What’s the best way to communicate with my customers?

Someone told me that in my business “we should communicate with customers the way they communicate with each other” what do you think?

It makes sense to encourage customers to “talk to you” using a method that they are already familiar with.

The easier you make it for customers to talk to you the more they will; whether it is to complain or place an order or to tell you what a fantastic job you are doing.

When you think of communicating with your customers, remember it can come in many forms:
– Snail mail
– Email
– Telephone
– Face to face
– Video conferencing
– SMS
– Chat (via Skype/messenger, etc)
– Fax
– Social media, like Facebook and Twitter
– Your website
– Webinars
– Plus more…

I have had to adapt things in my business for different customers, for example I know that retailers who own their own store don’t access their emails very often, so we send anything important by snail mail. Whereas in our target audience of end consumers there are a lot of tech-savvy teens, so we are now introducing an SMS contact number to get them to “talk to us” more often.

When you are communicating with your customers you need to make sure that the method fits with your business/brand and your customers. For Mocks we are a mobile phone sock brand so SMS communication fits well with our audience and our brand, as most people who buy a Mock have a mobile.

However, even if you are super tech-savvy do not assume that they are. Why not “talk to them” first and ask them how they’d like to communicate with you – it is bound to get much better results for everyone.

I recently hired someone to do some Twitter work for me. One of her first questions was how would I like her to communicate with me, and when during the day was a good time to do it. This was a refreshing change and instantly made me feel that she cared about her clients.