Customer relationship has come a long way ever since technology entered the scene and made its presence known. You could say the same thing about every other field and industry, and it will be completely true. Ever since the advent of technology, and especially the internet, no industry has been the same.
When we talk about customer relationships, we can see that technology has almost become ubiquitous and that nowadays, there is no choice but to use the technology that we have at our disposal. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. Many businesses nowadays are using technology but for one reason: cutting their costs. That is true; technology has helped us provide better services at lower costs but that is not the only reason technology can be used to our benefit. We can use technology to better streamline our CRM processes and get closer to our customers while cutting our costs. Our customers are not just numbers on an excel datasheet, they are real live human beings who have the same needs that we do and who think as we do. The more we consider this, the better we will be able to use technology to our benefit and the better we can make our customers feel.
Let’s be honest here. If you were the customer, would you rather talk to a bot or talk to someone who is real and can have a coherent and meaningful conversation with you?
Don’t you just hate it when you IM a specific website and get an automated response?
Well, with the help of the proper technology, you can make sure that your customers don’t ever feel frustrated or irritated when they come to your website and interact with you. Here are some of the ways that technology is helping businesses in building stronger customer relationships.
This is perhaps the first thing that technology gave to us in the context of better customer relationship management. Communication has become really easy over email. Almost every website has their email address proudly displayed in their ‘Contact Us’ page and you can easily use it to contact them and tell them about your query, complaint, question, or anything else that you want to discuss with them. It is not possible for you to call your customers every now and then, but you can always leave them an email whenever you receive an order, prepare their order, ship their order, and you can also contact them for their feedback. You can keep your customers well informed through email and that will give them the impression that you have their best interest at heart, and you are really taking care of them as you should.
You can also use email addresses for lead magnet content upgrade. When customers email you, you can save their email addresses in your contact list and then use that list to promote your brand, offer discounts and promotions, and let them know about the latest products or services that you have launched. There are a million ways that this seemingly simple, yet highly effective technology is helping businesses create stronger and better relationships with their customers.
Mobile
More and more visitors are using their mobile phones and other handheld devices to access the internet and access you. Technology is helping out businesses in this regard by giving them the ability to scale their websites so that they can be viewed in any size screen that the visitors choose like PC, laptop, tablets, or smartphones. Thanks to technology, businesses are creating responsive websites that make it easy for the customers to access their favorite websites and their products or services any way that they want. Remember that in a customer relationship, you always have to keep the customers’ needs and wants at the top priority.
The same is true for communication as you can now send a short message service (SMS) to your customers updating them about your products and services and intimating them to visit your website for better products or services.
Call Centers
Another technology that has really helped businesses get closer to their customers is the VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technology. This means that you can call the customer, or the customer can call you over the internet easily. All they need is a Wi-Fi service or their own data packages and they can talk to your customer support representatives and talk to them about their queries, complaints, and ask any questions that they have.
This means that customers can contact the business with a lower call cost. This also means that you could be halfway around the world and still the customer can reach you whenever they want and talk to you. VoIP provides the best quality service and there won’t be any interruptions of distortions whatsoever. You can make sure that your contact page lists your handles on popular services like Skype and others and the customers will just add you to their contact list and call you directly if they have any questions on their minds.
Social Media Platforms
No discussion about technology can be complete without the mention of social media and the changes that it has brought to the business industry. The way people do business has changed drastically ever since social media platforms came into view. Now customers can contact your social media page, leave questions and reviews about your products and services. You can also use your social media channels to expand your brand’s reach and make sure that your target audience is aware of your presence.
Managing Interaction Data
Another thing that the technology has given businesses is CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools and software that can be used to automate a whole plethora of processes like leads and sales as well as store, analyze, and retrieve customer information in centralized storage space. Depending on the nature of your job in a business, you can access the storage to view the way customers interact with your brand, their histories, their demographics, their previous purchases, and a whole lot more. This means that you can now give up on the guessing game and make well-informed decisions for your marketing strategies and other purposes.
Conclusion
These are the five major ways that technology is helping businesses bring their customers closer to their hearts and keeping them. With the competition nowadays, it is easier and more affordable to keep your current customers than to make new customers and businesses can use technology to make sure that their loyal customers are happy and they never feel the need to go anywhere else while trying to get new customers.