Customer relationship: what is it and why is it of VITAL importance?

Would you like to have a closer relationship with your customers? If so, you’ve come to the right place, and today we’re going to talk about the best ways to build a good relationship with your audience. 

Yes, you can have the best products in the world, but if you are distant with your customers and don’t pay attention to their suggestions, it’s very likely that you won’t achieve the goals you set at the beginning of the year. 

It’s time to understand what’s going through their mind, what their needs are and how comfortable they are with the service. 

We’ll show you all this and more below. Are you ready?

What is the customer relationship?

Let’s start by defining what a customer relationship is. It’s the group of strategies that allow you to acquire, maintain and expand your customer base in order to develop a solid and stable business.

To have a close relationship with the customer it’s essential to know as much as you can about them. From their current life situation, age range and tastes to personalize the messages to the maximum, so that the customer feels identified with each of the texts they receive. 

In this sense, it’s important not only to focus on massive sales, but also on the way we treat the user so that he/she will want to continue buying our products and services at all times. 

Why is it important to have a good relationship with the customer?

The key to a good customer relationship is that the customer has the best possible experience when consuming our products and services. 

The reality is that it’s not only about having several channels at disposal to communicate with customers. The idea is that they feel attended to at all times, both when buying and when they have a question. It’s there where we realize how committed a brand is to its audience, being an indispensable factor to differentiate itself from the competition. 

That’s why we see companies that have sales representatives who are present throughout the purchase and follow-up process of a product. The detail is that to increase the probability of success it’s essential to have the right tools. 

This is where the crm appears, and most brand representatives indicate that this is the perfect tool to add all the useful information of the user. With this alternative we can unify the data and we will have everything updated to access at the most opportune moment. 

Think about it, if communications are confusing, it’s very likely that the customer will leave because they don’t feel well attended by our company. 

6 Types of consumer relationships

Nowadays there are different types of customer relationships. Some of them are: 

1. Personal assistance

And we couldn’t start any other way than with personal assistance. This is the interaction between a member of your sales team and the end consumer, either physically or online through the alternatives that exist today. 

Here we refer to an omnichannel strategy since only one way is used to communicate with the customer. Therefore, the experience has to be the best possible so that the user can communicate all the doubts they have with total confidence. 

2. Exclusive personal assistance

The exclusive assistance differs from the first one because you offer a 100% personalized experience to the customer during the whole purchase process, which makes it a longer process than the previous one. 

Having trouble finding an example? Banks apply it to perfection: every time you open a new account you must go to their headquarters and an executive will attend to you in a personalized way to know your case and receive your documents. 

In addition, many companies provide you with a chat so that you can communicate with an agent when you have a specific problem. Use it and you will see what exclusive personal assistance is like.

3. Self-service

It’s a very particular form of attention since there’s no communication between the company and the customer: the same companies give the user all the tools they need to solve their problems independently. 

An ecommerce is a perfect example, where you have a high-tech platform that allows you to make your purchase and pay without the need of a third party. 

Does it work? The answer is yes, but you have to invest a lot of money in digitization so that the user has everything at his/her disposal. 

4. Automations

In fourth place we have automations, which is a strategy that companies employ through artificial intelligence. Simply put, it’s a system or a robot that communicates with the customer, although on many occasions there’s a member of your team behind the platform to coordinate that everything goes well. 

Chatbots are a more than interesting example, offering you assistance through a program that is 100% automated, i.e., you will not talk to a real person. 

5. Communities

Communities are one of the most important concepts in the world of entrepreneurship, especially with the competition that exists today. 

The idea is to create groups of people who have common interests and feel identified with the products and services you have for them. In this way, the same customers can exchange opinions and much more from the same platform. 

That’s why nowadays we find companies that have their own forums to listen to customers. 

6. Collective creation

Finally, we have the collective creation relationship. We can say that it’s a different way of serving users and it can work in different ways. 

You have several alternatives, from asking the user’s opinion after having used the product to creating large-scale campaigns so that the customers themselves help us to create a new product. 

How to use the canvas model to improve the relationship with users

If you’ve been in the business world for some time, it’s very likely that you’ve heard about the canvas model. It’s a strategy that allows you to define the value you will give to the market in order to create a solid and stable business model. 

So, the model is divided into nine blocks and the first three are focused on the relationship with the customer. 

