Have you ever encountered a company that you don’t know how to contact? There’s a digital wallet company that provides no way for customers to reach it. You can email their team, but it will take weeks for them to get back to you. Meanwhile, if your money got stuck somewhere in the system, you have to wait for weeks for them to unknot it without knowing what happened and why it happened. Hopefully, your business doesn’t fall under the same category. Nothing is worse for small or big companies than for customers not being able to reach out to the organization when they want to inquire, complain, and simply provide feedback.
Making sure that your business is reachable for customers is important to its success. No company should be out of reach for its clients. Humanizing your organization and even introducing members of the team to your target market should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. No business that is so aloof nobody can touch it has ever been truly successful. A business hinges its success on how well it satisfies and accommodates its customers.
If you are running a small business, focus on how easy it is for customers to reach your management. Should they call a hotline? Can they simply go to your office and talk with a representative of the company about their concerns? Are you able to reply to their queries via email and social media?
Provide a Physical Address
Even home-based businesses can provide a physical address to where their customers can send inquiries, comments, suggestions, and what-not. Most home-based businesses rent a PO box for the long term so that they can receive official documents. They use this address in their business documents, as well as in transacting with their customers. Make sure that the address is posted on your website, business stationery, social media accounts, and other platforms.
If you do have a store or office, then allot a space for a receptionist or customer representative. This will make your customers feel welcome whenever they have to go to your store to inquire or give feedback. If there is a space where they can air their grievances or even their positive comments about your business, then that will empower them more.
Answer Emails and Messages Immediately
As a general rule, you shouldn’t let one hour pass without answering your customer. Always be connected to your social media accounts. If you want to sign out after office hours, you should leave an automatic message on the messenger apps that you will respond to the queries in the morning. Do the same for your email account. Leave an automatic reply if you are going out for a certain day or hour.
However, do make sure that you answer any messages from your customers the moment you check back to work. If you are going to be away for an extended period, make sure to delegate the task to someone. During the first few months of your business, you might want to be on duty 24/7 to answer any queries, comments, suggestions, and, yes, violent reactions.
You can take advantage of technology, too. Installing a bot in your messaging platforms will help you connect with your customers. The chatbot is a popular feature of many social media messaging apps, which means someone else—a robot—will answer basic questions such as, “How much is the item?” “What are your operating or office hours?” “Do you deliver?” and “Do you have a physical store?” Only when the questions become too complex can human intervention take place.
Receive Calls
Some customers, especially the older generations, want to talk to a person and not a bot. Allow customers to call a hotline number. You don’t need to hire in-house call operators. If the number of calls increases, you can outsource the service to a business process outsourcing company. Older generations, such as senior citizens, want personal interaction when trying to decide whether to buy from your company or not.
The advantage of allowing calls is you can address a concern directly. You can convince angry customers not to post about it on social media and to let you handle their woes. That interaction is like no other at a time when customers are so used to chatbots.
Try to deliver the best service to your customers by empowering them to reach out to you. Many businesses try to avoid interactions with their customers because it is too much work. Don’t go down that route. Instead, make it a point to open your doors and make every customer feel welcome.
