“I have come to realize that customers love companies that make them feel good about themselves—companies that reflect what they, the customers, believe about themselves. Customers fall in love with the company that says to them, ‘You are unique. You are great. We are the only ones who can make you feel that way. Fall in love with us and we will continue to make you feel great.’” 

~ J N Halm

The eminence of any business depends largely upon its relationship with its customers. A business is not about merely gaining a large number of customers, instead, it is about retaining the existing customers and winning their loyalty. But how can one understand what a customer wants? What can the business owners do to gain customers?

How to Understand Your Customers?

Fostering the loyalty of the customers is the primary and one of the most difficult aspects of a business. But this can be achieved if done strategically, i.e., achieving an in-depth insight into what a customer wants and expects. Following are the ways to understand the consumers better:

• Engage with your customers in real-time with intelligent tools to optimize the customer’s experience. The pattern and behavior of the customers and insight about their buying habits can be gained through these technologically advanced tools such as AI, chatbots, etc.
• Using generic demographics is a good way of finding your ideal customers, but this alone might not suffice the need for deeper information. Thus, data analytics plays an important role here. This can be used to analyze the keyword data used by the consumers for certain products or services. The motive here is to connect with the consumers at an emotional level.
• Integrating a user behavior tracking tool with the product or service website can be a positive move towards analyzing customers’ bounce rate or the amount of time spent on the website.
• Predictive analysis plays an important role in planning the future management of customers. This can be done using predictive modeling software that helps in identifying any cyclic pattern of the customer. Improvised and quick decision-making is the major advantage of this analysis.
• Map out the customer journey-

• Find what are the factors that motivate the customer:

How can the Businesses Stay Connected with the Customers?

Staying connected with the customers is fundamental to any business. Let us delve further into how these connections can be established:

1. Use automated tools to cut down the response time. Automated responses can be generated for frequently asked questions on the company websites.
2. Connect apps with the websites. Apps can be a medium of direct connection with your customers. It enhances brand recognition, thereby increasing customer loyalty and brand visibility.
3. Organize events on social media platforms to increase customer engagement.
4. Integrate the website with CRM tools to improve customer relationships.
5. Conduct frequent surveys and gain customers’ feedback regarding the product or services.
6. Construct targeted content and take it to the customers through newsletters and blogs.
7. Telephonic feedbacks might sound like its passe, but a direct conversation with the customers or clients regarding the purchased products is always a positive approach.
8. Spice up the customer’s interest in your products or services by conducting webinars. These should primarily comprise the topics and discussions that the customers wish to hear or participate in.
9. Training the sales department with real-time answers as well as additional information for customers can empower them to personalize the service provider-customer relationship.

Customer Service Tools

Even though most of the customer relation tools have similar features, it is important to reduce the chances of a tech stack in the future. Following are some pivotal tools to increase customer relationship:

• Helpdesk software and ticketing system help in dealing with customer complaints, concerns, and queries.

• Conversations across multiple channels can be unified by using an all-in-one inbox for multi-channel support.
• Self-service knowledge tools can be used for tackling frequently asked questions.
• Real-time conversations can be held using automated software such as artificial intelligence tools or CRM tools.

It is ultimately a combination of practices, strategies, and tools and their effective integration across various platforms that forms a positive service provider to customer relationship.