Of all social blunders, few sting more than hearing “Nice to meet you” from someone you already know. You know it’s nothing personal: You’re just not that memorable. Ouch.
Don’t let your business make the same mistake. Today’s customers expect you to remember them and deliver personalized interactions. Positive interactions mean happy customers—and increased sales—while negative ones can increase churn rates and harm customer loyalty and your brand’s reputation.
Customer interaction management is a core part of a successful business strategy. Learn more about how to manage customers effectively at every stage.
What is customer interaction?
A customer interaction is any encounter between your business and its target audience. Interactions can be as casual as a potential customer viewing one of your social media posts or as involved as an in-depth product demo by your sales team.
Good customer interactions improve existing customer satisfaction and encourage prospective customers to convert. This can boost sales and referral rates, increase customer lifetime value, and help build a loyal customer base. Poor interactions, on the other hand, can create unhappy customers who may leave and, worse, deter others from your business.
Customer interaction stages
How a customer interacts with your business depends on where they are in the customer journey. Here’s an overview of the customer interaction cycle:
1. Discovery
In the discovery stage, the customer learns of your brand. Interactions at this stage may include watching a digital ad or receiving a recommendation from a friend.
2. Awareness
In this stage, customers begin to form an opinion about your brand. They might visit your website homepage or browse your product catalog to learn more.
3. Consideration
Customers in this stage are actively considering your products or services. They may spend more time with your catalog, read reviews on third-party sites, and compare you to top competitors. They might also sign up for emails, follow your social media accounts, or reach out by phone, chat, direct message or email to ask purchase-related questions.
For large, expensive, or recurring orders, companies may offer presentations, demos, or in-person site visits to the customer’s business or home at this stage.
4. Acquisition
Customer acquisition is when a new customer makes their first purchase from your store. The primary interaction in this stage is placing an order, and perhaps communicating with sales, installation, or delivery personnel.
5. Experience
After receiving an order, the customer interacts with the product or service. At this stage you may request feedback, or the customer might reach out to ask a question, request support, or initiate a return.
6. Retention and loyalty
Post-purchase, many businesses provide ongoing value to motivate repeat purchases and encourage satisfied customers to become brand advocates. You may send out post-purchase emails, or newsletters about your latest offers.
Customers might also consult a resource center on your website, interact with your social media accounts, engage with a customer loyalty program, or click on a digital ad for a new product.
Tips for effective customer interactions
- Show empathy
- Track customer information
- Personalize interactions
- Ask for feedback
- Provide value
- Show gratitude
- Be proactive
Improving customer interactions can increase sales, reduce customer churn rates, and boost your brand reputation, leading to immediate profitability and long-term resilience. Here are seven tips for effective customer interaction management:
Show empathy
Validating a customer’s experience can boost loyalty and encourage customer engagement. If they’re delighted with your product, express your delight, too. If they’re frustrated or confused, tell them that you understand their concern and offer help.
Even if a customer has the facts wrong, their emotions are real. Equip your customer service representatives with communication skills to empathize effectively during the customer interaction process.
🌟 Go beyond help desk software and call scripts to get to know the 13 skills needed to deliver great customer service.
Track customer information
Customer relationship management (CRM) or customer interaction management (CIM) software can consolidate customer data from multiple channels for quick access by your marketing, sales, and customer support teams. Include contact information, purchase history, support history, and customer behavior and engagement data.
Use this data to streamline customer interactions. This way, if a customer contacts your service team for ongoing support, your team members can review notes from previous phone calls or chats instead of making the customer repeat their issue.
Personalize interactions
Which message would you prefer?
- “Hello. Please enter your order number to be connected with the next available agent.”
Or:
- “Hi Susan! Are you calling about your recent purchase of our life-size knit alpaca? Press 1 to be connected with an agent or 2 to hear a list of other options.”
The second message is better because it uses personalized details and outlines clear options, making the interaction more engaging and tailored to the customer’s needs.
Use the information in your customer interaction software to personalize customer service interactions, which can boost brand loyalty by making your customers feel appreciated and understood. (Your marketing team can also use this information to deliver more relevant and personalized marketing communications.)
Ask for feedback
Feedback can help you identify and address customer pain points in their purchase or service experiences. Use automated emails to request customer feedback. If you’re following up on a customer complaint, ask whether you’ve resolved the issue, and if the answer is no, call or email the unhappy customer with further support.
Customer feedback also supports a positive customer experience by ensuring that products serve a market need.
“In nonprofits, you’re there to serve a community, right?,” says Nadya Okamoto, founder of period-care brand August, on a recent episode of Shopify Masters.
“When I look at building a consumer brand, it’s that same mentality. Who are we serving? Who’s the end user? What do they need? What are they not currently getting? And how can we do it in a way that is unique and different?”
Nadya’s team used video calls, texts, and community conversation platforms to gather customer feedback, analyzed it to better understand their customer base, and built product and service interactions around their needs.
Provide value
You can improve customer interactions with sales, marketing, service, and product development processes that maximize value to the customer. Here are a few examples:
- Marketing. You sell heirloom roses, so you maintain a gardening resource center on your website with how-to articles, species guides, answers to common customer queries, and inspirational rose garden profiles.
- Product. You sell dorm room furniture, so you conduct product testing and use focus groups to improve the assembly and disassembly experience. You share videos that demonstrate how to assemble each product and ask your customer base to share their own videos and photos of their new dorm room setups.
- Service. You sell dried fruit and nut mixes. You provide multiple communication channels for service support issues and empower customer service reps to grant full refunds when products don’t meet customer expectations.
Show gratitude
Expressing thanks can boost loyalty and customer retention. The more personalized or relevant your messaging, the better. Here are a few options:
- Send post-purchase follow-ups. Use email automation to send thank you notes, and be genuine about the importance of customers to your business—whether it’s funding donkey rescues, promoting Laotian cuisine, or continuing your family’s book-binding legacy, let them know how much it means.
- Give gifts. Show gratitude with discount codes or physical gifts like branded apparel or tote bags. A sense of exclusivity increases perceived value, so distinguish these gifts from other promotions by specifying why the customer is receiving it—whether it’s in recognition for being one of your top customers or in celebration of a business anniversary.
- Start a loyalty program. Loyalty programs recognize and reward your most loyal customers, encouraging repeat purchases and keeping your brand top of mind. They can also help you gather more data for your personalization efforts.
Be proactive
Providing excellent customer service is key, but reactive support isn’t always enough. Customer success programs involve interacting with customers regularly, anticipating support needs, and actively working to retain and strengthen customer relationships.
If you struggle with retention or long-term client relationships are critical to your business model, consider adding a customer success program as part of your customer interaction strategy.
Customer interaction FAQ
What is CIM software?
Customer interaction management (CIM) software gathers and stores customer data. It helps service, sales, and marketing teams improve customer interaction management processes and provide more consistent and personalized customer experiences.
How do you handle difficult customer interactions?
Here are five tips for managing interactions with angry or confused customers effectively:
- Stay calm
- Listen closely
- Show empathy
- Communicate your plan
- Follow up
What are the keys to a positive customer interaction?
Here are three strategies to help you facilitate great customer interactions:
- Maximize value throughout the customer journey.
- Track customer information and use it to personalize interactions.
- Solicit feedback and improve the customer experience.
