Chris Thomson — January 13, 2017 Follow @lammy_pie
Once upon a time, business owners would deal with pretty much every customer face to face – or at the very least speak to them on the phone – and so it was easy to solve their problems, throw in a little sales patter and generally open up a dialogue that would make it easier close a sale.
Needless to say, things have changed somewhat. We still have our bricks and mortar shops in which things are largely as they ever were, but now we also have the digital minefield that is the internet and ecommerce stores.
Essentially, if you’re not online these days then you’re not anywhere, and having an ecommerce store makes it much easier to reach a potentially global audience. However, that in itself brings its own set of complications, one of which is how to effectively communicate with your customers when, in most cases, you’ll have no interaction with them whatsoever.
But that doesn’t have to be the end of it. Here are some ways you can keep the dialogue open with your customers wherever they are in the world in order to answer their questions, solve their problems, and hopefully help make those all important sales.
Traditional contact us pages
There are certain pages that absolutely every web page needs to have, and one of those is a ‘contact us’ page. Without one, you’re going to really vex customers trying to get hold of you.
And on your ‘contact us’ page, ensure there is all the information someone needs to quickly get in touch, and the more ways of someone contacting you, the better. For example, there are plenty of people who don’t like having to phone someone, so it’s always wise to include a contact email address as well. If you have a contact form on your site then this blog post has some good tips on how to optimise it.
It’s also important to make sure you respond quickly to anyone contacting you – it can be incredibly frustrating waiting for someone to get back to you – and ensure any customer service staff you employ are as well versed on your products and services as they can possibly be.
Pros: Easy to set up; easy for the user; potential global reach
Cons: Requires quick response rate & manned phone lines
Forums
It seems that forums have been around almost as long as the internet itself, but they’re still incredibly useful for businesses and consumers if run properly.
Forums can help you build up a real community around your business and its products, allowing people to chat with each other about what you do and your general industry – hopefully it’ll largely be positive! But even if it isn’t always positive, you have a group there to help fix the issue – sometimes they do all the work for you!
If you’re an active member on the forum, then that’s even better as you can solve issues, respond to queries and generally just keep on eye on what your customers are discussing.
Pros: Potential to build a community; users can solve each other’s problems
Cons: Needs moderating; can be a place for negative feedback to grow and be visible
Live chat
The next step up from having a ‘contact us’ page is having live chat installed on your website. This allows, in theory, for customers to talk with you or a customer service rep in real time – ideal for those who want instant contact but aren’t fans of picking up the phone.
Live chat can have big benefits for you as well as the customer. By being able to answer questions instantly, you can help the customer convert instantly, rather than them having to wait for an email from you.
Also, depending on the live chat software you use, there are all sorts of amazing bits of wizardry that can help you better serve your customers. For example, you can track exactly where on your site a customer has visited so you can tailor your messages and have an idea of the products they’re interested in. Might sound a bit sneaky but imagine having that information at your fingertips! There are myriad other features too, depending on which software you choose – this list of some of the best live chat software is a good place to start.
Pros: Instantly solve customers’ problems; have further insight into user behaviour
Cons: Requires almost constant manning; live chat software can be pricey
Social media
Social media has become engrained in our lives, both personally and professionally, and is an excellent way of conversing with customers. In a similar way to live chat, you can talk with customers in real time, dealing with queries and solving problems on the fly, as well as promoting your products and getting your name out there as you normally would on social media.
But just be careful what you put out there – one misstep and it could be disastrous.
Pros: Can deal with customers in real time; can build a community
Cons: It’s a public forum for people to air grievances; needs regular monitoring
Host webinars
By hosting webinars, you can give your customers the chance to interact with you on a much more personal level than they normally would.
Webinars aren’t usually for helping customers solve specific problems, but rather to learn about new services or just to get more of an insight into you and your company – although you can have a troubleshooting section for helping on particular issues.
A twist on webinars is an AMA (Ask Me Anything), often hosted on Reddit, whereby people can, erm, ask you anything! Obviously you need to have some sort of following in the first place or you might find it a rather lonely experience, but, again, it’s a way for people to get to know you as a person.
Pros: Customers can get to know you; little resource needed
Cons: Need to promote it heavily; need to be a good speaker
Blogs
Many companies are writing blogs on their website, but so many are doing it for the wrong reasons, just to try and boost their SEO. Instead, what they should be doing is using their blog to provide genuinely useful resources for their customers, which can help solve problems, improve their knowledge and generally try and make life easier.
For example, if you sell printers, you could have a whole section on your website featuring blogs that detail the various problems people might have (paper jams, etc), and how to fix them. And if the blogs are good enough then you might get some nice links back, which is always a good thing for your site in general.
Pros: Helpful evergreen resource; if done well can make you more visible in search engines
Cons: Can be time consuming to do well; helps to have an audience in place already
You may think that the Facebook-owned Whatsapp instant messaging service is just for organising nights out with your friends, but it is actually starting to be used for business purposes as well.
Advertising on Whatsapp contravenes its policies, but you can converse and give advice to customers with no problems. It has over 700m monthly active users and sees more than 30bn messages pass through its servers every day, so there’s a very good chance many of your customers have it!
Ease and speed are two reasons why Whatsapp might be worth looking into – speaking to The Telegraph, fashion designer Robert Revilla said that in just 12 months using Whatsapp, he’s saved more than 320 hours, which was worth £80,000 to him in revenue.
It shouldn’t replace your other communication streams, such as email, but it could be a nice complement to them.
Pros: Can save time; can feel more personal
Cons: Might be too informal for some; can get messy tracking lots of conversations
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