Have you noticed things becoming a little quiet recently at your enterprise? If so, you could have a communication issue on your hands – one of the most serious in all of commercial enterprise.
In today’s economy, maintaining a conversation with your customers is essential. You need to keep the data flowing to make good decisions.
However, maintaining said torrent of information is more challenging than you might think. Yes, you might have a social media account, but if people aren’t engaging with it, then it’s as good as dead.
In this post, we take a look at why your customers don’t want to talk to you, and some of the things you can do about it. This way, you can reverse any adverse trends at your enterprise and start collecting the data you need to thrive again.
Your Communication Channels Are Inconvenient
The main reason your customers don’t seem to want to talk to you is that your communication channels are inconvenient. If they can only phone you between 9 am and 1 pm, Monday to Thursday, then only a minority of customers will ever contact you.
Remember, customers value their time. If you impose a time constraint on them, they will immediately seek alternatives.
Imagine, for instance, you run a dental clinic but only hire a part-time receptionist to take calls during regular office hours. That might sound like a reasonable thing to do, but, of course, it makes it harder for customers to contact you and arrange appointments. Many have to do it in their lunch hours, creating this massive rush.
What’s the first thing a customer is going to do in that situation? Obviously, they are going to seek alternatives.
The trick here is to make your channels available 24/7. Installing chat for website visitors or running multiple shifts can help you communicate with more people and make your services more convenient.
You can also simply extend your hours into the evening a little, perhaps paying for a phone service to operate until 9 pm. This approach will give the vast majority of your customers more options to call you when they are free.
You Generated Negative Experiences In The Past
Another reason your clients don’t seem to want to talk to you is that they had negative experiences in the past. Calling you up could have been an unpleasant experience.
For example, customers could have gotten through to a rude member of your customer services team who didn’t help them. Or they might have spent ages waiting in a long queue for you to provide them with service.
If you generated negative experiences in the past, try to correct the situation by retraining your representatives’ communication and problem-solving skills. If you have to use a script, use one. Don’t allow the odd bad temper here or there to wreck your branding and public perception.
You can also try measuring where the problems are occurring in more detail. Don’t take the information you receive at face value if it seems like you have a situation on the ground.
For instance, Jeff Bezos famously called Amazon’s customer service departments to see what the issue was after customers complained about long wait times. His data showed that everything was good and that customers should be happy, but the reality of the situation was different. He was measuring the wrong thing. Once he started measuring the right thing, he soon discovered how he could improve the service.
Lack Of Transparency
Customers might also not want to talk to you if you lack transparency. If you have hidden fees or opaque practices they won’t trust your services and will worry that you are charging them too much.
Think about your personal reaction when you arrived on a brand’s website but couldn’t see any pricing information anywhere. Undoubtedly, it made you feel a little uneasy.
Companies that do this or ask you to “call for a price” are almost always engaging in price gouging. The goal of these firms is to determine the wealth of the customers and then extract as much money from them as possible to beef up margins.
This approach, however, ultimately undermines itself. While it might seem like a great idea in the short term, it inevitably leads to mistrust and fear among customers in the long term. People feel compelled to buy, without knowing how much they should spend.
You can pretty quickly change a lack of transparency by reporting pricing on all your items. You can also write about your processes, especially if you operate in an industry famous for foul play.
Preference For Self-Service
In some cases, your customers don’t want to talk to you because they have a preference for self-service. In other words, they prefer to do things on their own instead of you holding their hand throughout the process.
As a business, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many customers would prefer to order the things they need online by clicking a few buttons instead of speaking to a cashier or interacting with a consultant.
If that sounds like your customers, then that’s okay. If you can facilitate a preference for self-service, do so: it’ll lower your costs.
However, this approach to business can sometimes be damaging. Never interacting with your customers prevents you from forming deeper and more meaningful relationships with them. You can never build up rapport and loyalty, meaning they can easily go somewhere else.
To prevent this, first, find out what your customers want. If they prefer being left alone, do so. Otherwise, look for ways to enhance human interactions.
Then, you can start dealing with the root of the problem. The main issue could be insufficient guidance. Customers might not know enough about products or understand them to make good decisions.
You could also have a staffing problem. Your team could have good technical skills, but they might not be the most socially engaging people in the world.
Fear Of Sales Pressure
You also get a lot of customers who fear sales pressure and that prevents them from talking to you. These individuals hate walking into a showroom or jewelry shop and immediately being accosted by a keen sales representative who wants to earn a commission.
Fear of sales pressure is one of the reasons so many customers now shop online. Nobody is trying to get them to buy phones on expensive contracts they don’t need or slap on insurance plans without telling them.
The trick here is to become known as a brand that avoids high-pressure sales tactics. You want to assist your customers in finding the products that are right for them.
Don’t engage in aggressive sales tactics or unwanted promotional calls. Instead, let your products and services speak for themselves, encouraging your customers to come to you. If you notice customers showing signs of feeling pressured, back off.
You can also focus more on providing your customers with value and building relationships instead of trying to push a quick sale. People will remember these interactions and appreciate them, getting the feeling that you are on their side.
Further Suggestions
If you are still struggling to get your customers to talk to you, then you might want to try probing a little deeper than the reasons outlined above. While these factors are important, they don’t explain a chronic data shortage.
The first step is to understand your customers’ common pain points and learn why they are avoiding communication. If they are just shy or prefer you to leave them alone, then that’s okay. However, if you are causing them to abandon their gregarious selves, that is more indicative of a problem.
Take a look at how your firm is operating and whether you are getting anything wrong that you should be getting right. Ask whether your sales staff are properly trained or if you have sufficient communication channels at your firm.
You also want to communicate proactively with customers. Most won’t tell you automatically why they do or don’t like your services, you have to go digging a little.
Listening to customer feedback can be soul-destroying, but it also teaches you the direction you need to go. If the same complaints come up repeatedly, you understand the problems you must address.
Lastly, you want to ensure communication feels like a positive experience. Customers shouldn’t come away with the feeling that they are an inconvenience to your brand.
To ensure this, train sales reps to be friendly and helpful. Look for ways to improve your services so you can resolve issues quickly instead of making customers wait days or weeks.
The better you understand these reasons, the more open your business’s communication will be. You will be able to meet customers on their level and discover their sticking points or why they don’t want to speak to you. Once you understand this, you are in a much better position to improve your company and offer customers the services they want. It’s as simple as that.