When you think about an online business, you probably think of a sleek brand with an impressive website and social media presence. While this might be impressive for some, a lot of people will miss seeing the faces of the people they’re either buying products from or using the services of. However, just because you never see your customers in the flesh doesn’t mean you can’t attempt to create a personal connection with your customers. Here’s a look at some of the ways you can reach out to them without needing to meet each of your customers in person.
Create a live chat window on your web page
If you run an online retail store, you might never know that a customer is viewing your website until you receive a notification that they’ve made a purchase. While you might think that this is a great way of making lots of sales with very little effort, you could also be missing out on a lot of potential sales. This is because you’re leaving your customers completely alone to decide whether to make that purchase or not. In a physical store, if a sales assistant saw that a customer was spending a long time looking at a product, they would probably step in and ask them whether they needed any help. They could then help explain the many features that the product has and help the customer decide whether it’s worth spending the money on that product. If that sales assistant wasn’t there, they might have simply walked away from that product as they lacked the confidence that the product would have fulfilled their needs.
You might think that because all of these sales are made online by a simple click of a button, there would be no way to intervene if anybody seemed unsure about a purchase. Luckily there is a way in which you can offer a customer advice even if you’re working in a virtual world. For example, you could install a live chat system, like those that have been developed by JivoChat, to automatically ask every customer whether they need any help as soon as they access one of your product pages. If they don’t need any help with their purchase, they can ignore or close the chat window and continue their purchase. On the other hand, if they need help, they simply need to type their questions into the chat box. As this chat box will look like any other instant messaging system, like Facebook, WhatsApp, or even text messages, that they use regularly, they should know exactly how it functions.
Once they have entered a message into this instant chat window, the retailer will be instantly notified of their query. This means they can reply just as quickly with the helpful advice needed to make them more confident about their purchase. This system allows you to interact a lot more quickly and efficiently than any other form of long-distance communication. If a customer was forced to have to call you or even email you to get a response, they could be waiting hours, if not days. They may even feel like it’s simply too much effort to try and get hold of you and choose to buy the product elsewhere or not at all. That’s why this instant communication is so important even when you’re an online retailer.
Meet with clients over Zoom rather than speak via emails or phone
If you work with clients rather than customers, you might think that a lot of your communications can be done via email or via the occasional phone call. You could end up working with your clients for years and never even see what they look like. While you might think that this is the easiest and quickest way to be able to do business, you could be missing out on a lot by simply not seeing your customers faces. If your clients meet you face to face, they’re a lot more likely to feel more loyalty to your brand. Once that loyalty has been built, they’re a lot more likely to trust you with more business or even recommend your services to their friends.
You might think that the only way to be able to meet clients face to face is for you to travel to their offices or for them to travel to you. Depending on exactly where your clients are based, this could mean you’d have to travel hours by car, train, or even plane. This could cost a business a lot of extra money and mean you waste a lot of your potential working day traveling across the country. Instead, why not set up a Zoom meeting with your clients. These have all the advantages of meeting face to face without the need to have to travel across the country. A Zoom call means you can save a lot of money on travel, accommodation, and even simple things like having to hire out a space to have the actual meeting. These video conferencing calls could even mean you get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time than you could normally get done via emails or on the phone.
Share more than just your products on social media
If you’ve got a brand social media page, you might think the best way to encourage more people to trust you with their money is to display a lot of pictures of your products simply. For example, if you’re a tradesperson, you’ll probably fill your social media pages will lots of pictures of your previous work to try and convince new customers that you’re the right people for the job. As well as examples of your products and services, it’s also important to include images of your team members as well. By taking pictures or even short videos of your team while you’re at work, your customers will feel more of a personal connection to your brand.
