Communication is often just thought of as providing warm and courteous service, but it’s more than that. It’s about knowing what information to convey to your customers and how to convey it to them in order to improve their overall customer experience.
Strong communication should help your customers see the value in what your business has to offer them with crystal clarity. It should also help them trust that your company will be true to its word and do as it says, which will facilitate loyalty to your brand. Tech companies often suffer from similar pitfalls in communication, so let’s take a look at some common issues for them.
1. You Focus is the Specs, Not the Benefits
If your customers aren’t from a technical background, don’t use a lot of technical jargon. Many tech professionals get so wrapped up in the language they use amongst each other on the job that they forget that the average person will struggle to follow them. This is why it’s better to communicate the benefits of your tech.
When communicating the benefits, think about how the product applies to your customers in their lives. How does it make their lives easier? How does it make their lives more fun? How does it help them be more efficient? How does it help them earn or save money? When you take the time to communicate in terms they understand and the value of your tech will resonate more deeply among your customers.
Also, this isn’t to say your team should never make the effort to use technical jargon, just to make sure that your customers are following you. If you’re unsure of what terms your customers recognize, survey them. If they don’t, try to slowly introduce your customers if you think it will improve their overall experience. Don’t forget to include explanations at crucial points, like installation guides and FAQs, where people are already seeking help and may get lost even further.
Introducing customers to technical jargon is something that Apple has done quite well. They slowly introduce their audience to new terms with examples or commercials, so that the term sticks in their customers’ minds and become part of their everyday speech instead of hitting them with a barrage of technical terms at once.
2. You Don’t Trust Their Intelligence
Many tech professionals also connect their customers’ lack of technical knowledge to an inability to understand the concepts entirely. Not knowing technical terms or how tech works doesn’t mean anything about a person’s intelligence, so don’t treat them that way. Instead, think of them as the student you were when you were just setting out. They’re only learning just like you did years ago.
Having the patience to teach your customers may end up being one of the best things you could do for your customers. When you trust them to pick up concepts and technical terms related to your industry, even if it’s slowly but surely, customers recognize that and they feel respected.
This wil also builds their trust and loyalty in your brand, as you’re expanding their knowledge and helps them get the most out of your products. Create content like blogs and videos to explain concepts and help increase your customers’ breadth of knowledge.
3. You Don’t Trust To Include Them in Strategy Changes
There are some tech companies that assume their customers don’t need to be informed of their changes in strategy. This leads to them suddenly spring changes on their customers, rather than announcing them in advance and preparing them, which can be one of the worst things to do.
Every company has failures or sees a sudden opportunity that causes them to veer off from their intended path, but that’s still no excuse for blindsiding your customers. They have plans, operations, and hopes for your products and services as well. Often times advance notice and an explanation of how the changes will benefit them in the long run can make all the difference. Trust that your customers will continue to see the value of your business and will remain loyal to your company.
Furthermore, your company should have already done thorough research to determine which customers would be likely to churn in the event of this change in strategy. If the change would bring in new customers, but cause you to lose many, would it be worth it in the long run?
Making a sudden change without fully vetting that it would be profitable has ended many companies. If customers would be fully against it, the only thing you’re doing by not telling them is delaying the inevitable and making them more angry and likely to voice their discontent in your future ventures.
4. You’re Lacking Internal Communication
Your company may be responding to customers in a timely manner, but the problem could lie in a lack of communication among your employees. If there is not enough communication among your employees to make sure they are all the same page, your customers may be receiving mixed messages, which will be very frustrating for them.
Imagine how much more disappointed a customer would be if they were told they could get their issue handled, only to be told later that this would be against company policy? Customers can only learn to trust the business that stands by its word. A key point in fostering customer loyalty and retaining customers is trusting that a business will do what it says it will.
Improving communication amongst your employees will also lead to increased efficiency and collaboration in general. Departments will become more aligned with other departments’ goals, practices, and challenges. For example, your marketing team should be working towards acquiring and retaining the customers necessary to meet sales goals, instead of scrambling together at the end of the year making sure the numbers match. It should always be a team effort.
When information sharing is an integrated as a part of your business model, your company will be more equipped to work together towards the final goal of the entire company’s success, instead of self-serving their own department and trying to work together in the end. Your customers and your employees will thank you.
