Create meaningful connections with your customers

We know that developing powerful connections with other business leaders can help us to grow our businesses. But what about the connections you forge with your customers? Do you have a personal connection with them, or do they have a connection with your brand via your staff? If so, how meaningful is that connection?  

For example, how does your staff approach customer care? Do they follow strict protocols so that customers are treated in a uniform fashion? That would make life easier, after all, though it may not help to develop a meaningful connection between your customers and your brand. 

Since engaging with your customers is paramount to developing and keeping their loyalty with your brand, it is important to treat them with empathy. If they are complaining about something, for instance, does your staff know how to imagine themselves in the customer’s shoes? Do they really listen, or do they just go through the motions? Indeed, they may be adhering to strict guidelines because that’s how complaints are handled within your company?  

When customers don’t feel heard or valued in the moment, their stress levels increase which leads to frustration and anger. Let’s face it, we’ve all been on the receiving end of a staff member who doesn’t seem to be listening or even care about what we have to say. Did you stay loyal to that company? Of course not. So, if your customers feel you don’t care, they’ll take their custom elsewhere. And they may well tarnish your hard-won reputation. 

Customers need to feel valued. That’s why it’s important that your staff treats customers as individuals and not as some seemingly faceless person of little or no importance. Therefore, if you want your customers to be loyal to your brand and sing your praises, ongoing staff training in customer care should be a top priority. 

More than that, how about teaching your employees to create meaningful connections with your customers? Real and powerful, person to person moments of connection? Wouldn’t that bring a whole new meaning to customer care?