5 Ways To Improve Your Connection With Customers
Octavia Warren Gilmore
?? The Millennial CEO ?? Multicultural Branding & Marketing Unicorn ?? Fractional CMO ?????? Goldman Sachs 10KSB Alum
Ever wondered what makes some businesses more successful than others? The difference lies in their ability to connect with customers. Why is this? Simple:
A connection is the most important element in creating a loyal customer.
Treat your customers like your best friends, and they will come back for more. They will tell their friends about you, and they will recommend you to others. It is so much easier to make money when you are creating an emotional connection with your customers.
If you can learn how to connect with your customers, more people will buy from you and recommend your business to others.
?WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO IMPROVE YOUR EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS??
Can you truly build an emotional connection with your customers? How do you do that successfully? These are important questions that small business owners, nonprofits, and marketers should ask themselves.?
When you have a strong emotional connection with your customers, they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand and feel a sense of attachment to your company.
There are many reasons why one customer may care more deeply about a particular brand than another; they may have been customers for longer, or feel more attached to the product. But regardless of how deep their attachment is to a particular brand, it is still important for businesses to create a strong connection with their customers—the stronger their emotional connection, the greater the chance that customers will remain loyal and boast positive opinions about your brand.
We often hear about the importance of establishing an emotional connection with our customers. As a business owner, you have to be able to build an emotional connection with your customers, so that they feel like they can trust you and your business. As humans, we tend to do business with people whom we know, like, and trust.
?
Here’s how you can establish that know, like, and trust factor:?
Use the Power of Association. Let’s say you sell a product or service within a certain niche. For example, maybe you sell fitness equipment for women. You could launch a campaign that associates your brand with other brands in the same industry. For example, you could sponsor a local women’s fitness event and give out free samples of your product to attendees. People will remember the association between the two brands when they see them together at the event, which will help your brand get more recognition within that niche market.
?
Build Trust. One way to build trust is by affiliating yourself with authorities in your industry. If you’re selling a health product, for example, maybe there’s a doctor who endorses your product on your website. Or if you’re selling financial services, maybe there’s an accountant who recommends using them to his clients. When people see that someone they trust recommends,?How do you create this kind of connection with customers? Here are six simple ways to improve your emotional connection with customers and build profitable customer relationships:
?
1. Be social.
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are a great way to interact with existing customers and reach new ones at the same time. Use these sites to share interesting information, ask questions, and post updates about your business. In addition, you can use them to offer specials or promotions that only your social network sees.
?
2. Listen to your customers.
It’s common knowledge that listening to customers is absolutely vital for your business. But how do you actually listen? Start by asking your customers how they feel.
A great place to start is to use a customer feedback survey.
Here’s why:
领英推荐
Taking the time to solicit customer feedback helps your customers feel like you care about their opinion. After all, you should – a loyal customer base can help make (or break) your brand.?
Getting feedback from your customers will help you understand what they like, what they don’t like, and how you can improve your products or services. It can also help you get a handle on what your target demographic is looking for, so you can create products or services that meet their needs. Surveys, focus groups, and even monitoring social media comments can clue you in to how people are feeling about your brand.
You can also ask for User Generated Content.?Get customer testimonials, preferably with photos or videos. The best feedback is when a customer says nice things about you on their own initiative. Ask them to send photos or videos of themselves talking about their experience with your company. That gives potential customers something they can relate to rather than a generic quote posted on your site.
If you’re passionate about your work, and you’re determined to create something that will help customers succeed, then feedback is just the fuel you need to keep moving forward. Pure, honest feedback is incredibly valuable, as it enables you to customize your product or service to better meet customer needs.
?
3. Use?your content to help customers solve problems.?
Content marketing is the process of creating content that draws your target audience to you and then encourages them to take action on your offers.
But how do you know what content will be most effective in achieving those goals?
Use your content to help your customers solve problems. That might sound simple — and it is. But it’s also a powerful way to attract attention, build loyalty, and increase sales.
The reason it works is that people are searching for solutions to problems every day. They need information and advice so they can make informed decisions, and they want it from a source they can trust.
If you can provide that, you’ll build a following of loyal customers who will buy from you again and again.
Whether you’re writing a blog post, social media update, or an email newsletter, your content should be helping readers solve a problem.
Here are four quick tips to make your content more effective:
Helping your customers get results should be at the heart of every company. No matter what technology you’re working with, your content marketing strategy should provide valuable information to help them.?
4. Involve customers.?
The best customer service companies involve their customers in their initiatives. For example, Patagonia has a repair program so their customers can fix their own jackets and clothing items at home. Or Zappos allows customers to swap shoes at no charge if they don’t like them or they don’t fit right. These companies give customers a reason to come back and tell others about the good customer service they received.
If you want repeat customers, you need to offer them something extra. A lot of companies do this through rewards programs or club membership, but there are other ways to do it as well. You could give customers a discount on their next purchase if they refer a friend or even just give them a thank you gift for shopping with you.
?
5. Make it personal.
Customers want their problems solved by real people, not faceless corporations because they realize that companies value them as individual clients, not just numbers on a spreadsheet. When you take the time to talk with your customers on a deeper level, you’ll develop a genuine understanding of their needs and how best to serve them. Building personal relationships with your customers translate into better results for everyone.
So, what does this all mean for you? Quite simply, you should think about what your customers want and why they buy from you. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be selling products that they want to buy; it means that you should take the time to understand them. Taking the time to build a great relationship with your customers will help you build a better brand. When you are ready,?contact us ?so that we can help you deepen your connection to your customers! ??