When was the last time you had a great experience with a company? Often, those good experiences connect to the way that companies connect with us to provide the resources and information that we need. For businesses, though, achieving this kind of proactive communication is a struggle. The good news? Thanks to the technology we have available today, that no longer has to be the case.
In this post, we’ll define proactive communication and support, explain how your business benefits from implementing this, share the easiest way to say goodbye to reactive communication and start reaching and delighting your customers at the right time.
What is Proactive Communication?
We define this as an approach to communication and customer service where your focus is on connecting with your customers before they feel the need to reach out to you. This means that you make the first move when it comes to sharing any updates or taking actions to improve the customer experience and create a better customer journey.
Why is Proactive Communication Critical to the Success of Your Business?
Proactive communication is key to improving customer lifetime value (CLV). CLV is the total financial worth of a customer during their relationship with your business. It’s essential to track CLV to meet your business objectives because it has such a big impact on the bottom line. Generating a new customer is about 5 times more expensive than maintaining an existing customer, so it's in your best interest to do what you can to keep existing customers.
Your business benefits from more customer referrals by increasing the average CLV and actively anticipating your customers' needs. It also helps you reduce operating costs. You can spend less of your time and your budget on generating new business, freeing your team up to focus more on nurturing your existing audience, and thus increasing customer loyalty.
Benefits of Proactive Communication
Let's look at some of the specific benefits that your organization can expect by implementing this as part of your customer lifecycle strategy.
Gain control over communication
Communicating proactively empowers you to frame the conversation in the most favorable light. This gives you the opportunity to ensure customers get the information you want them to have and avoid the consequences of inaccuracies. By communicating proactively, you control the conversation and you also control how your customers and prospects perceive you.
Developing customer loyalty
Mass communications may be part of your strategy but gaining the trust of your customers in this day and age requires more effort. When a customer trusts you, it's more difficult for them to leave you for one of your competitors. To instill a sense of trust in your customers, you must communicate well.
Proactive communication shows your commitment to customer satisfaction. When you use proactive communication to share information with your customers about any issues, you display a sense of honesty and transparency that buyers will appreciate. This may seem counterintuitive but what sets a great company apart from the rest is how that company deals with adversity.
Open and proactive communication fuels a trusting relationship. If your customers know that you will keep them in the loop, no matter what's happening, they will reward you with more business.
Improve organizational productivity
We all want to maximize productivity, but with so many different things competing for our attention at all times, this is easier said than done. The use of proactive customer communication is a great productivity-boosting tactic that isn't difficult to implement.
By communicating proactively you can answer customer questions before they have an opportunity to ask. If you have an application or website issue, this type of communication can significantly reduce the number of incoming support calls you to receive by addressing problems early.
The Role of Live Chat in Proactive Customer Service
Live chat is an effective communication tool. It supports a proactive approach to connecting with your customers, helping you build stronger relationships and improve CLV. Using live chat, you can offer your customers the most productive and sought-after mode of online communication. 46% of customers say that live chat is the form of digital communication that they prefer to use.
With live chat, you can configure proactive chat triggers to engage website visitors and customers at the right time, in order to make sure they know you are there. Proactive live chat is a customer service solution (or strategy) that lets you personalize the experience.
Here are key recommendations to help you make proactive chat work for you:
1. Be ready and responsive to customers
Always be prepared to respond quickly and efficiently to customer inquiries. This will show that you are attentive and proactive in addressing customer needs.
2. Customize the chat invitations
Use data you have about the customers to personalize the live chat invitations they receive while on your site.
3. Make it easy to accept or decline a chat invitation
Reaching out proactively is a positive thing, but always give visitors the opportunity to accept the help you offer or choose to move on.
4. Properly align your chat objectives and measurements
Look at what key performance indicators you aren’t hitting, then use live chat to connect with customers and improve your metrics.
5. Engage online customers with targeted offers
Make every customer feel that they’re in the right place at the right time by boosting their awareness on offers that are a good fit for them.
6. Quality Customer Service: The Advantages of Being Prepared
Make sure your customer service team is well-trained and knowledgeable about the products and services you offer. This will help them answer customer questions quickly and accurately.
7. A/B test and get feedback
Once you implement proactive communication via live chat, A/B test your invitations and offers to see which ones are most successful. Use customer feedback to improve your services. Ask customers for their opinions on how you can better serve them and use this feedback to make changes that will benefit your customers.
How can businesses use technology to improve customer service?
Businesses can use technology to improve customer service by automating processes, such as using chatbots to deliver 24/7 responses to frequently asked questions or providing a self-service customer support portal via a knowledge base.
Using a software solution such as a customer engagement platform can help businesses track customer data and provide insights into customer behavior, allowing businesses to better understand their customers and create more effective strategies for providing better customer service.
The impact of proactive communication on customer satisfaction
Proactive communication and customer service are essential for any business to succeed. By taking the time to listen to customers, responding quickly, and providing helpful solutions, businesses can build trust with their customers and create a positive experience that will keep them coming back. Additionally, businesses can use customer service as an opportunity to build relationships with customers and gain valuable feedback.
Velaro makes it easy to track your customers' journey and offers the right communications on their chosen channels. Plus, it allows you to understand and respond to customer needs faster, improving your customer service and experience.
