How to Make Meaningful Relationships with Customers in a Zoom Era

COVID-19 has played a key role in redefining and reshaping everything we do and the way we do it. The past few months have been challenging as we were adapting to something that’s called “the new normal”. Our interaction with our colleagues and customers has gone completely virtual. 

As a Sales Executive, I miss the opportunity to connect directly with customers through coffee breaks, chit-chats, dinner invitations, and lunches where unexpected but valuable information is often exchanged, where we generally talk about our passions and our personal interests. For example, taking interest in the day-to-day life of the people we interact with – what have you done in the weekend, how are the kids, what is your dog name, etc. The whole purpose of this is to send out the signal, 'Will you be a friend to me?' But we do it in disguise.

Covid-19 struck suddenly, and we moved from face-to-face interactions to 100% virtual discussions with our customers. In the beginning, I struggled to connect virtually with people at a meaningful level. What functioned before covid needed to be reworked. Some of the things I began to put into place to create meaningful interactions with customers are common sense and instinctual, and most of us should be familiar with them. They all applied long before the covid-19 era.

I recently presented these ideas to my colleagues in a Zoom meeting and the feedback was great, so I thought it could be shared with a broad audience.

Before that meeting, I sent them this video:

During the meeting I asked my colleagues a few questions:

• What did you think about the video I sent this morning?
• What did you like about it?
• What if that was for a customer?
• How can it be used to strengthen the relationship with a customer?

The feedback was the following:

• I felt you were talking to me
• The video is personalized, it made me really looking forward to the meeting
• I was different than what we usually get in an email, I couldn’t ignore it
• It felt that you really cared about us and this meeting
• It made me connect to you more. It felt like I know you better
• I just felt you, it looks more human. Not another email.
• (…)

I would like to ask you the same questions. What if you are the customer and you get this video before a meeting? How would you feel about it?

My goal with the video was to show a concrete example of how to start changing the dynamic of our current interactions with customers and not to be inhibited by our Zoom meetings.

These are 6 ways you can form stronger relationships with people in a virtual world:

Be happy and passionate about what you do.

This one is a no-brainer. If you don’t love your work and if you are not passionate about it, how can you sell your ideas and products to your customers?

Whether in Zoom or in-person, your customers will feel your passion or lack thereof. Our feelings are the ones that make our relationships stronger.

There is a before, middle, and after. Prepare everything!

Before the meeting…

The video above is a concrete example of what you can do before a Zoom meeting to impact your audience and make them look forward to the meeting.

Before your meeting, try to learn about who will be there, what their interests are, what they like; and last but not least, check their social media. Have it as a main goal to build that relationship. Make use of all the resources available to you.

During the meeting…

Use everything that you learned to ask relevant questions, and to find personal common interests. Try to emphasize the part of your story that the customer can relate to. Don’t start the meeting by diving directly into the topic. Nothing is stopping you from having small talk. Zoom can imply that everything is formal. Instead, ask your customer how they feel, and invite them to write that in the chat group. Or, you could share a funny anecdote about your day.

Zoom invites you inside your audience’s house, where you can learn personal things about them, and if you are lucky enough you can even meet their children. Use that to your advantage. Zoom meetings offer you visual clues to help you get started. That guitar in the corner has a story that is dear to your customer: why don’t you ask about it?  That art picture, in the background, is there for a reason: do you know why?

Listen actively to what they have to say since it is all about them, not about you. Put yourself in their shoes. Try to understand them before you think about the solution.

After the meeting…

Follow-up with meeting notes, show them that you listened. For example, that question that you couldn’t answer during the meeting: send them the answer. Or, that article that you promised you’ll share: share it. So, what are the next steps?

Prepare your notes to make them personalized, that way you show your customer that you really care about them and you are here to help.

Pick up the phone

Texts, emails, and planned Zoom meetings are great, but they will never replace a spontaneous one-to-one call to check-in and see how a customer is doing. The actual conversation does not have to be lengthy. It can be a call to wish your customer a great weekend, a great vacation, or to follow up on an important topic. Trust me, this is simple, and it will help you to foster and maintain a strong relationship.

If you don’t know when your customer is usually free to receive a call, try to leave a voice message and give them an interval to reach you back.

Never eat/drink alone...

What about a virtual coffee with your customer or a virtual lunch?

Don’t hesitate to suggest that. Not all customers will accept it, but grab the opportunity when you can and try to avoid talking about work. This alone will yield great results.

Remember, your goal is to deepen the relationship. Consider your customer a friend or a person you care about.

Don’t wait to be asked for help

Be pro-active; this applies to all your interactions. If you know that your customer needs some sort of help, then jump in and offer your assistance before they ask. This can be applied to their personal life, and not just work. Anything that you can support them with it, don’t hesitate to offer.

Laugh and have fun

I cannot insist enough on this one. Sometimes we forget that we work to live and not live to work. We spend a lot of time at work and we need to have fun with the people we work with. Where there is room for it, smile, laugh, tell jokes —yes— even in Zoom meetings. Customers, partners, and colleagues are people just like us; let me repeat that as we tend to forget: they are people. They have feelings, emotions, and they love and hate. Zoom meetings don’t need to be very formal all the time.

Video conferencing is here to stay. According to a recent report from Transparency Marketing Research, “the video conferencing market is expected to show a compound annual growth rate of 8.4% between 2020 and 2027.”

The challenge moving forward is to adapt to the new normal, where virtual meetings with customers continue. By embracing this way of working, you might find ways to go deeper with customers than you ever dreamed possible. Learning how to build a stronger virtual relationship is going to be key, requiring your creativity and self-Reinvention.