How To Create Meaningful Customer Connections
In my recent podcast episode, I discussed how to create meaningful customer connections. This is one of the most critical and often overlooked aspects of establishing new business and ensuring positive long-term relationships. As we discussed in the episode, if you’re not creating an emotional connection with your buyer to your business, brand, and/or employees, then you’re doing yourself and your company a grave disservice.
A multitude of studies over the years has shown that the way consumers interact with brands is changing. These days, clients and customers are more likely to engage with companies and brands that show they are in touch with the human element of customer experience. By demonstrating this through your brand marketing and engagement, you are more likely to not only gain new customers but to retain their loyalty for years to come.
So how can you ensure you’re creating these types of relationships? It all comes down to four human senses, touch, vision, hearing, and speech. Now let’s break down each of these.
Build Emotional Connections with Touch
First impressions can make or break the emotional connections you are trying to cultivate. When meeting someone for the first time, a proper introduction and a firm handshake can go a long way. These simple touches can reinforce the positive feelings about a would-be stranger.
Vision
Be attentive to your body language and that of the person you are meeting with. For example, say you go to sit down with an interviewee. They may be nervous and instinctively cross their arms. Try to mimic this. By mirroring the other person’s body language, they will begin to mimic yours. Throughout the conversation, allow yourself to relax, and I guarantee the other person will too. This will help you to create those meaningful emotional connections.
Hearing
One of our most basic human desires is to feel heard. By really showing someone that you hear them, you begin to build a trust relationship. Engage in active listening and ask relevant questions that build upon what the other person is saying. Inquire about their pain points and reiterate these back to them. Offer solutions that are constructive to their challenges, but do so after they have finished speaking to show that you took the time to truly listen.
Speech
Often, people are so 高仿dior excited to talk that they will interrupt or speak over the other person. While excitement and passion are always positive things, it is essential to express them without overshadowing what the other person has to say. Always speak with intention but without engaging in interruption.
Show Value in Emotionally Derived Customer Experience
In today’s digital world, technology has dramatically changed our lives. This, paired with the global COVID-19 pandemic, has led to decreased in-person meetings and engagements and a global transformation to online learning, working, and consuming. But people are still emotional creatures, and we value an emotionally derived customer experience. And that hasn’t changed. We all want to be heard, and we all want to feel emotionally connected to the products and brands we purchase or even the people we do business with. In this blog post, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface on these four key senses and how they can be used to help forge connections. To further explore these concepts, check out my recent podcast episode on creating emotional connections with clients, prospects, and partners.