4 Key Strategies to Manage Customer Conversations Effortlessly

Fostering successful connections with your clients starts with choosing the right CRM software. However, with new features being integrated into these tools regularly, businesses are finding it increasingly challenging to keep their customers in the loop.

The way you used to interact with your customers has changed drastically over the years. In the past, salespersons were in control of the entire sales process. After understanding the needs of the customers, salespersons used to explain the product features and sell the item. The process ended once the sale was made.

Now that most businesses thrive on digital platforms, they need to live up to the demands of customers. This calls for a customer-oriented relationship, which involves new strategies.

We are going to discuss some of these strategies in this article.

Why does customer conversation management require special attention?

Amidst the competitive business scenario, customer interactions start long before businesses involve their sales departments. Thanks to digitization, your customers are equipped with enough tools to carry out research and discuss viable options with others before making the purchase. So, the marketing funnel has become much more challenging. This explains why customer conversation management requires special attention. 

In the past, transactional sales used to be open or closed, and linear. However, currently, the system has transformed into a multidimensional process. Now that conversations with your customers take place through various channels, the need for customer conversation management is evident.

Convert with conversations: How to strategize your approach?

Choose the right channel for customer conversations

Your customers have been interacting with you through different channels. However, have you taken care of having the right communication channel in place? Besides, with social media available, customers expect an instant response from brands when they reach out to them for any kind of help. So, if you use the channel that the customer is comfortable with, it fosters better communication.

So, have an omnichannel communication process in place, and eventually, you will be able to combine the conversations on all these channels. Some of the common channels include:

• Social media
• Live chat
• Email
• SMS
• Phone

For each type of interaction, you would need a specific type of channel. So, it’s imperative to factor in your customers’ demographics, the type of product or service you are working with, and the timeliness of responding to your customers.

Besides, it’s important to evaluate customer behavior based on the interactions. Suppose, you converse with your customers on email, chat, and phone. Deploying smart analytics, you need to determine the sentiment of your customers based on the conversations. This will help you detect possible rooms for improving customer relations.

Proactive engagement in customer conversations

Regardless of the industry you are in, the priority lies in delivering value to your customer. They should feel this when they converse with you. Being proactive with your conversations demonstrates your responsibility as the business owner. For instance, if a customer had requested something a long time back, and needs to keep reminding you for the same, your relationship would come under stress.

Rather than waiting for your customers to reach out to you, be proactive enough to connect with them. You can answer the common industry questions through social media channels. Also, successful businesses integrate the right tool for tracking customer activities. Based on the conversations, they come up with relevant replies on time.

However, being proactive doesn’t imply being creepy with your approach. Try not to hard-sell things. Rather, a supportive stance from your end should assist your clients seamlessly sail through the checkout process.

For instance, businesses often use social media platforms to interact with future prospects and existing customers. Customers use Twitter to highlight your products or services, or raise complaints. In case you come across any negative remark, instantly offer help and provide relevant resources for sorting the issue out. Also, if a prospect inquires about anything on Twitter, you can start a conversation to show that you are active. Resolve the pain points with quality resources and answers. You can also share your contact details if any customer follows you. Through all these efforts, you can convert your prospects to customers.

Have both human essence and automation

When it comes to configuring your customer support platform, make sure to balance automation with the human essence. Thanks to automation, you can now instantly respond to chats and queries. Besides, these bots are capable of carrying out mundane tasks like data collection. However, make sure that automation complements human efforts, rather than trying to completely eliminate the same. Sometimes, automation fails to deliver personalized messages. Currently, 75% of your customers are looking for human interactions. So, even if automation helps in starting conversations, be prompt enough to assign the communication to a human agent as soon as possible.

Particularly, when customers reach out to you with specific problems, they look forward to connecting with a real person. The human element or empathetic touch can make the difference in the minds of your customers. So, a good customer care strategy revolves around both human touch and automation. Automation significantly saves time and simplifies your tasks. Here’s where you can deploy automation tactics in your conversation loop.

•  Providing answers to basic FAQ
•  Setting appointments
•  Sorting emails

Besides, you need to find the pain points of your customers, identifying where they usually get stuck. Try to automate these areas, besides assigning your agents to help the customers. In this process, you can manage customer conversations with dexterity.

Prioritize current customer conversations

Customers would be interacting with you throughout the purchase process. It might start while you are marketing a product, and continue during the after-sales phase. Now, more than 50% of your customers expect your agents to be informed about the conversations you had with them in the past. So, get a CRM capable of tracking the entire history of conversations through all the channels till date. Besides providing better customer support, you can upsell and cross-sell products when you have the right information.

Let’s understand this approach with the help of an example. Suppose, a customer inquiries something about a corporate purchase plan of your company. The agent talking to the customer might not be knowing where in the sales department he or she should direct the customer. You might lose track of the email among other stacks of inquiries. As a result, you miss out on an opportunity to start a conversation that could have resulted in a conversion.

So, it makes sense to have an omnichannel customer support CRM that integrates your sales, tickets, and all sorts of conversations. This will reduce the chances of missed opportunities. Besides, your customers would appreciate this seamless experience. The sales and customer support departments would also be aware of the conversations that your customer has with each of the teams.

Conclusion

To ensure customer satisfaction, prioritize them when you strategise your helpdesk. The secret to success in this context lies in establishing a reliable conversation through different channels with your clients. So, if your CRM is outdated, consider upgrading one to come up with a customer-oriented stance. 

A meaningful and contextual conversation with your customer can help you build fruitful relationships. No wonder, successful businesses gain a strategic advantage over their competitors as they offer value to their customers.