How to Maximize Customer Relationships

Ensuring customers are well taken care of is one of the greatest assets that a company can foster. Taking care to foster good customer relationships pays dividends! Seriously, if you treat customers right, they will return to do business with you again and again.

These repeat positive experiences allow them to solidify your company as the place to go. Additionally, word of mouth recommendations are still at the top of their game. 78% of people trust friends and family recommendations about business and companies to do business with.

With all that being said, maximizing customer relationships is easier said than done. In order to get an idea of how to change your interactions with customers in positive ways, here are some examples of what other companies have done.

Now even though these are diverse companies in unique situations, the underlying principles of treating the customer with care and respect are the same. So without further ado, here they are.

Examples of Maximizing Customer Relationships

1. JetBlue

As an airline company, JetBlue has found success in making small gestures of kindness or goodwill to customers that fly frequently. For example, a passenger tweeted that they didn’t have enough time to get coffee before boarding a flight. In response, JetBlue got the coffee the customer wanted and gave it to the customer as they boarded the plane.

Although this is a small gesture of kindness, it creates a solid base of goodwill between the customer and the company. Just think how many people the customer’s tweet and the company’s response will reach. So many people in fact, that we are writing about and using it as an example of maximizing customer relationships.

2. Tesla

Known as one of the world’s premiere car manufacturers, Tesla continues to delight and surprise customers with its exceptional customer service. For example, a gentleman needed a repair completed on his new Tesla.

Within 40 minutes of contacting the Tesla service department he had a loaner car dropped off, until a mechanic could come to his home the next day to personally service his vehicle. All of this was accomplished without the customer ever leaving the house.

Tesla executes one of the most important parts of maximizing customer relationships — surprising and delighting customers. A truly positive relationship between a customer and a business begins with exceptional customer service and that’s exactly what Tesla provides.

3. Adobe

The popular creative platform often responds to complaints before they happen. For example, when they experience a specific tool outage, they let customers know. Not only do they let customers know, but they apologize and help customers cope while the issue is resolved.

This kind of proactive approach to customer service pays dividends. Customers don’t have the chance to complain about outages since they are catered to the whole time. Proactive responses mitigate customer backlash and create positive customer relationships.

4. Zappos

The online shoe company personally replies to each and every customer email they receive. Although this takes great time, energy, and effort on the part of customer service personnel, Zappos continues to climb the charts in customer service reliability.

Customers are happy to shop with them again since they know that if anything needs to be rectified, it’ll be handled personally by someone they can relate to. Taking care of your customers’ needs on an individual level is a great way to maximize customer relationships. Customers feel “seen”. They know if they run into any trouble, you’ll be there for them.

General rules for maximizing customer relationships

From the above examples, we learn how different companies maximize customer relationships. There are some obvious and not-so-obvious overriding principles in these examples. So, in order to tap into creating the best customer relationship possible you need to make sure you follow these general guiding principles.

These principles are easy to learn. The difficulty comes in when you need to actually implement them in your day-to-day activities. But don’t worry we have a few suggestions for you at the end of the article.

1. Communicate Wisely

Communication is, of course, essential to any business. But it is even more so when it comes to maximizing your relationships with customers. Design your communications with intention. Don’t just send customers junk communication. Send them communication that’s relevant to who they are and how they interact with your company.

For example, if you have a customer that only ever buys handbags from you, don’t clutter their inbox with offers on shoes. Market to the customer as a person. In order to do this, you’re going to need to focus on each customer as an individual.

Another part of communicating wisely to build customer relationships is by creating an emotional connection with the customer. Think and treat the customer as you would a friend. Listen to their concerns and respond with clarity and honesty.

Telling someone what you’re going to do and why sounds pretty basic, but it actually helps you build a solid relationship with customers. Promising what you can, following through, following up and apologizing in advance are all ways to make interaction simple.

The final part of communicating wisely is to show appreciation to customers. Now, lots of companies claim to do this. But for most businesses, it’s just a way to sell more stuff. Don’t do that. Find something that’s meaningful to customers and do that. Find something that lets them know you actually appreciate them, not just their wallet.

2. Find Your Niche of Customer Service

In each of the examples above, none of the ways to maximize customer relationships were the same. Each company found a different way to help customers in a meaningful way. It’s the same for your company.

You’ll need to find your niche of customer service. Find something to do for customers that no one else is. Or do something someone else is but do it better. However, before you do this, you’ll need to first understand who your customers actually are.

I mean, who is really buying your products? What do they think, love and feel? Why do they buy your products? There are lots of online tools and analytics as well as a plethora of companies to help you figure out the type of data you need. Once you have a good profile of these individuals, you’ll be able to find ways to help customers. And you’ll find your customer service niche.

3. Resolve problems quickly

This should go without saying, but it’s often a neglected part of a company’s business plan. Resolving problems quickly, however, mitigates future issues. Not only that, but it also shows customers that you’re paying attention. You know what’s going on and how to fix it.

A great way to resolve problems quickly is to use customer feedback in real time and go a step beyond what the customer expects. No matter how you choose to implement problem solving, always show empathy for the customer and be friendly.

How TextSanity helps you maximize customer relationships

TextSanity’s online text marketing platform is a perfect tool for companies to improve their customer relationships. Communicate wisely by implementing a communication method (text message) that allows customers and your company to communicate directly with one another.

Additionally, find your customer service niche by setting up and sending out surveys or discussion forums using text messaging. Use these as the basis for your information on customers. And when you figure out what customers need and want, you can resolve customer issues quickly or even in advance!

Create positive customer relationships that last. TextSanity’s suite of tools helps you maximize customer relationships. Each is designed with customers in mind; catering to them in different ways. This is extremely helpful in a world of information and insight. Try TextSanity today!