The best way to keep customers happy and loyal is by providing them with positive experiences and interactions.

The term CX describes 'Customer Experience', but there's more to consider than just the message and tone.

Personalisation offers a sincere and knowing perspective from you, as the provider.

It builds trust and a deeper relationship with your customers.

There are a lot of considerations that should be accounted for when trying to improve your CX.

So what steps should you take?

The message

The first is to consider your message and its meaning.

When you are in contact with a customer, what message do you want to send them?

What is the goal of this interaction?

Does it offer them any benefits?

The way you interact with customers shows a lot of your personality and values, it allows them to further their perception of you.

This is why it's important to ensure that you are presenting in the way you want, a way that will encourage conversions or at least be a positive interaction for them.

Once you have established the message you want to get across, you have to consider the tone.

This is where you should show your personality.

The tone you take should reflect who you are, as well as fit the message.

Always make sure you are being professional, friendly, and following your business' policies.

Where to send your message

There's a multitude of channels and platforms you can use to communicate with your customers.

The industry standard used to be using email and phone only to contact customers, but now things are changing.

Using social media is encouraged.

Many businesses will use direct messaging over social media to communicate with their customers, typically to respond when the customer makes first contact.

Using social media is often more convenient for the customer, as you can quickly send messages, and get a quick response.

It also allows you, as the business, to have personalised responses immediately, as you can know the customer's name from the account they message you from.

Although social media is on the rise, you can still use email and text, you just have to ensure it feels sincere.

Email marketing and telemarketing will usually go out in batches, meaning that without segmentation, everyone receives the same message.

This is why it isn't always the most effective method, but if you put the time and effort into it then it's worth considering.

When to send your message

This is another aspect of personalisation you should consider.

If you have customers in multiple countries, they may have different time zones.

This means that sending out a batch of emails to customers at the same time may come across as sloppy.

You're sending the email at 5 pm in your time zone, but some customers could be receiving it in the middle of the night, what's the point in that?

It can go even deeper than that, some people can be influenced to opt-out of brand messages if you get them at a bad time.

For many, weekends aren't appropriate to be receiving anything from a business.

Weekdays have been named the most appropriate, typically around midday or the early evening.

This is understandable, as getting woken up by a text on an early Sunday morning would put anyone off.

You should also consider the regularity of these messages.

If you are bombarding customers, it's off-putting and annoying for them.

When asked, 72% of people said that frequent messaging was the top reason for them to opt-out of getting texts from a brand.

Listen to feedback

It's a simple step, but very effective.

Allow your customers to give feedback on their experiences with communicating with your brand.

This means that you can make changes and adjust, based on what they are thinking and feeling.

Customer feedback will give you some brilliant insights into what is and isn't working within your marketing plans.

If you give them a simple and systematic way to provide feedback, it makes them more inclined to do so.

Don't only ask for feedback directly, you can include a link to a form in any brand messages, ask for feedback after customer interactions, and so on.

If you can collect data in any way shape or form, always do it.

If you need help with improving your CX or any aspect of customer relations and marketing, contact our chimps.

We're here to help!