In this sense, the objective of the model in this section is to define who the customer is, the ideal channels to interact with them and the best way to interact with them. 

Let’s look at this in detail below: 

1. Customer segments

First we find the customer segments. Here it’s essential to ask the following questions:

• For whom do we want to create value?
• Who are the most relevant customers?
• Who are the traditional consumers?
• Better ways to segment users. 

Once we do this, we will have a much clearer idea of who our consumers are and what we should do to solve their needs. 

2. Channel responses

The next part corresponds to the appropriate channels to talk to users. The questions you should ask yourself are: 

• How will we communicate with the customer?
• What possibilities do we have to integrate all channels?
• Which is the most efficient for each segment?

Here you will have the answers that will allow you to interact in a much more efficient way with your audience. This can range from chatbots, social networks, instant messaging or phone calls. 

3. Customer Relationships

Okay, we already know who our customers are and what channels we will use to communicate with them. The next step is to define the relationship you will have with your target audience. 

To do this, ask yourself the following questions: 

• Do I have the same relationship with all customer segments?
• What kind of relationship do I have with each one?
• How much do they cost?
• Is that relationship integrated with my business model?

After you spend time on this phase you will have the precise answers to improve the relationship with your niche. Some of them are: wifi access, pet-friendly sites, personalized products and welcome greetings.

The customer relationship lifecycle

You may be surprised to learn that customer relationships are made up of six different phases that you must complete in order to attend to your customers as they deserve. Let’s take a look at each one below: 

1. Knowledge

Let’s say that this is the first contact a user has with the brand. To achieve this, it’s essential to create marketing strategies that allow us to make ourselves known to the audience that knows us. 

Once it does, we will have to devise ways to achieve an acceptable conversion rate for the business to be profitable. 

2. Acquisition

Okay, our customer has already found us and is having his first contacts with the brand. Now it’s time to promote different actions so that he/she tries our product or service, that is to say, that he/she buys from us. 

Here we must make sure to make a promise that will solve the needs they have in an area of their life. This way we will increase the probabilities of sale and the numbers will start coming in. 

3. Conversion

In this phase the user knows our brand and the product and has already had some contact with it, but is not yet a formal customer. 

We must create strategies that help them make that final decision. Personalized communications and calls to action are alternatives that you will have to implement. 

4. Growth

After we’ve already obtained the money from the user, we must create different methods to make them loyal at any cost. It’s not much use to make a sale if we then have to look for new customers every month to sustain the business. 

In this sense, with a correct segmentation you will be able to establish a correct communication to provide value to the customer. 

5. Retention

Closely related to the previous point, only that here we will define in depth the strategies we will use to get a consumer to make a new purchase in the business. 

Promotions, loyalty programs and follow-up are options you have at hand to increase the user’s trust. Use them and delight in the results. 

Tips to manage your customers

Do you have a business and don’t know how to properly manage your customer base? Pay close attention, because in the following list you will find some tips to have an excellent relationship with your users. 

Take out pencil and paper: 

1. We

It may seem like an inconsequential change, but the truth is that it generates more than interesting results. 

Instead of saying, “I’m going to help you solve that problem,” say, “We will help you achieve the goals you set for yourself”.This simple change gives a sense of belonging, which translates into higher conversions in the medium and long term. 

2. Don’t address them on a first-name basis but don’t be too formal either

In customer service, it’s important not to go to extremes, especially when it comes to handling a misunderstanding. 

So, if a customer complains about something, you can say: “In our last conversation, I understood that it would be done this way”. On the other hand, if you immediately address him on a first-name basis, you will activate his reptilian brain, and that’s where problems grow. 

Find a way to communicate with them in middle terms and everything will go more smoothly. 

3. Call them by their name

There’s nothing more powerful than mentioning someone by name, it’s like music to our ears. In fact, a good way to piss someone off is to get their name wrong, so you can use this technique to improve your relationship with your customers. 

Once you get the user’s data you just have to start each message with their name. Do this and you will notice how receptivity increases significantly. 

4. Clear expectations

Not making empty promises is essential, so if you say something you better be willing to fulfill it at any cost. You must also guide the customer to a solution and not leave him in a dead end. 

With this information you have everything you need to properly manage your customer base. Remember that consumers are the raison d’être of any company, which is why it’s necessary to take it with the utmost seriousness to achieve the results we want. 

What strategies do you use to maintain the relationship with your customers?