Christmas is a time for connecting and if you’re a business or an owner, this is especially true for your customers.
We don’t mean to connect with to try and get as many sales before the end of the year. No, we mean showing your customers how much you value them and the relationship you share. Building and maintaining a relationship can lead to more business.
So, eCard Shack is here to help you engage your customers over Christmas, from communication to an improved customer experience. Whether you’re a supplier of products or services, we’ve picked out some tips to keep customers engaged over the holiday.
Read on to find out our top five tips for engaging your customers at Christmas…
Why is customer communication important?
You want to succeed and you want your customers to be successful too – if you’re a supplier to them – and the best way to do this is with communication.
When you know what is working for them, and they for you – you begin to understand each other. This can be learning about each other’s processes, team members, plans for Christmas, and whether a current plan of action is returning the desired results.
You can’t go through a relationship without communication in any environment, it won’t last. No communication is fraught with danger. Clients respond to the personal touch and reaching out for special occasions can have a huge impact. Plus, a good relationship with existing customers can lead to positive word of mouth among their industry.
Corporate Christmas Ecards & Messages
Corporate ecards are an extremely cost-effective and easy way to send festive wishes and appreciation to customers.
A positive relationship means a loyal customer. Clients respond more to the personal touch and reaching out to them can have a huge impact. Many businesses have their busiest time at Christmas and will appreciate a message of support. This is a great way to build a relationship, so clients will think of you for additional services.
This is an opportunity for you to really connect with your clients when you otherwise may not be able to. It all shows that you are invested in them, not only as a customer but as a person. Even if you are a retailer, you can send a generic eCard to email subscribers to wish them a happy festive period.
At eCard Shack, we have the perfect range of high quality, professional business ecards with classic designs, great animation and the best seasonal music. You’ll be amazed at how simple and fun it is to personalise your ecard just the way you want it so you can both delight recipients and build your brand.
Communication Plans
If supply services or business-focused products, you need to communicate a plan to customers about your festive operation.
This is all about avoiding a breakdown in communication, missed deadlines or delivery of services and products. Your customers need to be informed about everything you are doing, especially at Christmas. You may need to tell them about reduced hours, staff working from home, a festive shutdown or any possible delays to delivery of products and services.
A potential way to do this is to communicate directly with them but also have a notice on your website as a reminder. If you have weekly contact with customers and clients via email, you should remind them of this and how it may impact their operation. Then, you can address any worries or potential problems early on in the month.
If you show clients that you understand them and their needs at Christmas, you’ll be more successful over time. Great communication contributes to this and, if you can consistently show it, your reputation will grow and attract more business. Positive and efficient communication will give clear results and happier clients.
Customer Calls & Meetings
An important part of communication is holding regular calls and meetings with customers and clients, particularly at Christmas.
These calls can be about ensuring an action plan is all in place for your business and how it will impact your customers. It will keep them engaged with what you will be doing throughout the festive period. These are a great way of discussing plans, new business, rounding up customer needs or reacting to urgent situations.
Meetings and calls – particularly virtually – are useful if you know your client becomes extremely busy around this time of the year, preventing a physical meeting. You can connect from anywhere and even share documents at realtime, so they or you can see each other’s plans and feedback for a quick response.
A call can get everyone involved in the business-client relationship on the same page and understand what is needed from them.
Get into the Festive Spirit & Tap into Emotions
Festive spirit means getting in the mood and that includes how you engage with customers and their emotions.
If you sell products and have a helpline, adding seasonal music can do just that. Change the on-hold music on your telephone system to something that will bring a little seasonal cheer to customers. Obviously, be aware of your customers and your business so as not to choose inappropriate music for their experience.
Christmas also gives you the opportunity to tap into your customers’ emotions to encourage them to buy more and stay with you. Successful marketing communications always engage your customers’ emotions. Remember, customers are in a buying mood and actively want to be sold to. So, engage their sentiments with a marketing strategy across your products.
Get the Christmas customer experience right and you’ll add to the festivities that will extend into the new year.
Customers are for life, not just Christmas
It’s great to up your game at Christmas but you need to see that this isn’t just a one-off campaign in order to see long-term benefits.
You need to use Christmas as an opportunity to retain your customers and ensure they come back to you consistently. That means prioritising retention strategies rather than focusing on acquisition of customers. This means making your customers feel valued through personalisation to keep them coming back time and time again.
Use personalised email contact, chatbots and social media responses based from purchasing and interactions customers have already had with you. This would also include contacting them at the correct time, for example to remind them about the product they’ve been looking at or to tell them that stock is running low.
eCard Shack is here to help your business with our selection of high-quality ecards – you can quickly create your own design using our eCard design tool with a choice of designs and personalisation available, choose from our range of Premium eCards or get your bespoke Christmas business eCard designed from scratch for your business which will be unlike any other.
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