- December 14, 2023
- Posted by: Featured
- Category: Blog
Mastering Personalization: 16 Customer Relationship Tips from Leaders
Sixteen industry professionals, from customer experience managers to growth leaders, share their top tools and strategies for personalizing customer interactions. From examining customer history for tailored communication to organizing information for personalized chats, this article offers a wealth of insights to enhance and strengthen your customer relationships. Discover how to tailor your customer engagement with these expert tips.
- Examine Customer History for Tailored Communication
- Build Rapport Through Open-Ended Questions
- Handwritten Notes for Memorable Touches
- CRM Insights for Personalized Product Alerts
- Enhance Connections with Video Messaging
- Leverage Tech for Integrated Customer Data
- Single Mover Contact for Personalized Service
- Engage Customers Personally on Social Media
- Use Analytics for Tailored User Communication
- Content Personalization Based on User Intent
- Personalized Offers via Live Chat and HubSpot
- Text Messaging for Higher Customer Engagement
- Shared Lingo Creates Relatable Conversations
- Mirror Customer Behavior in Digital Marketing
- Data-Driven Communication Segmentation Strategy
- Organize Info for Personalized Customer Chats
Examine Customer History for Tailored Communication
To truly personalize interactions with customers, paying attention is required. At scale, it can be easy to use templates and skip personalization for the sake of time.
I use tools to stay organized and have a process to examine the customer’s historical information prior to sending out communication. This allows me to be aware of the customer’s individual needs, behavior, pain points, order history, and communication style. That informs the approach I take when sending out communication and engagement. If they historically respond better to a phone call, I might prefer that over email, or follow up an email with a call.
I meet the customer where they are. I also make a point to take important notes after a conversation. Even remembering a simple thing like a birthday, a recent vacation, or something about their family can truly wow a customer by letting them know I paid attention.
Justin Padilla
Customer Experience Manager
Build Rapport Through Open-Ended Questions
Personalized interactions can help develop strong bonds with customers and can create memorable experiences that will have them coming back for more! One of the most effective ways to tailor your communication is to:
BUILD RAPPORT WITH EACH INDIVIDUAL
Asking open-ended questions (questions that start with How, Why, or What) is a key strategy. This encourages the customer to open up and talk about their experiences with similar products/services, the challenges they faced, and why they are attracted to your product/service.
Building rapport is not just about finding something in common; it’s about learning about your clients, discovering what makes them ‘tick,’ and presenting your product or service in a way that will get them excited!
Sebastian Walls
Head of Training, Art of Charisma
Handwritten Notes for Memorable Touches
Making connections in real estate is my forte, and here’s my go-to trick: handwritten notes.
In this digital age, receiving a personalized, handcrafted note delivered to your door is like finding a hidden gem. After a client meeting or a successful deal, I take a few minutes to jot down a note expressing my gratitude. It could be something like, “Thrilled we found your dream condo!” or a simple “Thanks for your trust in us.” It’s old-school, but trust me, people love the personal touch. It’s genuine, memorable, and sets the tone for a lasting relationship
In the fast-paced world of real estate, a handwritten note goes a long way in showing clients they’re not just another deal but someone I genuinely appreciate.
Samantha Odo
Real Estate Sales Representative and Montreal Division Manager, Precondo
CRM Insights for Personalized Product Alerts
One of the ways I personalize my interactions with customers is by using a CRM tool. This tool stores all the details about the customers’ interactions with our company, including their preferences, their transaction history, and even their behavior on our website.
Let’s say a customer named John regularly buys eco-friendly products from our store. The CRM tool keeps track of this preference. So, when we launch a new line of eco-friendly products, we can send him a personalized email informing him about it. This not only makes John feel special, but it also shows that we value his business and understand his needs.
This approach not only enhances the customers’ experience but also strengthens our relationship with them. It shows them that we’re not just interested in selling products; we’re also committed to providing a service that’s tailored to their needs. And in my experience, this personalized approach leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Swena Kalra
Chief Marketing Officer, Scott & Yanling Media Inc.
Enhance Connections with Video Messaging
I am a huge fan of video messaging! I offer daily messaging access to my private consulting and coaching clients, so the support is quite personal to begin with. However, trying to understand complex concepts or feel empowered over text messages or emails is nowhere near as effective as seeing someone’s facial expressions or hearing their tone of voice.
