3 tips for entrepreneurs to maintain and improve customer contact
Have you ever thought about the importance of customer contact is in this modern era? Consumers no longer only care about the product or service you have to offer. They are just as interested in the experience they receive during their interaction with your company. This can be crucial for the success of your business. Yes, you read that correctly!
It's also very important to know how your customers want you to contact them. Recent research from 'The Nationale Voice Monitor 2023' shows that most consumers still prefer to be contacted by phone. More than half of the consumers still reach for the phone when they want to contact a company. Then email and only a small portion of consumers choose face-to-face, online chat, WhatsApp or social media.
Keep in mind that the prefrences differentiate per generation. People aged between 18 and 30 are more likely to prefer online chats, but even for them, phone and email are still at the top of the rank.
So, make sure that your company has good telephone reachability. At Rinkel, we keep ourselves busy everyday with maintaining and optimizing the telepohone reachability of our clients and of ourselves.
Why is customer contact so important?
Customer service has never been so important for a company's success as now. In the growing online world where we find ourselves among all the reviews and opinions, it's incredibly important for businesses to focus on good customer service. Strong customer interaction can benefit your business in more ways than one. Let's take a look at the points below.
Improving the customer experience
It's remarkable how customer contact can transform the entire customer experience, but this actually makes a lot of sense. During interactions with your customers, it's your chance to prove yourself! It's the opportunity to build a strong relationship with your customer. Which will lead to satisfied and returning customers.
Research from Capterra shows that over 70% of consumers first look at online references before making a purchase. So invest in good customer contact, and your customers will invest in you.
Develop customer loyalty
Customer contact is extremely important for gaining loyal customers. They go hand in hand, but how does one strengthen the other?
Good customer contact leads to a positive customer experience, which is the key to loyal customers. The customer is king, and a good customer experience will keep them coming back to you. And voilà, you've gained a loyal customer
Understanding customer needs
Your primary source of feedback is your customers. By regularly engaging with your customers, your business can receive valuable feedback that can help you improve your product or service. Gathering information from your customers makes it easier to understand their behavior and respond accordingly."
3 tips to maintain customer contact
As an entrepreneur, it can be quite challenging to maintain customer contact, especially if you are self-employed or when you have a small team. Always being available, accessible to everyone, responding quickly – it's not an easy task and it requires a significant amount of time. That's why we've listed the following tips that will help you. Let's take a look!
1. Business accessibility
The reachability of your business is essential if you want to achieve success. Competition in the business world is very high, which is why maintaining a strong relationship with your customers is crucial. Your customers can easily switch to a competitor after all. Make sure your business is accessible for everyone: through phone, social media, email, a chat function. Make sure everything is in order and that your customers can expect a quick response through every channel.
2. Utilize technologies
There are a lot of technological developments going on right now. An example is a chatbot, a computer program that can automatically answer 80% of standard customer questions for you. Always ensure that a chatbot can be transferred to a real employee if the question can't be answered. More tools and software are also available to assist you in maintaining customer contact, such as CRM systems and social media management tools.
3. Omnichannel customer contact
Omnichannel focuses on the total customer experience. You manage all your channels (like WhatsApp Business, email, chat) from 1 platform! It ensures the same customer experience across all channels. This benefits both the customer and your organization, as it consistently meets expectations. It removes the risk of disappointments and leads to more satisfied customers. There are several platforms that can help your organization maintain omnichannel customer contact, where all your employees work from a single platform, for example Hubspot and Intercom.
What to do if you run a business by yourself?
Even if you run a business by yourself, you can maintain customer contact very well. Although we understand that this can be challenging at times, it is absolutely possible!
Make sure that you are reachable. This might be challanging, especially since your are running a business on your own, but it's very important! First of all, make sure your business phone number is forwarded to your mobile phone. So you will be reachable anytime and anywhere. If you want to know how to do it, check it here! Also, create a solid schedule that gives you time for customer contact. This way, you prevent it from getting postponed every day. Lastly, we recommend making use of current technologies, especially when you are on your own, such as CRM systems and chatbots!"
3 tips to improve customer contact
Now that you know how important customer contact is, it might also be useful to know how you can optimize customer contact. How can you make sure that your customers enjoy talking to you and are happy with the service? We have some tips for you:
1. Personal approach
Don't hesitate to approach your customers personally when they need help. A customer relationship is built through interaction, communication, and shared experiences. Telephone contact is still preferred by consumers because they feel more understood in a personal conversation. It's a lot easier to empathize with the customer's situation in a personal conversation.
2. Listening to your customer
It might seem obvious, but you'd be surprised to see how many companies skip this step. Listening also means understanding and not just listening to respond. Be open, seek solutions, and make your customers feel heard.
Read more about why listening to your customer is important.
3. Closing with a solution
Make sure you never end a conversation with a customer without a solution. If your client comes to you for help, you should always make sure that you provide help. Make sure that the conversation only ends when you are both satisfied.
Our personal experiences
We, at Rinkel, focus on valuable customer contact and this can be seen in our reviews: we score an average of 9+ among our clients! Our customers help us improve our service every day, and we are very grateful for that!
at the support department of Rinkel, we are ready to help our clients everyday. Yalive Schmidt likes to share her own experiences.
"My customer service experience focuses on the value of empathy, speed, and consistency. Customers appreciate when questions are taken seriously and when they receive fast and effective assistance. A valuable tip from me for new entrepreneurs is to always listen to customer feedback. This provides insights to improve customer service. Hubspot and Intercom allow us to be available on various channels and to guarantee a seamless customer experience."
As mentioned before in this article, customer contact is essential to your business and its succes. So make sure you maintain it well and that your customers enjoy talking to you.
Need help with your telephone reachability? With Rinkel you can connect a 085 number or any other area code to your mobile phone, so you can be reachable anytime, anywhere on your business number!
