Remote work has become an inextricable part of the business sector nowadays, and if you want to survive and even thrive in the new normal, you need to embrace the remote work culture. Even if you did not have a pandemic to force your employees to work from home, you should still recognize the benefits that remote work can bring to your company – provided that you make the transition to remote work the right way. Now, even though remote work does bring some pretty sweet perks to your business, like financial savings, it’s important to note that it also creates a few distinct challenges.

One of these is the challenge of maintaining effective communication with your customers now that your employees are working remotely and are not engaging with customers from a centralized location. After all, a big part of improving customer experience used to be working with your colleagues to find the best approach. Don’t worry, we have a few tips here that will allow you to enhance your communication with customers and take your business forward in the new normal. Here’s what you should know.

Focus on team well-being and happiness

It might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but if you think about it, you can’t expect your employees to maintain a stellar communication with customers and online audiences if they’re stressed, anxious, or generally unhappy. Now that everyone is working remotely, you’re not able to monitor them in the workplace, which means that you can’t gauge their well-being and happiness as easily, nor can you just stop by for a quick chat to see how they’re doing.

This is why one of your priorities should be to communicate with your employees on a regular basis about their needs and state of mind, making the focus of your communication their well-being instead of just work. You can also schedule frequent one-on-one calls to check how the individual is doing, if there is a way you can help to make them feel and perform better, and what they need to be as productive as possible.

Image 1, Source

Always be looking for customer feedback

If you are to communicate with customers in a productive and engaging way, you need to know what they’re thinking and pick their brains for some useful information. And you can rest assured that your customers hold the important insights for your business. To connect with your customers in a meaningful way and boost brand loyalty, it’s important that you gather customer feedback and act on that data as quickly as possible.

In the new normal, you have a very narrow window of opportunity to connect with your online audiences, so feedback is essential in giving the customers what they want. You can send out surveys, ask customers to rate their experience, and incentivize them to give you their honest opinions by attaching a small thank-you present to every questionnaire you send out.

Talk to the customers on their terms

The modern customers want to communicate with their favorite brands on their terms, which usually means that they’re not too keen on waiting for someone to reply to their email. Most of the time, they can’t even be bothered to write a message, and instead they want your support team to communicate with them in other, more immediate, ways. To create an omni-channel communication system, you need a VoIP plan that has all the necessary features.

Voice over internet protocol allows you not only to make phone calls over the internet, but also to communicate with customers via video, text, and more. When looking for the best VoIP phone system for your business, you should look for advanced features like CRM integration, that allows you to gain valuable insights from every interaction with your customers and have a centralized database that your remote workers can easily access. VoIP prevents you from missing a single phone call or losing a single customer because you weren’t there to reply to their text or jump on a video call.

Image 2, Source

Tailor your messaging to current events

When talking to your customers and online audiences, you can’t allow your brand to seem like it’s not keeping up with current events, or worse, that it doesn’t care. You need to acknowledge the COVID pandemic, the local problems or pertinent news in your area, and speak to your customers in a tone that is relevant.

For example, adapting your messages to the COVID crisis will show your customers that you are taking the pandemic into account and are doing your best to provide a service that helps keep people safe. Be sure to promote social distancing and proper hygiene and allow your customers to order and receive products without coming into direct contact with your staff. After all, your priority should be to keep your customers happy at all times.

Host online events like Q&As

Last but not least, strive to become a valuable figure in the online community. Host regular live events to open yet another communication channel with your customers, and consider organizing live Q&As to incentivize the online audience to ask you anything they want and engage with your brand. This will build brand visibility and awareness, and build qualified leads while guiding customers to your site and support staff.

Wrapping up

Remote work has created some unique challenges for many brands around the world, one of which is the problem of maintaining communicating with customers. That said, you should have no problem improving customer communication and ensuring long-term growth in the new normal if you stick to these important tips.

Read More: Get Better at Communicating With Your Customer Base