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How to create an effective communication strategy with your customers

Effective communication is not just a part of customer service but the most crucial aspect of it. That's why how you go about it will drastically impact how you connect with your customers and retain their loyalty. But no worries. Here, we will explore how you can build a customer communication strategy or improve an existing one. 


What is customer communication 

Customer communication is all ways companies interact with customers at each channel and touchpoint along the customer journey. It is an ongoing process, from targeting prospects to the post-purchase customer experience. 

Each step is crucial to ensure your customers stay satisfied and return. 

What is an effective communication/customer communication management 

Now that we understand customer communication, we need to focus on how we can make the process more cohesive. 

Here, we have customer communication management or CCM. It refers to the strategy, tools and channels a company uses to communicate with its audience. It is the way companies create, deliver and maintain customer communications. 

Customer communication management is all about delivering a consistent message and providing support across all channels. It is all about strengthening customer relationships. 

Good customer communication management allows each of your teams to share knowledge. Insights gained by, for example, the marketing team could be shared with sales, creating a more cohesive narrative about customers' needs and wants. 

Customer communication management is a process that helps businesses understand how customers perceive their communication strategies so they can adapt accordingly and coordinate better customer interactions. It all matters: how a customer responds to marketing messages, engages with social media posts and contacts your support agents. Every interaction provides valuable insights that can help you tailor future communication to the customer's needs. 

How effective customer communication helps/Why is it important 

As we established, good customer communication is a significant part of the overall customer experience. 

Promoting effective customer communication skills should be integral to the company's values. Improving communication helps promote your brand to future customers, build a strong relationship with existing customers, and address customer concerns. 

The cost of bad customer communication to businesses is estimated in the billions. A recent study claims that the price in the U.S. alone is close to $4 billion annually

A buyer's decision to continue a business relationship with you relies significantly on how you communicate and how they perceive and interpret your communications. This is why maintaining excellent communication skills is essential. You should ensure effective and cohesive communication, whether external or internal communication management. 

Tips on how to create an effective customer communication strategy 

Customers no longer buy products-they buy experience. 

This is why focusing on bettering your customer experience is so important. Customer experience is everything that can impact a buyer's perception of you. Communication with customers is an essential part of the overall customer experience. 

A study by Harvard Business Review found organizations able to successfully manage the entire experience bring huge rewards: improved customer satisfaction, reduced churn, increased revenue, and greater employee satisfaction. This also helps them discover more-effective ways to collaborate across functions and levels, a process that delivers gains throughout the company. 

This is why you need to approach customer communication with a specific plan, analyze and monitor customer interactions, and ensure you manage them with utmost care. Creating an effective customer communication strategy is no easy task. 

Take a look at some of the best practices to consider when building your customer communication strategy: 

1. Invest in an omnichannel communication solution 

Being present on multiple communication channels and allowing them to contact you on the platform they prefer is essential in every phase of the buyer's journey. These days, using more than three channels to communicate is a standard. But how do you go about it and make sure you give the best customer experience possible? 

There are two ways you can approach customer communication: multichannel and omnichannel. In a nutshell, multichannel use different channels for customer communication. Since channels are not integrated into a single solution, the customer's final experience is often soiled.  

Omnichannel also uses multiple channels. However, they are integrated into one solution and enable you to deliver a consistent customer experience.  

Connecting with customers and delivering consistent support across all channels is essential. 

An Omnichannel platform helps redefine how you communicate with customers online and offline. You can gain insights into your customer journey that can help to enhance communication across all channels. 

 So how do you go about designing an omnichannel communication strategy? Focus on three core measures to improve customer experience: 

  • Identify what your customers' preferred channels are 
  • Create an effective customer engagement strategy across those channels. 
  • Be consistent throughout the customer journey. 

If you want to learn more, we've touched upon this topic in one of our previous blogs. 

CRM solution - Live by ASEE

2. Improve initial customer experience 

Try to think about a past great experience as a customer. It probably doesn't take a lot of time to find an example. This shows how big of an impact those experiences can have on a person.  

The first positive experience not only satisfies your customers but also accelerates revenue. It is up to you now to make sure you leave the best first impression.  

When interacting with customers, ensure they don't wait long for you to answer. Avoid scripted conversations: Overusing canned responses can lead to a bad customer service experience. So, it would help if you balanced to make conversations meaningful and impactful. 

3. Collect feedback 

Customer feedback is essential to measure the level of effective customer communication. It plays a vital role in the growth of any company. 

Feedback from customers enables you to understand how customers feel about your brand. This ensures you can recognize and identify gaps between you and customers resulting in an improved final product. 

Another thing is that it opens a dialogue with customers. Since they can give you an insight into their feelings about your service or product, you can recognize weak points and act quickly when solving them. This will ensure long-lasting relationships. 

It is important to note that customers feel appreciated when you ask them about their opinion. 

Customer feedback enables you to create the best customer experience – The concept of customer service marketing is entirely based on people's experiences with products, services, and brands. Customers will remain loyal to your business if you focus on providing the best customer experience at every touchpoint.  

The most effective way to give them a fantastic experience is by asking them what they love about your service and what should be improved. 

4. Focus on proactive communication 

 Don't wait for customers to initiate the interaction- be proactive when communicating with customers. 

Whether you're reaching out to your buyers to ask for their feedback or alerting them about a shipping delay, it's crucial to practice proactive communication. It can mean the contrast between customers coming back or leaving for good. 

First impressions are crucial in customer communication because you might not get a second chance. So, when possible, stay proactive by avoiding scripted communication. Your initial contact with a customer should be unscripted and performed by a natural person. 

5. Improve internal communication 

Positive customer communication starts with effective internal communication. Employees across different departments should be able to work together and rely on each other for support. Internal solid communication ensures your customer communication strategy is implemented consistently across each team and touchpoint, providing customers with a smooth experience. 

6. Measure the right metrics 

Measuring communications for your business can be overwhelming and out of control. Still, developing a strategy to measure the conversations is vital. This is why you must have the right approach when measuring the metrics. Make sure you focus on the relevant information, like customer feedback. 

Measuring the right metrics is incredibly useful in improving customer communication. Start by assessing your team's performance. You can identify the agents' performance gaps that need improvement. You can conduct additional training sessions to correct mistakes and increase productivity.  

Also, focus on improving communication skills – Measuring communication metrics help you know how to improve your team's linguistic skills. 

Better customer interactions – Regular monitoring helps you identify common issues and proactively communicate with customers. 

Conclusion 

In the digital age, where communication with your customers is less face-to-face, it becomes more critical to have an effective customer service communication strategy in place. It would help your business grow and thrive without negatively impacting the customer service experience.  

Consistent brand messaging comes across all touchpoints. Start by gaining insights to personalize interactions and identifying customer expectations at every stage of their journey to maximize customer communication efforts. 

Client communication is crucial for successful projects. But often, communication plans get mired in unnecessary details and inaccessible fluff. 

Positive customer experience starts with the right customer communication technology. 

Equip your team with an all-in-one customer service platform that connects marketing, sales, and support.  

Live understands the significance of offering an excellent customer experience and thus brings a whole range of tools to complement your effort. Sign up, start the 60-day free trial, and develop your effective customer communication strategy.


Learn more about how the Live product family can help you support and improve your customer experience strategy.

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