What is one tip to treat your customers as real people?
To help you improve customer relationships, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their insights. From sending personalized messages of gratitude to getting to know your clients, there are several things you can incorporate to treat your customers the way they want to be treated.
Here are 10 tips for treating your customers like real people:
- Make the Customer Experience Fun
- Get to Know Your Clients
- Listen and Adjust Accordingly
- Don’t Take Things Too Personally
- Slow Down and Let the Customer Talk
- Connect With Customers on an Emotional Level
- Treat Them as Partners, Not Numbers
- Highlight Customers in Your Next Marketing Campaign
- Practice the Art of Commonality
- Send Personalized Messages of Gratitude
Make the Customer Experience Fun
I can’t describe how excited I am every time we sign a new customer because it’s a new opportunity to help another organization. As the founder of Curricula, our story has been slower than most startups, and that’s okay for me because we took our time to make sure we got this right. It’s been an honest journey fueled by hard work and the desired focus to change the norm for our customers. If you focus on how to make the customer experience fun, you’ll be winning together.
Nick Santora, Curricula
Get to Know Your Clients
Sometimes, getting insurance can be an impersonal experience. We pride ourselves on our excellent customer service by getting to know our clients. Our website has no quote estimators because we prefer meeting our clients over a phone call or in person. We want potential customers to know their independent agent is a real person who is invested in truly helping them find the best policies for their specific situation. By building solid customer relationships, we keep them satisfied and earn their loyalty.
Vicky Franko, Insura
Listen and Adjust Accordingly
To treat your customers like real people, you have to remember that they are real people. They’re not just numbers in sales or followers on social media. It can be hard sometimes to take criticism without feeling the immediate need to defend, but take time to listen to your customers. Just like they trusted in you and your company, trust in them to provide you with feedback that can expand your journey as a company.
It takes a real attentive ear to tease out tangible and necessary changes to be made against noise. However, listen to make sure you have a happy customer by the end of it and provide either an even more positive customer experience or turn a negative one into a better experience.
Randall Smalley II, Cruise America
Don’t Take Things Too Personally
My philosophy to treat your customers as real people is to treat them how you want to be treated. It’s pretty cliche, and you probably heard that a lot as a kid, but it’s true. Treat them how you’d like to be treated no matter if they’re upset, happy, content, or non-responsive. Everyone has things going on in their lives, so don’t take things too personally and just treat everyone with kindness and respect. It is a hard skill to learn and takes practice, but the more you can implement this, the better!
McKenzie Nelson, Markitors
Slow Down and Let the Customer Speak
As salespeople, it’s easy to immediately slide into our pitch and not take time to listen to our customers. Asking questions about their experiences allows us to engage them at exactly where they are or where they expect future needs to develop.
All too often, we miss the opportunity to serve because we are too eager to sell. Slow down and ask good questions to your customers. They are the greatest asset for feedback available for your organization’s success.
Candace Cotton, HALO Branded Solutions
Connect With Customers on an Emotional Level
Connecting with your customers on an emotional level will give them a memorable and positive experience. Learn what their immediate needs are and tend to them. Your customers will feel valued, increasing the likelihood that they will return to your business and tell other people about you.
Michael Scanlon, Roo SkinCare
Treat Them as Partners, Not Numbers
Think of your relationship with customers as a partnership and listen to their concerns so you can find solutions. You want to form a connection with your customers and let them know that their input is valued. Creating a culture that treats customers as people and not numbers can help boost your company’s image and improve business results.
Tim Sharif, 310 Nutrition
Highlight Customers in Your Next Marketing Campaign
One of the best and easiest ways to treat customers as real people is to incorporate them within future marketing campaigns. Whether it is an Instagram feed repost, customer testimonial, or branded email campaign highlighting customers using your product, empower previous customers by making them the focal point of a future advertising campaign. This will need only make them feel more confident about their own selves, but also create a genuine connection that lets them know how much you care.
Jordan Duran, 6 Ice
Practice the Art of Commonality
Commonality comes from the fact that we as business owners or CEOs can recognize that regardless of our business position or power, we are all humans, and we have different challenges and circumstances in life to face. When we practice the art of commonality, we can acknowledge that having a business is teamwork and the fight is always outside. This can make our management system more approachable and kinder to our coworkers, customers, and partners.
Rosi Ross, NHB
Send Personalized Messages of Gratitude
We like to let our customers know how grateful we are that they use our products. And it’s that gratitude that drives our email follow-up messaging with a personalized feel that begins in the subject line with their name and a message of appreciation. As user actions generate customer appreciation emails, the subject line will also say what we’re thanking them for. For example, when a customer makes a purchase, we’ll say thanks with a special offer on their next purchase.
For high-value and repeat customers, we’ll let them know how much we appreciate their loyalty. And when clients leave feedback on our site, they’ll receive an email thanking them for taking the time to share their experience with our products and, within the email, suggest related products they may also like. Personalizing our email marketing strengthens trust and loyalty with our customers.
Harris Rabin, R3SET
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