How to Communicate So Customers Will Listen
By: Rachael Hope
Tags: Communication, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Business Communication

How to Communicate So Customers Will Listen

Seven easy tips for creating lifelong customers

Photo by Alexander Kovacs on Unsplash

Owning your own business is one of the most rewarding ventures a person can pursue. Even if you’re lucky enough to make a living from something you love doing, parts of the job can be challenging. When your passion lies with the product or the process, figuring out how to communicate effectively and professionally doesn’t always come naturally.

Figuring out how to communicate effectively and professionally doesn’t always come naturally.

Luckily, there are some simple steps you can follow to make sure your interactions with customers leave them satisfied. Employing these tips will turn new clients to repeat customers, and solidify your standing as a professional worth working with.

Always proofread.

If spelling and grammar aren’t your strong suits, that’s okay! Everyone has their strengths, and if you’re running your own business, you’ve probably got plenty. Find someone you trust, whether it’s your mom, your best friend, or a paid editor or employee, to proofread your posts for spelling, grammar, and coherency.

The thing about this one is that if you do it right, no one will notice. If you do it poorly, though, it’s glaringly obvious. When I see Facebook posts from businesses that contain easily caught errors, it makes me question their attention to detail and the level of care they’re putting into their marketing.

Be consistent.

Create policies that allow you some leeway in dealing with customer issues, but which also support making a living for yourself. If you have written, pre-thought-out guidelines for resolving the issues that might come up, you are more able to be consistent. Providing a standard level of service for all customers allows you to build a reputation as a business people can count on.

No business is too small to have a really great mission statement and vision for doing business. One great way to stay consistent in messaging and in practice is to drill down to that original vision. The only way customers are going to trust you is if you put your money where your mouth is.

Be friendly, but not overly familiar.

Many small businesses have a comfortable, cozy, personalized atmosphere as part of their brand image. Effectively communicating with customers requires walking a fine line between friendliness and service. No matter how much you have in common, or how great their personalities are, your customers are still just that: customers. Regardless of your personal feelings, they have come to you to complete a transaction.

A professional level of familiarity is fantastic in making customers feel at home and secure in your ability to provide the product or service they want. Step over that line, though, and you risk coming off as seriously unprofessional. Sharing personal details or controversial opinions with customers can result in an awkward experience, or worse, the loss of a patron.

Focus on positive outcomes.

It’s impossible to meet every customer’s needs 100% of the time. As a business owner, it’s inevitable that sometimes you’ll have to say no or disappoint a potential client. That doesn’t mean it has to be a negative experience for them overall.

Positive language keeps the conversation moving forward and prevents accidental conflicts due to miscommunication. Words like can’t, won’t, and didn’t, and phrases like “you have to” or “you need to” are usually interpreted as negative. Instead of focusing on what you’re not able to do, focus on how you can modify the order or product to meet their needs.

Instead of focusing on what you’re not able to do, focus on how you can modify the order or product to meet their needs.

One way to move focus to the positive is to serve up a bad news sandwich? This method for delivering news someone doesn’t want to hear softens it by creating a positive-negative-positive pattern. When you can’t give someone what they want, at least not completely, try to sandwich that news between things you can do. Example:

I’m sorry you misunderstood the email, but we still cannot fill your order until you re-send the files.

vs.

Thanks for letting us know the language in that autoreply was unclear, we’ll work to straighten that out! Unfortunately, we still can’t fill your order until we receive the files from you. Once they come through, your project will be at the front of the queue.

When possible, always redirect away from what the customer did wrong and towards what you can do to make it right. Once someone is upset or having an issue, it isn’t going to matter why it happened. What really matters is making sure it ends as an overall positive experience for them. Focus on outcomes to reduce the chances of dissatisfied customers.

Get on their level.

Communicating effectively means getting personal. If you want to keep people coming back for more, don’t respond with form letters or messages, especially when responding to criticism or complaints. The number one thing that customers want to know is that you’re hearing them and listening to what they have to say. Canned responses are okay in some situations, but you need to be able to gauge when they’re not.

Mirroring is a great skill to hone to connect and communicate. If a customer is formal, don’t address emails with Hey, or call them by their first name only. If they’re more casual, relax your tone to meet them where they feel comfortable. If a customer is angry, take your cheerful down a notch to show them you’re engaged and understand they’re serious, and save the energy for when the customer is excited too.

Be available.

There is nothing more frustrating than calling or emailing a business and never being able to reach another human being. If you know you’re better at some ways of communicating than others, you might need to limit the ways customers can contact you. Even better, figure out a routine for checking communications throughout each business day.

Figure out a routine for checking communications throughout each business day.

Most customers would rather receive a personal reply within a few hours than a non-personalized auto-reply within 30 seconds. If you work in a business where you’re able to be much more reactive to certain methods of communication, let your customers know. It’s okay to have messaging that spells out how long it might take to reply to emails or messages, and that if it’s an urgent issue they should call or text instead.

It’s good to get into the habit of glancing at all the communications you’ve received before you begin to reply. This will allow you to pick out the most urgent, and reply to those first.

Create complete interactions.

Each interaction with a customer should have a beginning and an end. Many times, they’ll be initiated by the customer, but you should always make an effort to close the loop on communications.

When someone asks me to do something, whether it’s a colleague or a customer, I always reply to close the loop when I’ve finished the task. Even if it’s a simple email that says This is done, thanks! I know that I didn’t leave them hanging and they’ll be able to easily see that it was completed, and when.

Creating a complete interaction that feels like it was wrapped up fully will insure your customer leaves feeling satisfied, and that’s something they’ll remember the next time they’re in need of the type of product or service you provide.

Communicating with customers will always hold challenges. We can only control so many variables about our products, services, and the world at large. Building your skills for interacting with clients is an accessible and simple way to limit those variables and provide customers with the level of service they deserve.

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