Talk About It: Business-Customer Communication Tools That Can Give Your Business an Edge

[This article was written by Anita Ginsburg.]

Running a business is not easy. In the long run, most new businesses end up failing. There are many reasons behind these failures. However, oftentimes it’s something as simple as a lack of proper communication between customers and a business.

You need to provide the right tools to your employees to foster productive and effective customer communication. Below are a few different customer communication tools that can give your business an edge.

Live Pop-Up Chat

The key to retaining customers that are dealing with problems is the ability to solve their issues as quickly as possible. One of the quickest means of doing so is via live chat. Invest in software that will allow customer service reps to chat with customers in a pop-up window on your website. Make sure the chat is staffed enough that there aren’t significant delays for chat users trying to speak to a service rep.

Text Messaging

Another tool that should be in your arsenal is peer to peer text messaging. Most people, at this point, have a mobile device on them at nearly all hours of the day. If you want the ability to reach a customer quickly, sending a text message is an excellent choice. Invest in software solutions that can automate the sending of these text messages. Sending appointment reminders or the announcements of new products via text message can pay off big.

Social Media Monitoring Tools

Social media has given everyone the ability to communicate their views to the rest of the world. Sometimes, what people post on social media about a company and its products can be extremely informative, and others will pay attention. That means that if a customer posts complaints about your product or service on their social media, a lot of other people will have a negative impression of your business.

If you have the ability to respond back to these individuals, you can help to solve their issues and retain them and their followers as paying customers. Make sure you have an active social media presence and give your social media manager the right software tools to see exactly who is talking about your products and what they are saying.

Customer Service Phone Line

Still, many customers are not satisfied with written communication alone for contacting a company. Instead, they want to talk to a real human being one on one. If you are large enough, you certainly need to consider investing in a customer service phone line. This doesn’t necessarily require having to invest in a call center. Service reps can answer such phone calls from your office or even from their own homes. Just make sure they are well trained and have the ability to take substantive action to address customer issues and complaints.

Overall, proper communication with customers is integral to your long term success as a business. Make fostering effective communication with consumers a priority within your company. This should also involve investing in the right tools that can allow your employees to efficiently communicate with your customers on the right platforms.

Author Bio:

Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.