Customer Management for a Better Customer Relationship

In the past, the company acted mostly ‘reactive’. The company focus was primarily inward: too much energy and resources went into developing processes and procedures and the straightening of deformed situations.

The company was process and procedure centric and the customer was not the center of its attention. Any business without a focus on customer satisfaction is at the mercy of the market. If you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will.

With this in mind, the company made a complete diagnosis of all customer communication: every letter, pop-up or email, even the less pleasant ones, has to be made customer-centric and customer-friendly.

This means that every communication towards the customer should be readable and understandable with clear instructions and a call to action. The customer should always feel that the company appreciates him and is ready to help him if needed.

Especially in case of problems the company doesn’t want to make it even more difficult for their clients by using official language and the lack of a clear next steps-plan.

The larger and/or more complex the problem, the easier and more transparent the communication should be (with respect for legal obligations).

Early next year, workshops will be taught by a professional copywriter to dedicated employees of the company to ensure the customer centricity in the letters. On the program:

• How to write in dialogues rather than monologues.
• How to use ‘warm’ words rather than words like ‘must, pay or cost’ (personal and positive).
• How to motivate the reader to action.
• How to write in a transparent, dynamic way, with ‘speaking verbs’ rather than ‘empty’ verbs (thus avoiding avalanches of calls in the call center).
• How to bring structure in texts (the most important message first).
• How to bring bad news.
• How to make all communication consistent and recognizable for the company.

Results

This is a huge workload that will require several more months to come, with several hundred letters and emails to rewrite. But a determination to serve your clients, even if you don’t see immediate results, will pay off in better relationships over time.

Genuine concern, good communication and efficient business practices raise the level of trust people have for you. And trust is the currency of good client relations.