Communication forms the core of your customer experience management strategy. Your words, tone, and communication channels all shape how customers perceive your brand.
When done correctly, communication can evoke powerful emotions in your audience and shape your brand’s image.
It’s a good idea to shape the right communication skills in your business-customer interactions. Good communication can be learned and implemented in your business with some effort. Using simple and actionable tips, it’s possible to train and create marketing strategies that create the best impression.
Let’s explore ways that you can improve your customer experience with the right communication abilities.
Create Templates for Different Channels
Preparedness is half the job when it comes to effective communication. You can be proactive and use templates to help you communicate with your audience on different channels.
The idea is not to create scripted and robotic conversations, but rather to enable your employees to have a clear idea of how to interact with customers.
Your audience uses different platforms for different reasons. They are on social media for entertainment and connectedness. They rely on emails to deliver and send official and more important information.
Your customers will also expect helpful and informative content on your site’s landing pages to help them get information and support their purchasing decisions.
When they approach live chat or other means of customer support, you need to provide a more direct and professional interaction.
Build templates and prepare for ways to communicate with audiences in different spaces. When you have clear ideas on how to create content in advance, you’re more likely to maintain a consistent brand voice.
Respond Quickly
When customers contact you they usually want quick and helpful information. The widespread use of mobile phones and the internet means that people are accustomed to getting information instantaneously.
The faster you respond, the better your chances are of creating happy customers.
A strategy that will boost your customers’ satisfaction is to create automated responses when your business is offline or unable to respond. Create automated email responses when customers send an enquiry on your contact forms.
Add an automatic message on Facebook’s messaging feature to send information immediately when a customer writes to you. Getting queries on social media is extremely common today, and this creates a great opportunity to build a relationship with your customers.
Always Follow Up
When an interaction with a customer has a loose end, you can use it as an opportunity to follow up with the customer to find out if they are happy with the experience.
Send an email to ask them if they need more information or if you can help in any other way. It shows that you care about resolving their problems and you’ll also bring the interaction to a conclusion.
Adopt a Conversational Tone
People are inundated with tiring marketing messages all day on their phones, computers, and in the physical world. Today, real connections with people and brands are what matters. You can help your audience feel as if there are real people behind your brand by using a conversational tone when you speak or write to them.
Use casual but respectful language in all your communication channels. Try to be friendly and avoid technical jargon if you aren’t dealing with B2B customers. Using a conversational tone will make your content appealing to everyone and will help them relate to you more.
Use the Mirror Technique
In person-to-person communication, you would use the mirror technique to make other people feel comfortable. It works by mirroring another person’s body language. For example, you smile when the other person smiles, or adopt the body posture they are using. This is meant to create a positive psychological response from the person you’re communicating with, creating rapport.
When it comes to online communication, you can use mirroring to show empathy and to show that you’re paying attention. Try to use the same tone of voice as your customers when communicating with them. Focus on repeating the words they say and acknowledging the problems they bring up. By mirroring with words and the right tone of voice, you will be able to get more positive responses from customers.
Avoid Cliches and Canned Communication
Customers know when businesses are keeping information from them or don’t give them a direct answer. This can happen when internal problems in a business prevent the company from managing a customer’s concerns. Instead of giving customers the truth, they hedge and use cliches and canned phrases in their communication – which creates frustration and ill will.
It is important to find a balance between providing unnecessary business information and providing enough context to customers.
Often enough, you will find that customers are willing to be patient and accommodating if you provide them with truthful and pertinent information. You’ll even connect with them better if you offer them valid but restricted reasons for any problems such as a delay in support or service.
Personalize Conversations
One of the key elements of successful customer experience management is to personalize your communication. You can create personalization by using tools and relevant data to offer more relevant content.
A Customer Experience Management (CEM) platform helps you to manage email marketing and other key strategies. It will help you track user data and patterns of behavior so that you can provide content that’s helpful to them.
Personalizing communication shows that you are addressing people as individuals and that you look after their concerns whenever needed.
Be Empathetic
Practicing empathy means that you place yourself in your customers’ shoes. When you understand your customers’ motivations and their needs, you’re better placed to meet them effectively.
You’ll be able to craft your conversation so that your customers feel like they are heard and can depend on you to resolve any problems.
Develop empathy by listening closely to your customers and looking at a situation from their viewpoint. This is a powerful way to get feedback which will improve your services and communication.
Boost Customer Experience with Great Communication Skills
Communication forms the core of your entire customer experience strategy. This means that how well you communicate with customers will leave a lasting impression on their minds.
The good news is that you can learn to improve your communication skills easily. Today, there are many online courses available that will allow you to improve your communication.
We’ve also offered you helpful communication tips that will boost your skill level in small but effective ways.
Work with the suggestions provided here and you’ll soon build a great customer experience for your audience.
Hello Syed,
I can for sure, say it with confidence, these communication skills will absolutely help to achieve better customer experience. My all time favorites have been Mirroring and Labeling. It helps the customer to be heard and well comprehended..
Thanks
Pooja
Perhaps you are wondering how communication can make a difference when it is only about exchanging of information from one entity to another. The relaying and receiving of a data through oral or written method is the most underrated way of creating a difference in this messy world. Communication definitely provides people with a good amount of comfort, a wonderful opportunity to express, and an amazing method of making an impact in one’s life. The changes made with just the mere act of sharing and listening can be transmitted from the current generation to the next. Please check my blog about How Communication Creates a Difference
Hope this will help. Thank you.