What is customer relations?
Understanding the customer relationship definition is essential if you want to give your customers a better experience. The concept includes everything you do to engage your customers and build relationships, often with long-term connections being the focus. It consists of all interactions customers have with your brand, starting with their first experience before purchasing.
Why customer relations matters
You need a quality product or service at your core, but you also require customers to buy those things to make your company successful. That’s where customer relations come in. When you proactively create a positive customer journey, you build trust and relationships that lead to loyal consumers.
Some benefits of developing positive customer relations include:
- Higher customer retention: Holding onto customers you already have is easier and more cost-effective than finding new customers. When you work on customer relations, you create positive relationships that encourage customer loyalty, resulting in repeat purchases.
- Increased sales:Positive experiences encourage customers to buy more with each purchase and return for future purchases to boost your overall sales.
- Happier customers: Your proactive approach leaves your customers satisfied with their interactions. Happier customers are more likely to return and recommend you to others.
- Improved competitiveness: Emphasizing customer relations makes you more competitive with similar businesses. It sets you apart by giving your customers a unique and positive experience.
- Positive work environment: Employees can also benefit from improving customer relations. Being positive with customers helps create a positive work environment. Satisfied customers are also more enjoyable to work with.
- Gaining new customers: Customer relations starts before a consumer becomes a customer. Nailing customer relations can help convert casual followers into customers. Positive customer relations also make current customers happy, resulting in good reviews, recommendations and shared testimonials to convince others to try your company.
How do you improve customer relations?
Implementing a variety of customer relations strategies helps you serve your customers better. Customer relations include a wide range of activities, so the strategies to improve it are also varied. Here are some options.
Establish a customer relations plan
Instead of trying random strategies, create a written customer relations plan that outlines how to improve the customer journey. Evaluate where you are currently with customer relations and how you want to improve. Choose strategies that support those goals.
Understand customer needs
You must know what customers want in order to customize the experience and create positive relationships. Creating buyer personas for your ideal customer helps you dive into what they want and need. You can then figure out how your company solves any pain points and how to better serve your customers.
Train your employees
All employees who interact with customers are responsible for supporting positive customer relations. Comprehensive overall training equips your employees to better interact with customers. Employees who are well-trained and know the products can educate and engage with customers. Incorporate specific customer relations training in your plans to improve interactions. This might include training on communication, conflict resolution, handling demanding customers and other related topics.
Measure customer satisfaction
Checking in regularly with customers helps you gauge how you’re doing with customer relations. Quick surveys after purchases can help you evaluate the customer experience.
Be consistent
Consistency in your communications and interactions, both online and in-person, teaches your customers what to expect. It establishes brand recognition, and customers come to rely on what they’ll get. For example, if you always greet customers warmly, have a quick checkout process and thank them sincerely when they leave, they grow to expect those welcoming gestures. If they come in and find no one greeting them, a long wait to check out and a rude cashier, it shatters that consistency and makes them question the quality of your service. Setting high standards and establishing consistent procedures for your employees can help create this consistency.
Create a customer-centric business model
Prioritize your customers over making quick sales or increasing your profits. Customers can tell if you care about them or if you’re just in business to take their money. Focus on little things that set you apart and show your customers that you care about them. Make it a habit to exceed customer expectations.
Communicate with customers
Regular communication keeps your business in your customers’ minds and shows that you haven’t forgotten them. You want to keep communicating even after they buy from you. It shows that you’re building an ongoing relationship. Encourage two-way communication by interacting with customers on social media, through email and in person. Clear communication helps set expectations and can reduce frustration for your customers.
Appreciate your customers
Showing appreciation is a critical way to encourage customers to return. Customer appreciation can be as simple as a sincere thank you when a customer checks out or a handwritten thank you note in an online order. You might offer customers little extras, like stickers, candy or a small product. If you want something a little more structured, try a customer loyalty program, which might include a special discount after a customer makes a certain number of purchases. Customer birthday cards with a coupon for a gift or discount also show appreciation.
Provide fast support
When customers need help, they want a quick resolution. Measure how long customers have to wait for support and how long calls take on average. If you rely on email support, calculate how long customers wait for a response email. This gives you a baseline and helps you see if you’re improving. Find ways to speed up the process, such as hiring more customer service agents or using technology. For example, call routing software can ensure customers reach qualified agents quickly. A robust help desk library can help agents find information quickly.
Handle complaints and mistakes carefully
No company is perfect, so you’re bound to have someone who complains or has a bad experience at some point. How you handle that situation determines if you can hold onto the client and improve how they think of your company. Don’t be afraid to apologize if you made a mistake. This simple act can help repair the relationship and encourage the customer to try your business again. Find ways to fix the situation, depending on what happened. If the customer received the wrong order, send out the correct order with priority shipping, for example.
Respond to customer feedback
Many companies solicit customer feedback, but it’s not useful unless you use it. Using customer feedback to make positive changes for your business creates a feedback loop. Not only does it help you identify the most important changes your customers will notice, but it also shows your customers that you care about their opinions. They realize you want to improve and meet their needs. This can enhance the experience and improve loyalty.
Give customers options
Customers want to interact with your brand in different ways, so making your company accessible in a variety of ways supports that. Incorporating technology makes it easier to provide multiple customer service options, such as chat, email, phone and social media support. Self-service options help customers who want a quick solution without interacting with a live person. Examples include FAQs pages with detailed answers or the opportunity to make changes to their online accounts, such as cancellations and address changes.
Keep employees happy
Happier employees are more likely to interact positively with customers. This improves your reputation and gives customers a better experience from start to finish. Happy employees also tend to be more productive. Ways to improve employee satisfaction include offering competitive pay, providing positive feedback, supporting employees and recognizing their accomplishments.
Use customer relationship management software
Customer relationship management software collects customer data and records customer interactions in a central location. This allows you to provide personalized customer service when customers need support or return for additional products. You can also use the software to collect data, generate reports and forecast future sales. CRM software can be used for leads before they make a purchase, and the software can help you better nurture those leads and turn them into customers.
FAQs about customer relations
What’s the difference between customer service and customer relations?
Customer service and customer relations are often used interchangeably, but while related, they’re slightly different. Customer service is a reactive event. It’s about how you interact with a customer while they’re purchasing from your company. It often includes negative things, such as customer complaints. The concept of customer relations is also proactive. It consists of all types of interactions you have with consumers. Customer service is part of customer relations, but it includes all other interactions you have with your customers. Customer relations includes every aspect of a customer’s journey, including before and after the sale.
Who’s in charge of customer relations?
All employees have a hand in creating customer relations. Some companies hire a customer relations manager or director of customer relations to head the efforts. This expert in customer relations oversees the strategy and trains employees who interact with customers. In a smaller company, the owner, manager or head of customer service might take charge of customer relations.
How do you evaluate your customer relations?
Conducting an internal review of your current customer relations activities will help you identify what you’re doing well and where you need work. Review all statistics you have at your disposal, including customer complaints, wait time, first call resolution and customer satisfaction. Create new customer surveys and feedback tools to gather information directly from customers. The data and feedback give you an idea of how you’re currently performing on customer relations and where you can improve.
