Traditional Meets Technical: How Businesses can Keep Their Hometown Feel with Software Upgrades

Throughout 2020, many businesses were forced to make changes to their operation on the fly to accommodate their customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses were forced to incorporate more digital strategies in order to connect with their clients and deliver their products and services. And while these digital strategies can improve efficiencies at your business and free up time for your employees, they can also take away the personal touch of interacting with your customers. So, how do you build and maintain customer relationships while incorporating digital strategies into your marketing and operations?

Embrace Phone Calls

When your customers either can’t come into your business or aren’t comfortable with shopping due to the pandemic, it can be easy to lean on your website and just encourage them to fill out a form. But customers still want to know they’re being taken care of, even if they’re not coming into your business’s locations. Make your employees available via the phone to answer questions and help customers make purchases. This allows you to still deliver a personal touch, even when your customer interactions aren’t face to face.

Personalize Your Emails

Some of your customers are still going to be more comfortable interacting with your business over email rather than over the phone or in person. It’s important that you give your customers an easy option to email your business. If you have a designated customer representative on your staff, make sure their email address is easy to find on your website. If you don’t have a designated customer service representative, talk to your email provider about creating a designated customer care email address. Once that email is created, make sure it is visible on your website.

Most importantly, if you’ve created a general customer care email address, make sure someone on your staff is monitoring that email address throughout the day. Your customers expect prompt responses. By answering their emails quickly, you’re showing them that they are important to you as a client.

Eventually, life will get back to normal and you’ll be able to see your customers face to face. But by embracing these “New School” techniques while maintaining an “Old School” attitude toward customer service, you will cultivate more customers right now so they become face-to-face customers when the pandemic is over. VGM Forbin’s team can help your business incorporate these new techniques so you’re always putting your customers’ needs first – contact us today!