Interacting With Your Customers

Interacting with your customers in person and online is key in increasing customer satisfaction and growing your brand ambassador base.

Ways to Interact

No matter where you are interacting with your customers — online or in-person — you should follow the golden (customer) rule: “Am I treating the customer the way I’d like to be treated as a customer?” The best way to do this is to show gratitude and empathy for your customers.

Gratitude is simple, but goes a long way in making a customer feel appreciated. It could be as simple as saying “thank you for your business” at the end of an email or chat. Or small gestures of appreciation like an unexpected gift card for being a customer for three months. Even thank them when things aren’t going smoothly, like when it is taking a while to resolve an issue they might be having. “Thank you for your patience as we try to resolve this” lets the customer know their issue is important to you.

When things aren’t going great for the customer, showing empathy can make a bad situation more tolerable and help retain customers after the bad experience. It’s easy to begin a chat, email or any conversation with a customer having a bad experience with “I’m sorry.” And if you can’t resolve a problem immediately, give them a timeline and stick to it. A week to two weeks after an issue was resolved, check in on your customer to ensure that things are still going well. These little steps go a long way in keeping customers loyal.

Ask for Feedback

We've talked about the benefit of using NPS surveys and how easy it is for customers to answer a one question survey, but it’s not the only way to get customer feedback. You can use different styles of surveys and forms on your website to collect this data as well. Regardless of the way you choose to collect data, you should promote it and make sure your customers are aware you would like their feedback.

Respond To Reviews and Social Media

“Connect, not collect” is the mantra here. There’s no purpose in having a plethora of followers if you don’t interact with them. If a customer chooses to message a complaint over social media either in a DM or a post, answer them there. Don’t send them to a customer service line. Chances are they already tried that, which led them to contact your company over social media. Resolving their issue on the platform they choose helps your customer get the help they need and shows you're listening.

As for reviews, whether good or bad, you should respond. If good, thank them for their business and kind words. If bad, empathize and ask them what your business can do to make it right. This goes a long way in showing the customer, and others, that you care.

Boiling Customer Interaction Down To One Thing

Be kind – don’t overthink it. Remember, treat your customer how you’d like to be treated, and you’ll surely grow a strong base of raving fans for your business.