When you reach adulthood, making meaningful connections with those around you isn’t all that easy. While kids become best friends in minutes, adults tend to nurture relationships over time. Most of us work with colleagues for a few months before we meet up with them outside of the office. Even then, it can take a few months more for a meaningful connection to form. We certainly don’t make best friends at the drop of a hat.
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By Standret
When people talk about connecting with customers in business, then, your heart may sink. You don’t have that kind of timeline to play around with, especially not for every customer who comes your way. While it would be wonderful to wine and dine each one, it isn’t realistic. How, then, can you create meaningful connections without wasting a whole load of time? In reality, it’s quite simple. All you need to do is implement the following fast fire pointers.
Create mass connections through social media
There’s no way that you have time to sit down and win over one customer at a time. Even if you did do this, you wouldn’t be able to reach half as many people as you need to make things worthwhile. That’s why social media is such a Godsend. There’s nothing better for increasing customer numbers in a short amount of time. What’s more, this is a fantastic way to create meaningful connections on a mass scale. Forget taking this one person at a time. By injecting plenty of personality into your updates, you can create millions of connections in one. If your statuses convince people to follow you, you’ll enter a courting period with each of them. Keep playing your cards right, and you’ll have some friends (or customers) for life in no time. Even better, you wouldn’t believe how fast your efforts here can create loyalty. The fact customers are following you also ensures you can keep your company in their minds after they’ve made a purchase.
Add personal touches to automated processes
Things like the emails you send when customers show an interest are what really form those connections. Let’s be honest though; you can’t sit down and type these out for each customer. At least, not if you want time to do anything else. Luckily, CRM systems like those offered by Copper provide ready to go automated emails for everything from greeting customers to advertising your products. By uploading all your contact information, such systems can even personalize those emails. That’s sure to go down a lot better than the generic ‘hello customer’ email you might send otherwise. This is a quick and low-effort way to add that personal touch. Before you know, something like this is sure to create connections with any number of potential customers. Just like that, leads will become the sales you want them to be.
Perfect customer service to get the most from short interactions
You don’t need us to tell you that customer service is essential. You’ve heard it all before. But, do you realize that perfecting this could secure meaningful connections in even short phone calls? Remember that customers aren’t expecting miracles from you. They aren’t going to invite you to their wedding, or spend Friday nights at your house. All they want to know is that you’re a company they would get along well with. As such, something as simple as the right tone of voice or a professional greeting could be all it takes. You can bet that getting this wrong will prevent any chance of an ongoing connection. Make sure, then, that you train every member of staff on their general customer service. You wouldn’t believe how much of a difference this can make to the amount of customer who come back time and again.
Let your product do the talking
All of the above points aside, perfecting your product is by far your best bet. Given that these should already be your priority, placing your customer focus here shouldn’t take you any extra time. Still, being able to connect with the items you offer can win customers around regardless of the other steps you take. The best way to ensure this happens is to know your target audience inside out. That way, you can develop a product which suits their needs down to the ground. Make sure, too, that you’re appealing to the audience you have in mind. As easy as that, you can bet you’ll be best friends with your customers forever more.