To connect with customers, particularly online, is a priority for many businesses. Yet, in this day and age, you need to cover all the bases. It’s no longer enough to create an amazing product and offer an impeccable service. In fact, despite smart promotion strategies and heavy-set marketing campaigns, it may still not be enough.

Nowadays, it’s all about being personal in your communications. About giving a face to the process. And about meeting the individuality of the client with your very own.

Why you should get personal

Human interaction is a peculiar thing. We are now considering sending a mission to Mars, and every message will lag for 20 minutes or more. To say nothing of the nearly twenty various apps we use for communications. Yet, people still carry around business cards, just like they did a century ago. A brief history of business cards points to their continuous role in crafting interpersonal relations. Nowadays, however, the issue is mixed. Some have declared business cards dead. Others hold them as very much still relevant. In fact, this issue is widespread.

And it’s not just business cards. To clarify, the traditional approach is starting to enjoy a comeback. Remember the neighborhood store? The one nearby, where they know you by name. Maybe even know you so well that they can fill up a bag of your favorites by the time you open your mouth. This is precisely what the traditional is all about. Offering a similar experience, only that online. Having people feel a certain way when interacting with your business. Customers prefer interacting with humans, not companies.

Besides, customer satisfaction should always be prioritized. In this day and age, customers have a wide array of choices. For any service, there is an alternative. And for any product, there’s competition. And even when you think you can spot apparent monopolies, guess again. Just look at the past few years and the CPU market, for example. For the better part of the decade, Intel was the go-to solution. Recently, AMD has stunned everyone by upping their game. In this particular instance, what you have is a feature-driven competition. On the other hand, there is customer satisfaction that you can’t buy. And that’s brand loyalty. But what speaks more to the matter is that getting personal gives you an edge.

Connect with customers with empathy

The ideal way to connect with customers is by being personal. About meeting their particulars with your particulars. And about being introduced to each other, much like the old tradition. By having each of you know whom you’re speaking to.

To communicate with customers, you need to be effective. As an effective communicator, you need to be clear, succinct and efficient. As a representative of your company, you need to be polite and cautious.

To connect with customers, however, you need empathy. Show you’re able to listen and understand. To listen not as much with an open mind as with an empty mind. Accommodating the communication and understanding the needs and wants of your interlocutor. However, it is not enough to have empathy, you need to show empathy. You need to make your customer feel comfortable and understood. Sometimes this might even mean that you need to redirect your customer to a teammate.

That’s a major issue when you try connect with customers. Imagine this scenario. Your customer is explaining and you are listening. You establish a great rapport. In fact, you are doing very well, only that now you just realized that what the customer wants is with another department.

Merely redirecting the conversation ruins everything. The client feels abandoned, frustrated. Why? Because the whole communication needs to take place again. Your only option would be to talk to a colleague from that department and explain things. You’d have to spent at least as much time explaining what it all is about.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could simply tell your customer: “Ah, I will talk with John from Rocket Engines on your behalf and fix this?” It would. If only there were such a nifty feature to allow you to forward the whole conversation to your co-workers.

Use smart tech for hassle-free communication

Customers are more likely to increase their loyalty to a brand that listens and acts on their feedback. So, you need to ensure you’re there every time they need you. You need to show up when business partners call out for help or advice. And listen to them whenever they need you to lend them an ear. For any company, that’s a considerable effort, because it means that your team should be available 24/7.

Fortunately, you can turn to instant communication technology for that. The latest instant communication platforms enable customers, partners and prospects to instantly reach your business while helping your team be there when they’re needed. Case in point – Page by Hubgets.

To begin with, Page by Hubgets is a web business card that allows customers, clients, partners, and anyone interested, to connect with you 24/7 via chat with file transfer, voice and video. Anywhere you are, anything you do, people will know that you will be getting their messages.

What Page by Hubgets represents is a new, secure instant way to initiate and maintain contact with customers. You don’t even need to exchange emails or a phone numbers. Just insert the URL of your Page in your email signature, on your website or social network profiles. Further this connection by adding your Twitter or LinkedIn accounts. You are effectively pulling in your own personality, putting it all in one place. To use Page by Hubgets, all your customers need is a browser. Free, snappy, ready to go. The interaction is hassle-free.

Best of all, you can share your communications with the whole team, effectively forwarding them messages from customers. This allows you to make well-informed decisions and react fast. At the same time, you’re naturally building a knowledge base for your department or team.

With Page or any other similar solution, you’re offering your customers a face that is open to conversations. And they can reach you directly. You, a person, not a company.