There are so many benefits to using a video messaging tool. For example, video messaging can help ensure your tone of voice is not misunderstood when delivering feedback. It helps you express empathy when your recipient needs a little extra word of encouragement. It can help showcase your personality when delivering a sales pitch, or it can prevent setting up unnecessary meetings!
There is so much value in video messaging, and it does wonders for my business. My relationship with my clients and team members has become more human and close, even though we’re miles apart.
Ioni Papadakis
Business Coach, 9 ELEPHANTS CONSULTING INC.
Leverage Tech for Integrated Customer Data
One way to personalize communication with your customers is to take advantage of tech integrations. If you use a different set of marketing apps and collect various data points in all of them, make sure this data is available to you in your main communication channels, like your CRM, live chat tool, or email tool.
For example, if you’re in e-commerce and you offer a loyalty program to your customers, make sure loyalty data is available in your chat tool and your email marketing tool. You can then personalize all communication with customers’ own data (like their own point balance or unique referral link), boosting engagement and ensuring customer satisfaction.
In SaaS, I would say using a tool that allows you to track your clients’ interaction with your tool is most helpful in personalizing communication. It allows you to skip the general approach because you can see what they’re doing and predict what they’re trying to do, so you can communicate exactly that without the fluff.
Aleksandra Velkova
SaaS Customer Success Manager, Lootly
Single Mover Contact for Personalized Service
One of the things we’ve focused on to improve our customer service experience is to give customers a single point of contact throughout their experience with us. After customers book their moving date, they are put directly in contact with the actual movers who will handle their physical move on moving day. The movers will get details about how much stuff the customers have, whether any of it needs special handling, where to park, and when to show up, and are happy to answer any questions customers have at any time between booking the move and the big day. This helps customers and movers develop a real working rapport that can come in handy during the always-stressful moving experience.
Nick Valentino
VP of Market Operations, Bellhop
Engage Customers Personally on Social Media
In terms of B2B social media, it’s important to stay connected and engage with your best customers. Make an effort to visit their profiles, and like and comment on their posts. Celebrate their wins and milestones. Keep tabs on which industry events they are attending. Keep a file with these insights, in addition to any that might be gained from their account representative. This will give you something more substantial to use in order to have a sustained and personalized conversation with them when they engage with your brand, and can even help you curate future marketing materials for them, such as targeted email campaigns and PR drop boxes. You can even invite them to exclusive, private social media groups!
Fey Grimm
Social Media Manager, Starkey
Use Analytics for Tailored User Communication
One way we personalize our interaction with customers is by actively tracking how the customers are engaging with different parts of our product. We are primarily using Mixpanel for this. Using this information, we are able to understand a couple of things:
– Which features are being used the most? This allows us to prioritize further optimizations on those features.
– User behavior patterns and preferences: This enables us to track user journeys and behavior patterns across different segments. It further helps us to tailor our messaging in our emails, onboarding, etc.
– Identify blockers: We identify areas where users might be facing challenges or drop-offs in their journey.
All this information not only helps us drive better engagement and retention, but it also enhances our ability to effectively communicate the value proposition of our product, contributing to a more successful acquisition strategy.
Yogesh Joshi
Head of Growth, Kommunicate
Content Personalization Based on User Intent
Customers want to feel heard, understood, and valued. This means marketers must do more than superficial personalization, like including a customer’s name in an email subject line.
Instead, brands should consider personalization based on user intent.
When customers search for something on Google, they’re expressing an immediate need. So, if brands publish content to satisfy that need, they’re personalizing the experience to meet the intent in that moment.
Brands can further personalize for intent by recommending related content based on the next step of the user journey or based on a customer’s past website behavior. Use CTAs on your website, as well as dynamic search ads or retargeting ads, to highlight new content that will delight your audience.
This approach shows customers you understand WHAT THEY NEED, and not just who they are and what they’ve done.
Jonas Sickler
Digital Marketing Analyst, Terakeet
Personalized Offers via Live Chat and HubSpot
We use a variety of tools, and one of them is the use of live chat on the website, as well as the use of HubSpot, which helps us identify and track businesses that have visited our website. Through Calendly, we can provide a personalized experience by offering a link to our sales team’s calendar, allowing customers to conveniently schedule a call at a time that works for them.
