Think about the cheery barista who never fails to greet you by name. Or the sales assistant who approached you to help search for an item. Whenever a customer interacts with your brand, you have a chance to wow them.
Communication skills are the cornerstone of customer interactions. Good communication can be the difference between a business gaining a loyal customer, or failing to grow their numbers.
You want customers to walk away feeling positive after every interaction. It’s all about emotional marketing, which translates across every touchpoint customers have with your business.
These opportunities carry over into digital communications – when customers sign up for a newsletter, or they message your social media account, or when providing feedback via a sales hotline.
Here’s three tips to communicate better with your customers.
Tip 1: Make them feel special…
Customers want to feel like they are the only ones in the world when they shop with you. Give them that exclusivity by rolling out customer loyalty programs tailored to them.
For instance, Sephora in Singapore, has a customer loyalty program called the Sephora Beauty Pass, where customers can rack up points based on their purchases. The number of points shoppers earn puts them into tiers, with each tier having special product discounts and benefits to unlock.
A smart POS system will help you keep track of a customer’s points at the point of sale.
But how about when your customers are shopping online?
One way to make them feel special is to make online digital shopping experiences exciting. You could send two types of emails, a “thank you” card after purchase, or a personalised message to get their feedback on the shopping experience.
Additionally, monthly e-newsletters also give that feeling of being part of the inner circle. Target your communications for customers in your customer loyalty program to feel exclusive and unique, and you just might see your sales increase.
… and surprise them!
Customers like to feel that their favourite brands remember them, so make them feel special by sending them a personalised e-card or message on their birthday. Be it offline or online, ensure that the card is personalised with their names.
Even better still, provide them with a discount code that they can use online or in-store.
With a customer relationship management tool, you can get all the information you need by getting customers to key in their details at the point of sale.
All of this puts a human touch to digital communication and will stand out amongst all the generic emails customers get on their birthday!
Tip 2: Get feedback
It’s essential to understand what customers need and want, so businesses often pay marketers to survey trends and go where their customers want to go.
But it might not be possible to know everything, so the best way to find out is to regularly ask your customers how your business can improve.
Surveys are a great way for customers to provide their insights on your product or service. If they had a wonderful experience with an employee, it also helps you highlight staff that can lead the customer interaction experience moving forward.
To make customers’ feedback hassle-free, you can tap on the QashierX1 or QashierXL’s smart interface, which lets customers rate the service they have received by selecting an emoji. You can then retrieve the data and use it to improve customer service.
You could also add a quick response (QR) code to your receipts to bring your customers to your feedback page. Apart from allowing customers to reach the feedback page quickly, there are many ways QR codes can elevate your business. Check out our blog post on how Qashier Solutions help you integrate QR codes into your daily customer interactions.
Tip 3: Above all, empathy is key
Customer complaints will happen, but view it as a chance to build a strong customer relationship quickly when you resolve them.
There are many ways to provide customer feedback channels. From artificial intelligent chatbots on your website to social media messages, you should ensure that your brand voice is consistent and responsive across all channels.
To calm a customer down, prepare a script that prioritises empathising with the customer first, no matter the complaint.
It’s also not a good idea to keep the customer waiting.
People dislike holding for more than a couple of minutes, so it is important to take steps to make sure all calls are being transferred to the right person or voicemail in less than a minute. An excellent automated answering system will help shorten hold times.
Another function is to ensure there is a system that signals when a customer has held for several minutes. In the meantime, make it easier for you or your staff to access customer records speedily through a digitalised customer management system that comes with Qashier’s smart POS solutions, so your business isn’t constantly putting customers on hold.
Conclusion
It goes without saying that when customers feel valued interacting with your business, they will want to return and purchase more of your products and services. It also helps with marketing – word of mouth is a wonderful testimonial to your products and services.
Statistics show that businesses are 14 times more likely to sell to a current customer than a new one.
Therefore, it’s time to get serious about your customer interaction and make communication as engaging as possible.
Customer service is at the heart of good communication, so take your time out to train staff who can deliver the best customer service.
Introduce customer service standard protocols for employees to learn how to manage customers.
These standards and benchmarks will ensure that your staff know how to manage clients in every situation, and ensure staff provide exemplary customer service each time customers interact with your company.
With a smart POS system like QashierX1 or QashierXL, your staff can focus on customers instead of juggling orders, managing items and processing payments.
Qashier offers multiple digital solutions, including QR code table ordering, table management (F&B), employee management, customer relationship management (loyalty programs), inventory management, data analytics, and cashless payments, in an all-in-one device.
Qashier promises a seamless setup within 10 minutes, without any need for technical expertise. It boasts a user-friendly interface that is simple for anyone to learn and use. You’ll find 7-days-a-week responsive technical support from the local team if you require assistance.
Qashier is also affordable, with prices starting from as low as SGD1/day (in Singapore with a PSG grant), and this includes hardware, software, setup, training and 7-days-a-week local support.
Speak to us to see if Qashier’s Smart POS can meet your business needs. Schedule a meeting with us here, call us at (+65) 3165 0155, WhatsApp (+65) 8882 8912, or email [email protected].