Crafting Meaningful Connections

Connecting with customers is about more than a click, like, or share. Those deep, quality connections are created through personalized experiences. Ones that make your customers feel cared for and noticed. 

Unfortunately, the first step in creating quality connections is often forgotten. Marketers too frequently jump into their strategies as though every customer is the same. Or that the only difference is where they’re hanging out and their needs. 

Just like any other relationship, we tend to get overly comfortable with our customers. We end up forgetting each one feels connections differently. Their emotional satisfaction relies on the variety of ways you reach out and adding purpose to them. 

In this first post of the series, I’m going to show you how to spend quality time with customers. I don’t mean giving them a generic five-minute article to sit down and read. That’s certainly creating a way to spend time with them, but the quality aspect is missing. 

Let’s start adding quality time to your customer relationships and begin building stronger connections today: 

1. Give them quality time with the customer service team

Successfully marketing your company’s brand and product can’t be done without the customer service team. They’re the difference between a good experience and one that sends them into competitors’ arms. 

However, there’s often a stereotype that customers don’t want to spend time with customer service reps. This misconception is brought on by a lack of effective quality time. 

I personally thrive off of quality time. I need that one-on-one time to feel heard, appreciated, and truly connected. I recently received this necessary quality time during a phone call with a cell phone customer service rep. After my husband dropped his phone down an ice fishing hole (insert my eye roll here), I spoke with a company rep to activate his new phone. 

She made efforts to fill the silence as apps downloaded and the phone restarted. It wasn’t with meaningless ‘weather’ chatter. Instead, she explained new features that will make troubleshooting easier in the future. We laughed together at my husband’s poor luck of missing an entire lake of ice and hitting a tiny hole of water. 

It was this quality time that took the success of our phone call far beyond her activating the new phone. Many of your customers are craving this same type of interaction. Whether it’s via phone, video, or chat, encourage the customer service team to spend quality time with customers. 

Ask them to consider each new ticket as an opportunity to understand a customer better. Note their personal interests, if they’re missing out on new features that will make their lives easier, and, most importantly, read their tone to gauge how they want to connect. 

2. Spend time with them on social media

The majority of consumers spend time on social media. In fact, a recent Statista report found the number of worldwide social media users reached 2.34 billion and is expected to grow to some 2.95 billion by 2020. 

Your marketing strategy likely already includes social media. Posting quick tips and sharing insightful articles is useful for bonding — some of the time. 

But if this is the only way you’re spending time with consumers on social, the relationship will eventually lose its luster. Customers will no longer feel like you’re making an honest effort and disengagement will ensue. 

Start mixing it up. Spend time with customers on Twitter chats and in LinkedIn groups. Shake it up with fun quizzes that result in giving them tips or insights specifically for their needs. Of course, don’t slack on responding to comments on your posts. Incorporate each of these on a weekly basis to show customers you’re invested in their relationships beyond sharing content. 

3. Get out and actually spend time with them

In today’s digital world we often forget about the importance of getting in customers’ faces — literally. Activities are one of the best ways to spend quality time with customers and have them fully appreciate it. 

Take your team out to networking events. Give them time to discover customers firsthand and watch how those customers respond when they receive this type of quality time. Not only will customers feel appreciated and loved, but your team will also learn unique information. This gives them even more power once they’re back in their office, creating new marketing materials.