However, our distinctive feature is personalized offers. We tailor our offerings to each client’s specific needs and preferences. This approach ensures that our communications and interactions are as personalized as possible, ultimately improving the customer experience and fostering stronger relationships.
Olga Natalchenko
PR Manager, Wiserbrand
Text Messaging for Higher Customer Engagement
In order to personalize our communication with customers, we recently started using an SMS-based messaging software. We’ve found that in today’s day and age, customers respond much better to text messages than to emails. Not only are open/read rates much higher, but we’ve also found that we can use more casual, friendly language in text messages, which results in higher engagement with our customers. Additionally, we’ve found that customers are more willing to provide feedback via text, likely because it’s much more convenient and quick than by phone or email.
Mathias Johansen
Co-Founder and COO, Guide2Fluency
Shared Lingo Creates Relatable Conversations
What I’ve found effective in my communication is using shared lingo and colloquialisms.
Speaking like a person instead of a business can be endearing to your customers, and lingo is very personal. People who speak the same lingo feel like they’re “in on the secret,” as if we’ve been through the same situations and social circles.
Also, humans have communicated best through stories since the dawn of time. Colloquialisms are stories that people can feel because they engage multiple parts of the brain. So, for instance, if I say, “Watch your step. Our floor polish is slicker than snot on a doorknob.”
A customer will read and comprehend the words, but simultaneously, their imagination is trying to picture how slick a doorknob covered in goo would be. It’s a gross example but has an impact beyond your everyday, boring corporate copy.
Cody Rudolph
Managing Editor, CodyRudolph.com
Mirror Customer Behavior in Digital Marketing
We all mirror one another; it’s part of how we connect. In sales classes, they sometimes call this “pacing.” When engaged with someone, take on their voice, tone, and mannerisms. If they cough, wait a few seconds and then cough. If they cross their arms, wait a bit and then cross your arms. We do this digitally by creating customized marketing emails with different voices for different demographics. A 50-year-old speaks a much different language than a 30-year-old, and we do our best to adapt the language we use in marketing to accommodate these different uses of the same language. We have to design every word to appeal to our ideal customer to be effective.
Kam Talebi
CEO of Gigli, Gigli
Data-Driven Communication Segmentation Strategy
To personalize customer interactions, businesses must develop a multifaceted customer communication approach. Segmenting your customer base by behaviors, products, services, usage, and more is essential. This segmentation can be implemented in your marketing automation platform using data collected through digital marketing programs. Leveraging customer data to analyze purchase histories, website interactions, digital engagement, and brand feedback is crucial to tailor communication and engagement strategies.
Implementing a loyalty program may be beneficial, depending on your business model. Such programs build exclusivity with your brand and identify the most engaged customers. Customized incentives based on individual behaviors can then be offered, utilizing algorithms for personalized product recommendations. These loyalty programs aim to optimize customer interactions, encouraging repeat business and referrals.
Elyse Flynn Meyer
Owner and Founder, Prism Global Marketing Solutions
Organize Info for Personalized Customer Chats
Nailing the customer relationship game is all about personalizing every interaction. It’s like a bespoke suit—it fits perfectly because it’s made just for you.
I start by really tuning in to what each client needs. Understanding their goals, worries, and what gets them excited helps me tailor my chats and emails to hit the spot. It’s all about making them feel heard and understood.
To make this happen, I rely heavily on being organized. This can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet, or it can be a regularly updated CRM system. These hold all the info—from past conversations—so I can pick up each call right where the last one was left off. Avoiding asking the same questions on every call is like having a cheat sheet to ace every conversation.
By putting personalization front and center, I’m not just ticking boxes; I’m building a solid relationship. It’s about trust and reliability, showing them I’ve got their back and I’m here to help.
James Stagman
Search Engine Optimization Analyst, Stagman SEO
Submit Your Answer
Would you like to submit an alternate answer to the question, “How do you personalize your interactions with customers to enhance their experience and strengthen the relationship? Share one tip or tool you use to tailor communication and engagement.”