Empathy: The New Way to Connect with Customers
No matter the distance, the internet has made it possible to connect with anyone. Wherever you might be, people can connect with you. For brands, this is a good opportunity to build a relationship with any customer. Connecting with customers is crucial as a good relationship can result in loyal and happy customers.
With the presence of digital technologies, the way consumers behave has changed. Some feel that it should be easier to get in touch with the brands they like, find instant answers to their queries and much more. According to research, 42% of people who contact a brand via social media expect a response within an hour.
With these kinds of changes in consumer behavior, their satisfaction is of higher importance more than ever. And loyal customers are crucial to a business since up to 70% of sales come from this pool.
Connecting with customers can be built with the help of empathy. It’s something a business can offer to understand their customers. Eliciting empathy is not easy. It takes time but all the efforts will be worth it in the end.
Here are 5 ways you can start using empathy to connect with customers:
Start from within
Since you want your brand to be empathetic towards your customers, you have to start building that kind of culture within. The top bosses can try to be empathetic towards their employees. This can serve as an inspiration to those facing the customers, to emulate the kind of empathy they have experienced from the brand and translate it to the shoppers.
Be the customer
Drawing from your own experience as a customer of the brand can be a good way to understand what others go through. It is a stepping stone to fully grasp what goes on from the moment they see your brand to the purchase to the actual use of the product or the service.
Going through this experience can make connecting with customers easier and beneficial for your business. You can come up with strategies for marketing and improvements on products or service from all your learning as a customer. It can also pave the way to better form a connection with your customer, as having a human touch to communication goes a long way.
Humanize your brand
Make your customers feel that there are actual people behind your customer support, social media accounts, live chats and other means of communication. Customers want to feel that the brand understands what they’re going through.
Show your brand’s personality with statements like:
- I appreciate your patience.
- If I were in your position, I would feel the same way.
- What can I do to make your experience with us better?
You can inject humor when the dust has settled, be quirky if the situation calls for it and so much more. Connecting with customers can lead them to become loyal to your brand. And according to research, businesses who grow their retention rate, even if just for 5%, can see profit increase as incremental as 25%. This just shows that truly connecting with customers can go a long way.
Listen to customer feedback
Empathy should have a basis. How else can you connect if you’re not sure what they went through? Customers have varying experiences with your brand. Some have nothing but praises to say while others have experienced the opposite. Both are good opportunities to learn how to improve so you have to learn to listen to what they have to say.
It is through feedback that you can enrich the experience of being a customer of your brand. Sometimes, you’ll get to hear or read hurtful comments but that’s just the way how things go. Respond to and address negative feedback timely and professionally. This will show your customers that you care and want to help them out with their concern.
For those that have good things to say about your business, thank them and try to initiate small talk to give plus points to your brand. Connecting with customers this way makes them feel that your business understands their plight, an emotional assurance they need to nudge them closer to building a relationship with you.
Do some research
Knowledge is power. There is no “one template fits all” for empathy. If you stay stagnant with your approach, it may not prove well for your business.
Continuously study how your customers behave to keep your system in check. Keep in mind that your customers will not be the same pool as yesterday. There will be new ones that will add to it as your business grows. You have to keep yourself updated with what appeals to your customers and not just stick with the old because it worked before. Customer empathy is continuously learned from the trends provided by your current (and growing) pool of customers.
Wrap up
Loyalty is important and crucial to the growth of any business. With the help of empathy, you can build this loyalty with the connection you’ve established with your customers. It’s a long road but a path worth taking. Remember that both marketers and customers are humans and humans tend to react to emotional assurances. If you play your cards right and remember the above tips, you’ll be able to build and foster connections worth your time.
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Originally published at www.activetrail.com.
