Your sales team’s job is to sell your products or services, right? Ultimately yes, but that overlooks the most important layer in this process: relationship building.
Sure, in the short term, a well-crafted hard sell can score fleeting transactions with passing shoppers. But there’s no sustainability to be found here. A strict sales-focused approach leaves customers feeling cold, greatly reducing the likelihood they will make repeat purchases.
A customer-centric approach places a premium on building relationships, encouraging healthy interaction at all touchpoints and giving people value without expecting anything in return. It’s how your brand can inspire lasting customer loyalty, build brand equity and grow your market share across your target audiences.
Fundamentally, customer relationships are the cornerstone of long-term customer value. Here, we’ll explain why this should always take priority over your sales goals, and share our winning strategies to achieve lasting sales success through relationships.
What makes a strong customer relationship?
Customer relationships are the points of interaction between your brand and your customers. Sometimes referred to as relationship selling, it’s how you engage with your audience and foster a true connection between them and your organisation – one that goes beyond a mere transactional formality.
Great customer relationships pave the way for consistent revenue, stable growth and positive word of mouth, particularly in times of market turbulence. But with buyer expectations higher than ever before, what separates a strong customer relationship from those unable to pull their weight?
Well, think of this like you would your connection with friends and family. In a strong relationship, you would have little doubt the other person genuinely cared about you:
- They want what was best for you
- They listen to your needs and goals
- They are interested in your interests
- They are trustworthy, dependable and consistent
- They make you feel safe and looked after
A strong customer relationship is no different. It’s authentic brand communication with no ulterior motive other than to help someone and make them feel better.
Simply put, high-quality customer relationships are the difference between temporary, unsustainable sales patterns, and having access to a reliable, engaged pool of customers who put your brand on a pedestal.
Is relationship building only relevant for B2C businesses?
Absolutely not. While relationship building is more apparent for B2C businesses that communicate with countless customers on a broad scale, B2B businesses must also take strides to build meaningful connections.
For these organisations, the emphasis of relationship-building is on trust, reliability and partnerships. It typically centres around fostering a deep understanding of a client’s business needs and goals, and nurturing this over time through bespoke solutions and collaboration.
The importance of positive customer experiences on the path to long-term sales
Customer relationships are vital to sustainable success, but just how important are they? Here are just some of the significant benefits positive customer experiences can unlock for your brand.
Greater customer loyalty
The better your relationship with your customers, the more likely they will turn to your brand for information, support and products than anyone else in your industry. According to research by Qualtrics, happy, loyal customers spend over twice as much with a company than dissatisfied consumers.
Strong loyalty doesn’t only extend to sales. Dedicated customers are far more likely to share your content with others and stick around in times of economic hardship or PR crises.
Increased customer lifetime value (CLV)
Your customer’s lifetime value is the total worth of a buyer to your business throughout your relationship with them. Providing consistently positive experiences keeps shoppers around for longer, making them far more valuable to your long-term revenue than short-term, fleeting transactions.
Plus, loyal, engaged customers are often willing to spend more on your products and services than others would.
Improved customer retention
Did you know that acquiring a new customer can be up to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one? In the pursuit of sustainable sales and marketing strategies, retention beats acquisition every time, which is why quality communication with your existing followers is so vital.
Furthermore, studies have shown that increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by as much as 95%.
Elevated brand awareness
When people enjoy interacting with your organisation, they are inclined to tell others about it. In fact, 72% of customers say they will happily share good experiences with people in their inner circle.
This first-hand word of mouth is infinitely more powerful with modern customers than what your brand can say alone. With savvy shoppers keen to read reviews before committing to purchases, a strong relationship with someone can encourage them to advocate for you, creating brand awareness.
Enhanced data gathering
Customer insights are the bedrock of effective, data-driven marketing. However, today’s buyers are understandably wary about sharing their data freely – they must trust a brand to reveal this information; trust that is fostered in positive, fruitful relationships.
Keep in mind that 56% of customers don’t mind sharing their personal information in exchange for better customer service. The more you value your relationships, the more data you can gather – and the more you can adapt your marketing strategy to tangible trends.
Supports strong brand equity
Finally, quality customer relationships are key components of brand equity building. Maintaining positive communication with your audiences boosts your brand perception, awareness and identity with your target audience. This in turn strengthens your brand equity – the value your brand adds to your products and services.
The stronger your brand equity, the greater the chance you’ll be viewed as a thought leader in your industry, and the more you can feasibly increase the price for your offerings.
