Building a good customer relationship: 5 steps to success

Developing a good customer relationship today is very important when growing a business. Speed, personalization, listening, efficiency; consumers' expectations are more demanding than ever. Here's how to meet them in just 5 steps:

1. Get to know your audience in order to build a good customer relationship:

Before taking any action, knowing the expectations of your target audience is essential. To do this, start by building up a portrait of your buyer persona, your ideal customer. Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself:

• What are their hobbies?
• How old are they?
• What is their gender?
• What is their profession?
• Do they have children?
• What is their level of education?
• What is their marital status?

This type of question will help you understand their expectations and their problems. This way, you can adapt your offer to their needs. This is how you can reach them:

Also, make sure you find out about their online habits. What call-to-action do they click on on your site? When do they subscribe to your shopping cart? When do they consult your frequently asked questions? These are all indications that will allow you to refine your digital marketing and obtain better performance.

How do you acquire the information necessary to create a good customer relationship?

For demographic information, analyze the data you collect when the customer fills in their data to create their online account, receive the newsletter or download a document. All this, in compliance with the RGPD, of course.

Regarding the behavior on your site, there are many software's that allow you to track the behavior of your online visitors. It's up to you to choose the one that better suits you! Some CRM with advanced features can also tell you more about your customers' journey.

Finally, to gather more precise answers, make sure to survey your customers! When you take actions to improve your services are generally well-received by buyers. Mail, chat, instant messaging, phone calls, contact them where they prefer!

2. Personalize your communications with your customers

Personalization is at the heart of customer relations. According to a Boston Consulting Group study, 89% of companies believe that the impact of personalization on customer relations is positive. More precisely, on loyalty (47%) and customer satisfaction (36%). With a personalized relationship, customers save time and feel considered. But, how can you personalize your customer service in just a few actions?

• Match the tone and channels to your customers' preferences: If you have precisely defined your persona, you know which communication channels your buyers prioritize. Whether it's instant messaging, online chat, email, SMS, phone calls, it's up to you to offer them the right tool. Are your customers young and casual? Then call them by their first name and use emojis and gifs. Are they rather conventional? Adopt a more solemn tone.
• Make personalized offers: Depending on the purchase history, it is easy to offer them a similar product. So, don't hesitate to offer personalized promotions when they visit your website. According to a Kibo study, personalized promotions cause an 85% increase in purchases, while similar items encourage 92% of customers to make a new purchase.
• Anticipate their needs: Whether it's through advice in a newsletter, new features, or new products, your customers will be surprised and pleased that you respond instantly to their needs. And that will encourage their loyalty.

3. Increase your messaging channels to ensure a good customer relationship

Make the information your customers are looking for easily accessible. Your audience will prefer an immediate response rather than a phone call. Let them choose what is best for them. In both cases, solutions exist to improve the quality of service.

And, don't forget to take care of your offline channels! A good customer relationship offers digital as well as physical channels to customers. Do you have an online store? Why not open a point of sales to create a link with your customers and answer their needs in person?

4. Be responsive to customers:

Another point on which customers are uncompromising: the responsiveness of customer service. Now ultra-connected, customers are used to a quick and instantaneous response from their contacts. So it's quite natural that they expect the same from businesses. Of course, the expected response time depends on the channels used.

• On social media comments, users expect a response within an hour.
• For email, 24 hours is an acceptable amount of time to get a response.
• For apps like Messenger and WhatsApp, the proper response time is longer. The customer does not expect an instant response. The professional will answer when he is free, the same for the buyer. Therefore, an open conversation can be closed several days later without any dissatisfaction to be noted.

5. Install a solution dedicated to improving your customer relations

Is it possible to find a solution that combines all these advantages and helps you to quickly achieve good customer relations? As a vector of a better customer experience, as a catalyst for the sale of products and services online, as a gas pedal of the customer's purchase path, as a factor of satisfaction and loyalty, messaging ticks all the right boxes!

How does messaging promote good customer relations?

With a minimal cost and a major marketing impact, the integration of a messaging solution is the customer relationship strategy with the best ROI. And that's good news, because your customers are asking for it. The numbers speak for themselves:

• First, 85% of customers want companies to respond to their requests via messaging. These customer-company interactions take place on social network messaging systems or via a Live Chat tool set up on the company's website.
• According to the same study, 90% of customers open a text message within three minutes. Only 20% of customers open incoming emails. Even better: 45% of messages sent by the company via a message receive a response from customers (compared to only 6% for channels such as email, which are shunned by customers).
• Some apps have more than a billion users, such as WhatsApp, Messenger and iMessage. If you don't use these apps for your customer service strategy, you compromise your strategy and reduce the reach of your communication to your potential customers.
• Messaging tools have made major strides in the security of data and personal information. End-to-end data encryption has reassured and given confidence to indecisive customers.

Integrate instant messaging into your customer service strategy:

Offering a messaging solution on your website means talking with your customers in their comfort zone. It also means listening to the expectations of customers, fostering a relationship based on trust, and enhancing the brand's image. It means encouraging quality interactions between the company and its customers, accelerating the purchasing process, highlighting its products and services, and, ultimately, boosting satisfaction and loyalty. Deploying messaging solutions and tools is easier than integrating a new CRM or management tool. This strategy does not require significant resources and does not require marketing training.

Tips for setting up a messaging solution for good customer relations:

• Choose a solution that integrates the messengers most used by your customers. WhatsApp, iMessage, Messenger, and Instagram DMs are essential for an optimal customer experience and satisfaction. Our advice: the more messengers you integrate (Telegram, Business Messages), the more you boost the reach of your customer service and marketing communication.
• Carry out communication actions to inform your customers and prospects that you are present on their favorite messaging systems.
• Opt for quality software that does not impact the loading speed of your website. It must also offer marketing features.

Do you need more information? Consult our guide!

ChayAll, the messaging solution designed for businesses

ChayAll has developed a messaging solution in line with the expectations of companies. The implementation of this marketing tool allows you to integrate the different messaging channels into your website.

• WhatsApp Business API.
• Facebook Messenger.
• Apple Business Chat, the business version of iMessage.
• Instagram's Direct.
• Google's Business Messages.
• A Live Chat tool.

Manage the interactions between your company and its customers without any headaches. ChayAll integrates an interface that centralizes all the messages received, regardless of their source. We also offer you marketing functionalities to build customer loyalty, manage your e-reputation, and direct your marketing actions on social networks.