In any business or organization, dealing with customers seems to be one of the most crucial success factors. Especially for a profit-earning company, customers play a vital role on the stability of the business. It is every company’s responsibility to get in touch with its customers for any concerns and feedback about the service. Successful business organizations make sure that their customers do not only conduct a one-time business with them, so customer communication is necessary.

Communication with the customers does not just occur from the point of purchase to the end of sale. In fact, it is more important to continue the communication with them after sales. Companies would probably not just get satisfied with a one-time experience with customers. The goal is to turn them into loyal clients who will keep on doing business with them.

Forms of Customer Contact

Part of customer communication is customer contact. There are many ways to conduct business with customers and there are many ways to communicate with them. These forms are also the ways customers use in contacting a business. Person-to-person contact is the most common form of customer communication. Consumers and interested buyers visit establishments and engage in a conversation with the sales crew for any inquiries.

Telephone communication is also another common method. Customers call in to place orders, make inquiries, raise complaints, and discuss other matters with the provider over the phone. Some other forms of communication with customers may be through email correspondence and chat conversation.

In the most common cases, customers are the first to contact or approach a service or business provider. This is the company’s opportunity to impress a customer with the manner of giving service, ability to address their inquiries and concerns, and satisfying their needs.

Impact of Customer Communication

Why do most companies make it a point to reach out to customers? For one, communicating with them demonstrates that the company shows care and concern for their needs. With the many business organizations sprouting like beans and competing with one another, customers have a long list of options or choices for the kind of service provider or establishment they want to transact business with. So, when there is no sense of importance coming from the company towards the customers, they can always bring their business somewhere else.

Good customer communication also develops into a harmonious relationship between the business provider and the clients. This relationship is strengthened as customers continue to do business with the company. This concept is further elaborated in this article.

Customer Relationship

It is important to note that a one-time transaction is not necessarily considered customer relationship. Such a situation is a typical dealing of a business provider with a customer as when the customer wants to purchase a certain product or item from the store and may possibly not buy again from the same store.

When talking about customer relationship, it pertains to a series of interactions and continuous service even after the sale. It is when a company manages to check on its customers, even for the potential customers, who may turn out to be loyal and trusting customers in the long run. When a certain customer keeps on coming back to a store because of the wonderful service of the sales crew, then it is considered customer relationship.

The relationship with a service provider and customers can be founded on two major attributes: trust and commitment. Trust is a crucial factor that inculcates confidence and security in promoting long-term relationships with customers. Customers who are confident of the company they chose to have business with feel secure and offer trust to the provider.

Commitment is another ingredient for strengthening customer relationship. Yet, this attribute is difficult to gain from customers without trust. Dedicated and loyal customers are committed to the business. In the same way, the business has to show commitment to its customers by constantly communicating and serving them.

Lack of constant customer communication may lead to loss of customers who may have been satisfied of the service provided by a business organization. The truth of the matter is, every company must run after the customers, not the other way around. And this is exactly what customer communication is all about.