How to Listen to Your Customers

Learning how to effectively listen to your clients is an essential step in building relationships with customers. It can also help you create better marketing campaigns, improve customer experience with your product, and inform your social media presence. To avoid any stumbles along the way, try these tips for better listening.

One popular way to listen to your client base and build relationships with customers is through social media. Unfortunately, many companies use social media as a means to advertise instead of listen. It's important to proactively communicate with clients through Twitter and Facebook, but be sure that you're also providing timely, meaningful responses to any concerns raised by commenters. Don't make the mistake of ignoring or deleting comments that tell you what you don't want to hear. Instead, take time to formulate responses and promise actions. Limiting your social media presence to a few key platforms that you can carefully monitor and use to interact with clients will also ensure that you're building relationships with customers, not just accumulating some indifferent followers.

You may think that focus groups are more efficient than talking to clients, but you can miss building vital relationships with customers if you're not actively soliciting client opinions. In "Two Ways to Drive Your Customers Crazy," Forbes Magazine contributor Patrick Hull notes that many companies fall into the trap of listening to focus groups over actual customers. Instead of using a focus group, Hull suggests calling customers with a few open-ended questions to find out what they think about your product or service. He also recommends avoiding surveys and letting the customer set the tone and length of the conversation.

If you have difficulty focusing on what your customers are saying on the phone, try practicing active listening techniques. One particularly useful technique mentioned by Mary Nestor-Harper in "The Art of Listening in a Noisy World" is to rephrase what your client has told you. This technique ensures that you grasp exactly what you've been told, and your customer will then know that you've been listening. Minimizing outside distractions is also essential if you have trouble listening.

Keep in mind that building relationships with customers is only one of the benefits of listening to your consumer base. Customers may be using your product or service in a way you've never even considered, or you may find that your marketing isn't targeting the type of people who are actually using your product. Don't be afraid to tweak your product or service to improve customer experience, even if your clients are already happy.

Like anything that requires growth and nurturing, building relationships with customers requires frequent communication and evidence that you value them. Put these listening tips into practice to let customers know how much your business wants their patronage.

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