PR – To send or not to send

To send or not to send?

The case for regularly communicating with your customers. By Rebecca Smith – That Comms Co.

It can be difficult to know when to contact your customers proactively and how often to do so — especially if things are ticking along nicely and it feels like there’s nothing particularly exciting to report. Let’s therefore start with why you should bother to get on the front foot with customer communications.

YOU’LL GET FEEDBACK FROM CUSTOMERS

Customers are likely to contact you if they are dissatisfied with something however getting their feedback on more general topics, such as things they value about your service or how you might improve things, can prove difficult. By maintaining a regular dialogue with your customers, you leave the door open to receive helpful feedback and connect with them.

YOU CAN RESPOND TO POTENTIAL ISSUES W

If there’s a problem brewing, you may not hear about it until it reaches crisis point if you don’t reach out to your customers regularly and welcome their feedback. Getting an early indication that something is wrong means you can nip the issue in the bud before it becomes a bigger problem. YOU’LL GET THE BIG PICTURE

Quantitative data gives you lots of insight into your business and how it is performing but there’s nothing like having qualitative data in the form of direct customer feedback to help you understand the big picture. By communicating regularly with your customers, you’ll benefit from greater insight into the reasons behind their purchasing decisions and behaviours. This can lead to business improvements and positive developments that you may otherwise have never considered.

SO HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU COMMUNICATE?

Now that we’ve gone through some of the benefits of regularly communicating with your customers, it’s important to consider how often you should reach out.

We’ve talked in previous Insider articles about what channels to use for your communications including social media, website, text message and email, as well as face-to-face. And the ideal frequency of your customer communications will vary for each platform.

Keeping your social media channels active and updating them 2-3 times a week with relevant and interesting content is a great way to engage with customers on a regular basis. It also allows you to share and receive information in a timely fashion. Social media is a highly effective way to promote special offers, encourage referrals and run competitions, which you can do liberally as long as the content is relevant and attractive to your followers.

Emails are appropriate when you have news or more detailed information to share with your customers. It’s important to apply a strategic lens to engaging with your customers over email as there’s a fine line between acceptable and healthy levels of communication via this channel, and what could be perceived as spamming! To avoid the latter, an e-newsletter (EDM) can be a great way to streamline your customer communications as it enables you to consolidate updates in the one communication. An EDM needs only to be sent on a monthly or even quarterly basis — but its delivery should be punctual and consistent so that your customers learn to expect when it will arrive.

You might also want to consider reaching out to your customers individually. This could involve scheduling a quick yearly phone call to check they’re satisfied with your service and to get their feedback. If they are a new customer, a check-in call a week or so after they sign up is a nice way to get their immediate feedback, and also set the tone for good communication early in the relationship.

In the long run, regular communication with your customers is a mutually beneficial activity that will improve their satisfaction with your service and also help to drive your business. It is therefore important to plan and diarise your regular communications with customers in advance so you don’t miss opportunities to have meaningful exchanges with them. l

Need more help with your customer communications? That Comms Co. is the SSAA’s preferred public relations and crisis communications service for its members and is able to be engaged to prepare holding statements and customer communications as required.

For more information. Free call 1800 067 313 (Australia); 0800 444 356 (New Zealand); or email admin@selfstorage.com.au.