You're struggling to build relationships with your customers. What's the best way to turn things around?

Qui sont vos clients? Qu'est ce qu'ils aiment? Quelles sont leur motivation ? Pourquoi achètent-ils? Quelle est leur date d'anniversaire ? Combien d'enfants ont ils? Mariés ? Célibataires? Toutes ces questions sont importantes,elles vous permettent de conna?tre vos clients et par ricochet de vous rapprocher de ce qui compte pour eux. Ces informations vous permettront de personnaliser leur expérience client et dépasser leurs attentes !

In today's world, if you don't understand your customers needs, wants, concerns, 'jobs to be done', even emotions, you won't be able to truly develop relationships with them. With the new advent of AI enabling 'hyper-personalisation', CRM systems enabling frontline staff to harness last communication information to make their customer feel 'known', businesses have never had as much capability to know their customers as they do today. However, it can be easy to become overwhelmed with all the technologies available, keeping it simple is key. Work from the outcome you wish to achieve, backwards to ensure you really understand what capabilities you and your teams require, enabling them to make your customers feel 'known' at every touchpoint.

To enhance relationships with customers, prioritize active listening and empathy, provide personalized solutions, communicate proactively, build trust through consistent service, offer value-added benefits, solicit and act on feedback, and invest in ongoing relationship-building efforts.

Leveraging advanced CRM tools, such as Salesforce or HubSpot, allows for a comprehensive understanding of customer preferences and behaviors. Implementing targeted email campaigns based on customer segments and preferences significantly enhances engagement. For instance, sending personalized product recommendations or exclusive offers based on past interactions fosters a sense of value and strengthens the customer bond. Additionally, utilizing social media platforms to interact with customers in real-time, addressing their queries and feedback promptly, creates a more dynamic and responsive relationship.

Absolutely! Building rock-solid customer relationships starts with truly knowing your customers. Understand who they are, their needs, values, and preferred communication styles. Leverage tools like surveys, feedback forms, CRM systems, social media, and analytics to gather and analyze customer data. Use these insights to segment your customer base by characteristics, behaviors, and preferences. This allows you to tailor your products, services, messages, and offers to each segment, delivering personalized and relevant experiences that resonate deeply. Understanding fuels connection, and connection is the foundation of thriving customer relationships!

A constru??o de um relacionamento sólido com o cliente exige tempo, esfor?o e compromisso, portanto é crucial priorizar a comunica??o e a compreens?o. Para isso: 1. Colete feedbacks de intera??o, de jornada, de momentos de decis?es e periódicos. 2. Análise os dados e vá além dos indicadores usuais de satisfa??o, olhe também para indicadores operacionais. 3. Seja transparente com o cliente e comunique com frequência para solucionar problemas ou para falar de novas solu??es. 4. Ofere?a um atendimento fluido, pró-ativo e, quando possível, personalizado. 5. Em momentos críticos ou de pivoteamento da experiência, busque oferecer momentos memoráveis. 6. O mais importante: valorize o cliente e facilite a vida dele.

This point should come before the previous one. Listen to your customers in order to know who they are. In the end, building a bond with your customers is not that different from building a relationship with someone. If you end up on a date and keep talking about yourself without listening much to the other, chances are the bond will never appear. Caring is key.

In my experience, building relationships with customers requires active engagement and a genuine interest in their feedback. While listening to customer inquiries, complaints, or compliments is essential, it's also important to proactively seek their opinions and suggestions. This is core to building relationships, as communication is a priority. However, it's crucial to recognize that sometimes issues may not solely stem from customer feedback; it's essential to evaluate both ends of the interaction. Customers may blame staff or leave negative reviews, requiring a thorough assessment of the situation. This holistic approach ensures that all aspects of the customer experience are considered in fostering strong relationships.

To engage with them, consider inviting them to exclusive events, like product launches or webinars. You could also send them personalized emails with special offers, or share interesting content that's relevant to their interests. Also, don't forget to ask for their feedback and ideas, too. This shows that you value their input and are committed to making their experience better.

Soft skills will or already have become a premium experience. In either sales or service. As things become more digital/transactional, it will be those businesses that augmented well trained humans with right fit AI who will win.

