includes marketing tactics like emails, ads, and video marketing to attract customers.
But what happens after a business lands a sale? Depending on the type of products and services you sell, your business may have a variety of touch points. These touch points are valuable communication opportunities to deepen customer relations. Think onboarding communications, product updates and demos, quarterly reviews, and upsell or cross sell conversations to keep customers happy and engaged in your products.
How to improve the customer experience with better customer communication
1. Start with the right tools
Creating better customer communications starts with assessing the tools you have at hand. Are you using a CRM to manage customers? How are you prioritizing customer inquiries when they roll in? How do you capture and report on important customer data? Are you using emails to communicate with customers or are you considering text messages, chats, conference calls, or videos?
As your business grows, there are plenty of tools and technology to help you service customers to keep them coming back.
2. Set expectations
Sometimes, customer expectations may not align with product functionality. Hedge this risk by being transparent up front. Leverage your product team to accurately describe the benefits, drawbacks, and most importantly, the awesome differentiating factors that set your product apart!
To help your customers, document the features and benefits (and remember to distill that information into bite size pieces). Make the documentation available in an easily searchable portal like a help center or customer video library.
Determine a process for sharing release updates, best practices, and helpful tips so your team and your customers are all on the same page. Stick with the process and don’t forget its importance. Consistent, transparent communication reduces mental strain and sets your customers up for success.
3. Know when to leverage asynchronous communication
It’s 3 AM. Your customer support team is offline. Your customer wants to solve a problem now. This sounds like a recipe for a frightful escalation, but truthfully, it doesn’t have to be!
Video recordings, tutorials, walkthroughs, and troubleshooting guides can serve the role of a 24/7 support agent — even after your team clocks out for the night. Video guides and presentations, whether brief or elaborate, can help your customers solve problems on their own asynchronously, without the need to engage support.
4. Empower customers with a curated video library
Your customers are curious about the ins and outs of your product and how it can help them succeed. Help them understand how to use your products with a curated library of resources including an onboarding guide, product demos, customer success stories, and classes or workshops to deepen their knowledge.
Easy to digest video content can help get customers excited to use products, adopt new features and functionality, and continue using products for longer periods of time.
5. Follow up
A follow up message is a staple for solid customer comms. For example, a customer has just received your product — from a brand relationship perspective, this moment is critical. Setting up a new customer for success can sometimes be as simple as sending a “how to get started” or “best practices” resource.
Not sure when to send your follow up? Start by listing all the times you can interact with a customer. They might include:
- Right after a purchase
- A few months after a purchase
- During a troubleshooting issue
- After a product release
- After a customer milestone
Follow-ups have some other benefits, too. A helpful follow-up can reduce the number of support inquiries or deescalate a bad customer experience. It also shows you care in providing real value, rather than selling and forgetting.
6. Host customer webinars
Engaged customers are your best consumers. Webinars are a great way to target your most voracious customers and brand advocates. The goal of a webinar platform should be to share information and get customers — especially loyal customers — engaged. Do demos. Share product roadmaps. Get ‘em all excited. Host ask-me-anythings (AMAs) with staff or leadership. Get your most loyal or curious customers engaged with curated content made just for them.
7. Provide personalized communications
A personalized communication is far more effective than a generic or templated email. Take the time to tailor and personalize your communications with current customers and prospective customers.
Need to refresh a bland email? Add personalized video to emails. See customers active on Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok? Create dedicated customer support or marketing handles to catch them where they’re at. Provide options for both self-service solutions, specifically for those who prefer that route, as well as options for more personalized support. Then empower your customer to choose.
8. Build a customer advocacy program
Word of mouth is perhaps the most effective form of marketing. A customer that has already experienced your product and walked away impressed is a customer you should engage.
Identify your most engaged customers or power users and launch a customer advocacy program. Create rewards, incentives, referral discounts, and exclusive experiences like sharing product roadmap details, new product launches, or other information to make them feel like a valued insider. The goal is to foster a community of advocates. Be good to your advocates and they’ll help build your brand.
9. Create exclusive events for customers
Great branding can be just as impactful as a great product. Consider how events like customer summits, conferences, or VIP events can rally customers around a brand, product, or industry. Live streaming an event can also be a great way to reach more customers and more prospects who aren’t able to come in-person.
10. Take ownership
There are many ways to make a positive impact on a customer like building great products, proactively supporting their success, and creating resources tailored to their needs. However, a big way any brand can make a meaningful impact is taking ownership when things go awry.
Maybe a product doesn’t work as expected. Or maybe a larger industry shift directly impacts the way a business can operate. Businesses that take ownership and strive to make things right help solidify customer happiness and loyalty.
Build better customer communications with video
