Communication skills determine your progress in your personal and professional life. You can have a great product or an exclusive service, but if you can't get it across to your customers, it will be a failure.

If you can't convince them of your product or service, they will simply go to your competitors who could. Communication takes place at different levels: from advertisements to billboards, from emails to posts on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, etc.

Since communication is the foundation for any good relationship, customers simply won't stay loyal to companies that don't show enough respect. By shaping the way you talk to your customers, you create stronger connections with existing customers and provide opportunities to acquire new ones.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the best tips for effective communication with your customers as well as try to understand its importance. Let's start!

What is customer communication?

Customer communication is how a business interacts with its customers using communication channels and strategies. Effective customer communication can help build relationships with your target audience and promote customer engagement and retention.

The brand must identify the main touchpoints and build relationships in each of them through various communication channels such as phone, email and chat. Companies can improve their overall customer relationship through consistent interactions and keeping the customers at the center of that interaction.

Why is it important?

Customer communication helps brands increase their profits, improve their brand image, and stay ahead of competitors.

Let's deal with this in more detail.

  • Increase profits. Customer communication can increase your profit by improving the lifetime value of your consumers. According to a Microsoft customer service report, 96% of people retain brand loyalty based on their interactions with a company.

    Keep in mind that most of your current and future customers decide whether or not to stay with you based on two factors: how well you communicate with them and how easily they can contact you. It means that you should communicate with your customers through preferred channels as well as provide them with exceptional experience.
Customer communication can increase your profit by improving the lifetime value of your consumers.

  • Increase loyalty. Effective, personalized communication makes customers feel special or even unique. Give them the opportunity to feel like someone you really know, not just a source of income. Customers who feel like you know them and understand their needs will trust you more.

  • Meet customer expectations. Customers have always had high expectations for customer service. But now, in such a competitive world, it is higher than ever before. Customers are even willing to pay more if they receive exceptionally efficient and polite assistance.

  • Reduce Negative Experience. People are going to talk about your business no matter what. After all, you are aiming for it. However, how they talk about your business does matter.

    About 40% of customers would recommend their family and friends not to use your services or products after a negative customer service experience. Some people just leave without saying anything, but some of them will leave a negative review.
    Approximately 90% of customers say they trust previous customer reviews and check them before making a purchase. That's why it's so important to improve customer communication.

Best Tips to build an effective customer communication

As we have already found out, communication with customers is an important part of any successful business. Therefore, strengthening the relationship with customers should be a top priority for your company. Here are some tips for effective communication with customers you can take.

  1. Reply in a timely manner.

Time is the most valuable resource for customers. Try your best to respond within 24 hours, thus you prove to the customer that their concerns are important to you. The best way to show your customers that you care about them is to create a system focused completely on customer service.

Customers want to be treated with respect. No one likes to wait a month for an answer. By then, customers will probably have cooled off, but they may not care what you say. It is likely that they will already use the services of your competitor. The one that reacts faster, with more transparency.

And most importantly, try to come up with a solution from the very first contact. If you successfully solve the problem, in almost 70% of cases, customers will return to you again.

2. Stay available.

Adapting your working hours to the needs of your customers is an effective way to improve customer communication. Remember to always make sure that enough agents are available when needed. Especially during peak hours.

One of the best ways to ensure that your customer issues are resolved as quickly as possible is to use a chatbot that is programmed to answer the most common questions. First, find out what problems your customers face most often, and then prepare detailed answers to them.

Another great advantage of a chatbot is that you can provide 24/7 customer support, which will greatly improve their experience.

Many customers like to contact you through channels like social media or chat because it's convenient and fast. In fact, 79% of users prefer chat to email or phone.

HelpCenter app offers you a wide range of features that will help you and your customer support team to improve communication with customers and provide them with exceptional service.

3. Learn as much as you can about your customer.

The more information your team has before they try to help the customer, the better. Save any data you have about the customer, such as account details, previous support tickets, and anything discovered during the sale process. Make all of this information available for anyone interacting with customers. The less information your team asks from customers, the better.

Customers appreciate it when you treat them like they are already close people, and not just like another ticket. 84% of customers say it's important to them to be treated like a person, not like a number.

Customers appreciate it when you treat them like they are already close people

4. Be honest.

You and your team will not know the answers to all your customers' questions. And that's okay, don't worry!

Instead of providing them with incorrect information or inaccurate information, let them know that it may take you longer to get accurate information from your team. If it's not possible to get the right answer right away, let your customers know that you will contact them back as soon as you have the necessary information. But don't forget to actually contact them. If it takes longer than you expected to get the information, just follow up with the customer about it. They will appreciate your effort to keep them updated.

5. Be patient.

In customer service, patience is a must. No matter how obvious the problem may seem to you. Customers turn to you when they don't know what to do. Sometimes they can be annoyed, angry or even aggressive.

Being patient and understanding and gaining in-depth knowledge of customer issues can take a long time. The same goes for the process of suggesting correct solutions and answering a request.

Great customer service is often better than just fast service. Patience will help you win. Win customer satisfaction, their trust and therefore loyalty.

Conclusion

Number one rule: positive customer experience starts with the right customer communication.

Remember that customers come to you because they need your help. Be patient and ask them questions to make sure you understand their needs. Go above and beyond in your response. Recognize that we are all unique and some customers may take longer to understand you.

When you engage in dialogue honestly and transparently, you build better relationships, offer better assistance, and continue to build trust in the long run.