In my experience, effective communication with customers is rooted in transparency and honesty, devoid of any false promises. It's akin to a two-way street where both parties engage authentically. Communication goes beyond merely conveying information about products, services, or promotions. It encompasses educating, inspiring, and even entertaining customers, fostering a deeper connection and understanding.

It should be a two-ways communication. It should really be communicate "with" and not communicate "to" your customers. The perfect example is the feedback loop. When customers take time to answer your surveys, the very least you could do is (1) action their feedback and do something with it and (2) let them know what it is you have done with such feedback. This is how you build trust and relationship.

Like all relationships, having the facility to enable two way conversations is really important. Keep it simple, clear and consistent. Ensure you operate across the channels that are important for your customers. AI is being used to great effect. But test and learn. Have the right OKRs in place to measure success. Make sure that you have guardrails in place and are training your teams how to work alongside AI e.g., chatbots and other Large Linguistic Models (LLM) to ensure customers are receiving the right level of engagement at the right time for the right query.

Building a strong customer connection requires effective, consistent, and transparent communication. Go beyond just informing them about products and promotions. Educate, inspire, and even entertain them with valuable content. Utilize diverse channels like newsletters, blogs, podcasts, captivating videos, webinars, and informative ebooks. Keep your language clear, concise, and friendly, shunning jargon and technical terms. Enhance your communication by incorporating visuals and compelling stories to leave a lasting impact. Be honest and open about your practices, policies, and performance - transparency builds trust. Clear and consistent communication is the bridge to building strong and lasting customer relationships.

I would consider this to be most important of all steps. It can be argued that companies don't, in fact, create value - value is uniquely created by consumers with the support of the company (products, FAQs, etc.). From this perspective customer education becomes absolutely critical in the value creation chain, and I'd argue that companies need to do this proactively, instead of waiting for consumers to fail or to underperform in creating this value. This seems to me the vital element in building a relationship with consumers that is deep and grounded in common success.

Supporting your customers throughout their journey is paramount for nurturing lasting relationships. It's more than just troubleshooting or addressing complaints; it's about empowering them to achieve their objectives and surmount challenges. Utilize a range of resources like FAQs, guides, and webinars to assist them effectively. Authenticity is key; ensure your support extends beyond the sales phase, demonstrating genuine care and commitment to their success.

Building enduring customer relationships hinges on consistent and comprehensive support. This goes beyond resolving issues and answering questions. Be their partner in success. Help them achieve their goals, overcome challenges, and hone their skills. Provide diverse resources like FAQs, guides, tutorials, webinars, interactive forums, and even AI-powered chatbots. This showcases your availability, reliability, and genuine desire to see them thrive. Being there for your customers at every step fosters trust and loyalty, solidifying the foundation for a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.

Add value beyond the traditional exchange. Help your customers navigate, where possible. Understand their needs proactively & offer solutions where you can. What are the top 3 things you aren’t doing for your customers, but could be?

Talk to them. Be prepared to hear what's uncomfortable. Find out what engages them and what turns them off. Work with them to find ways to get things back on track. Identify what's going on internally that is causing problems. Do the same with employees, former customers and those who didn't buy in the end. Get the company leadership team into a mindset that wants to turn things around - easier said than done if the reasons why things are flawed are down to internal politics, misaligned agendas etc etc. You'll need to draw on your reserves of resilience and perseverance but it'll be worth it. If nothing else, the response you get to the findings will make the real culture reveal itself.

I spent a good few hours of my day/week speaking with the front line teams, customers, and listen to what they said - there were so many times where I used to walk the airport terminal and catch up with colleagues across the business and I found out so many hidden things that data or tech is not likely to identify easily, a diamond in the rough which made such a difference, often times it was something so easy to do, you would implement a trial to test it, then put it into place with feedback, observations etc. Get out from your desk and do a walkabout - to steal a partial phrase from Forrest Gump, you never know what you might find!

Understanding your customer is key to building a strong relationship. At Yahoo!, I created a customer-centricity initiative that embraced every team connected to the product. Deep engagement with our customers via quarterly panels, in-person sessions, and relentless attention to their feedback and experiences. We walked a mile in our customers' shoes, ensuring regular use of our product by our teams. This fostered a culture of customer-first thinking across all departments, enhancing our responsiveness and ability to cater to their needs.