Tools That Help You And Your Customers Connect
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Businesses live and die on the buzz they generate in the community. Want to thrive? Start talking about what you’re doing and create great content for the community. Want to die? Give up on your customers and step back from making new connections.
In 2016, there’s no excuse for businesses that aren’t connecting with their clients. Today, we have so many tools at our disposal that it’s hard not to stay connected at all times. Here are some of the tools your business can use to bridge the gap with customers.
Online Communities
The statistics on this are quite clear. 25 percent of people enjoy engaging with brands because they want to be a part of a like-minded community. In many ways, this makes a lot of sense. Individuals who like certain brands often share common traits. And so there’s a big incentive for these people to want to gather around a brand.
Of course, this sort of thing represents a tremendous opportunity for businesses. Companies can use online communities to monitor customer sentiment and get feedback. And they can also use them to grow their brands in exciting ways.
Now there are tools, like Community Cloud that help businesses grow online communities.
Customer Portals
Customer portals are an important part of the way companies engage with clients. Many service-based companies offer portals to customers who are on premium plans. But what exactly is a portal?
Essentially, it’s an area of the website that allows the customer access to personal or restricted content. For instance, each time you log on to Amazon and can see your purchase history, you’re in a client portal.
But the potential of the customer portal platform has grown enormously as technology has advanced. Now you can do a lot more than just store purchase histories and contact details. Services, like Clinked, allow businesses and customers to share documents in real-time over the cloud. Why this is useful might not be immediately apparent. But when you think about it, it’s ideal for B2B businesses. B2B companies often have to collaborate at a high-level, sharing confidential information and documents. Doing this via email or in person is slow and insecure. So it’s far better to use a portal where everybody has access to a shared platform. Documents can be shared in an instant, and it can all be done within a branded environment.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
The best businesses always want to touch base with their customers after they’ve made a purchase. They want to find out how the purchase went and whether the product has lived up to their expectations. There are loads of potential products to choose from. One of the best known is Customer Sure. This software allows your customers to leave reviews about your product as well as provide direct feedback. It also allows you to collect data with which to make important strategic decisions.
Floqapp is another customer satisfaction app you might want to consider. This app allows you to drill down into the details of your customer’s responses and find out where you can improve.
Live Chat
If you’ve been on a corporate website recently, you’ll have probably noticed the live chat feature. It’s a little box that pops up in the corner and politely reminds visitors that there is somebody they can talk to. It turns out that this is a rather powerful tool. Offering support to any customer who visits your website is a great way to avoid losing them just because they get confused.
It’s also relatively non-intrusive, but a good way to drive sales nonetheless. For instance, if you’re a clothes retailer, you can use live chat to offer styling advice. Chat is actually an excellent way to engage with customers and meet their needs in real time. And until recently, this just wasn’t possible on an internet shopping platform.
Online Crowdsourcing
By now, practically everybody has heard of Kickstarter. It’s inventors built the platform when they realized they could harness the power of online crowds. They realized that there were often big crowds that gathered on online forums and that they often had an agenda. The problem was that they couldn’t do anything about it because they didn’t have the means to raise money. Kickstarter found a way to leverage micro-investments from crowds of people to make big projects happen. And since then, it’s become a global investment force.
Like Kickstarter, companies can leverage the power of crowds. Crowds can be used to provide useful feedback and to crowdsource feedback. Sometimes, customers will demand the product that they want, all through the use of forums.
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