Customer communication is an integral part of your business because it’s the first touchpoint for most of your prospects. Your business service should be straightforward for your customers to understand your products.
In reaching out to your customer base, it’s crucial to ensure that they’re happy doing business with you and enjoy prompt customer support. Going the extra mile to satisfy their needs will significantly impact your business’s returns and growth.
That being said, properly managing your business texts and calls with your clients is vital. If you constantly keep your customers waiting on calls or send texts with insufficient information, you may lose your grip on your customer base.
To avoid this, you can leverage technology to improve your business communication by incorporating systems like Drop Cowboy and others to help manage your calls and texts. You can customize your messages or calls to market your products and services while attending to other crucial matters.
In addition, there are other ways to better manage your business texts and calls.
1. Gather Customer Data
Collecting customer data is a crucial part of your business communication. It provides a stepping stone when developing a customer outreach plan to promote your business. After all, you can’t market your products or services effectively if you’re not sure who to market to.
That being said, get to know the customers who do business with your company regularly or the customer base that your products or services appeal to. Once you know their basic information and preferences, you can determine what kinds of text messages will be most effective for them or whether a phone call would do a better job. This will help you capitalize on customer communication to get your desired response.
2. Get Customers’ Permission
Before you start sending text messages or scheduling calls, it’s best to get permission from prospective and current customers. Doing so will show them that you value their privacy, and it also prevents you from making the mistake of sending unwanted messages or bothering them with calls. If you proceed without asking permission, there’s a chance they might block your business texts and calls completely. So, be respectful and check with them first before putting them on a list of customers to send promotions or updates to.
3. Filter According To Customer Preference
Customer communication is a great way to market your business, but you must ensure they’re happy with your pitch. It gives your business a chance to regain missed opportunities that can significantly impact your revenue.
So, it’s crucial to design texts and calls according to your customers’ preferences while also getting the message across. You don’t want to spam your customers with irrelevant texts and calls, as it can chase them away from your business. In addition, you can use dialing software, like Power Dialer or others, to track and analyze the calls you make, so you can schedule calls for the times that work best for each customer.
4. Build A Relationship Through Your Messages
How you relate with your customers can determine the success of your business. Send interactive texts that your customers will enjoy reading and possibly share with friends, or leave a voice message that effectively promotes your brand. Be professional and straight to the point when communicating with them. Additionally, learn your customers’ preferences and, with that information, share your products and services with them in a way that they will appreciate.
5. Have Multiple Business Contact Channels
Technological advancements are quickly changing business communication as more and more channels are being created, which customers can use to contact you. It has significantly enhanced the speed and ease with which customers can reach your business for assistance and instant response.
That being said, you can leverage social media, IoT, or smart devices to efficiently communicate with your customers and promote your brand. Even the traditional means of contact, such as texts and phone calls, can be made easier and more efficient with the use of relevant systems and software, such as virtual phone systems.
6. Provide Around-The-Clock Support
After sending texts, leaving voice messages, or making calls to your customers, you must be available to respond to any questions that might follow. Prospects might get curious and want to know more about your offerings, while current customers might require help when they experience problems with your products or services. In both situations, a prompt response would be much appreciated.
To provide around-the-clock support to your customers, you can choose from several options. Having a team of customer service representatives (CSRs) is one, but you can also look into getting an SMS chatbot for messages you might receive.
7. Settle Disputes First
When a customer complaint arises or when a customer has a dispute about your products or services, you should act as fast as possible to settle the matter. Don’t let their message or call go unanswered for long, as this may only frustrate them further. Answering promptly will help you build strong customer relationships and retain existing ones.
Remember to be mindful of your tone and wording when responding to such situations; your texts and calls should be courteous and professional so as to avoid misleading or alienating your customers. If you have a CSR to respond to calls or messages, it would be helpful to have a template of responses they can use for specific issues to ensure consistency in your business’s response to such situations.
8. Automate Simple Tasks
Today, many technological advancements in customer communication have made it possible for you to automate simple services such as texts and calls. This provides an intuitive communication avenue for your customers to be able to reach your business more easily and get prompt responses.
When coming up with automated responses, be sure to make it concise but with all the necessary information to ensure that the customer is satisfied and receives the answer they need. Otherwise, the automated responses won’t be very helpful.
Final Thoughts
Though many business transactions and customer interactions are done online these days, there are still a number of people who prefer to go with the traditional methods of calls and text messages. It’s important to consider your customers’ preferences regarding this and to ask for their permission before choosing that as your primary form of business communication. If they agree, remember to pay attention to your tone and wording when interacting with your customers. Keep the above points in mind as well to better manage your business texts and calls.