7 relationship-building strategies to drive your sales forward
1. Regularly encourage customer feedback
A relationship is a two-way street – you should want to know what your customers think about your brand, positive or negative. To encourage customer feedback, set up and signpost avenues your audiences can use to leave feedback about your brand, including:
- Website contact forms
- Social media comments
- Messaging apps
- Customer surveys
- Chatbots
- SMS and text messaging
- Customer support portals and forums
- Review site profiles
Providing a wide range of communication options and responding quickly to messages shows customers you care about their opinions. It demonstrates their thoughts are valued and shape the direction of your brand, which increases their commitment to your growth.
What about negative feedback? Always address, never ignore. While no one likes to receive a bad review, responding to these compassionately and with practical solutions can noticeably raise your reputation across your customer base.
2. Introduce social listening tools
Not everyone will provide direct feedback on your organisation – many will just passively mention their experiences online. Investing in social listening tools can help you stay on top of the sentiment surrounding your brand, so you can adjust your approach accordingly.
Good examples of social listening tools to look into include:
Applying the right tools and completing active monitoring can help you proactively jump on any issues before you’re confronted directly. This illustrates to customers you’re willing to change to benefit their experience, and is a crucial building block of any strong relationship.
3. Prioritise personalisation in your content
People want to feel like people when they interact with your brand, not customers. Personalising your brand marketing makes their experiences with you feel more unique and exclusive – like they’re speaking to another person rather than a faceless entity.
From tailoring the email offers you send to customers around their distinct buying habits, to dynamic headers on bespoke landing pages. Crafting content around individual buyers or local audiences helps people feel emotionally connected to your organisation.
Unsure how to adapt content for specific audiences within time and budget restrictions? Using branded design templates can save precious time and money, providing a foundation for your assets to be tailored in minutes. This enables you to produce personalised, localised content for a fraction of what it would cost to produce each piece from scratch.
4. Reward customer loyalty
Fostering long-term customer relationships and loyalty means incentivising your more ardent brand advocates to stick around. As we mentioned, a relationship is a two-way street, and customers want to feel like they’re getting as much out of it as your brand does.
Introducing customer loyalty programs, akin to the renowned Starbucks Rewards or Hotels.com’s points-based system, helps ensure your audiences feel they’re getting real value from their relationship with you.
Remember – loyalty program members generate up to 18% more incremental revenue growth per year for a business than non-members.
5. Provide accessible, insightful content
Beyond loyalty programs, it’s vital you are frequently supplying your audiences with free, useful insights and information they can apply in their lives. This keeps people returning to your brand in the long term – by making a positive difference for them without expecting anything in return.
There are many ways you can share valuable tips with your followers:
- Write blog posts, guides and booklets
- Create regular webinars and livestreams
- Produce instructive videos and social media posts
- Host live demonstrations
- Provide personal shopping experiences
Sharing your own style of compelling content makes you a thought leader in your market, signifying trust and transparency in your business and setting you apart from your competitors.
6. Invest in customer-centric software
Technology is a crucial ally in your battle to build better customer relationships. And no solution is more important to this approach than a solid CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software able to oversee your communications with current and potential customers.
When searching for the right CRM for your needs, make sure you get the following questions answered:
- How much time will this save our sales and customer service professionals?
- How easy is the system to use day-to-day?
- Will the software integrate with our existing marketing tools?
- Does it collect data accurately and securely?
- Does it include effective automation features?
But better customer relationships don’t just begin and end with your CRM. A brand management platform is also essential to ensure that your communications across all marketing channels are brand-consistent and quick to produce.
With modern customers demanding fast responses and frequent, high-quality content, successful brand management empowers your teams to proactively create assets and bring communications in line with your overarching guidelines.
7. Establish metrics based on customer relationships
Finally, in the same way you would measure your sales team on leads generated, conversion rates and ROI, you must establish clear metrics to measure the success of your relationship-building efforts.
This gives your teams a standard to live up to, and helps ensure that they put as much effort and focus into building customer relationships as they do on securing sales for your business. Some useful metrics to use include:
Building positive brand equity with strong customer relationships
Successful relationships are the lifeblood of modern companies – and we hope this article has reinforced this for you.
While sales, profit and revenue will always underpin your brand’s performance, sustainable returns are only achievable if you devote time and effort to your customers’ experiences. Yes, it’s a long game, but it’s what builds, maintains and restores people’s love for your organisation, turning fleeting interactions into lifelong supporters.
Your customer brand equity hinges on the loyalty, perception and affection of your consumers. By showing them respect through your interactions and providing authentic value without any expectation of a sale, you can build a firm foundation for ongoing success.
Interested in learning more about brand equity models and becoming the brand of choice for your audiences worldwide? Check out our 4 steps to building brand equity.