Communicating effectively is a key that opens many doors, and it’s even more important in a professional setting. To grow the relationship with your customers, both potential and most loyal, you cannot ignore effective, clear and transparent communication.

Communicating clearly, however, is a talent to cultivate because not all people are born with great speaking skills, and that’s okay. Each person is different and unique in their own way, and this implies that the forms of communication are also varied and multifaceted.

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What we at Jopla want to help you do is consider effective communication as an essential tool in your toolbox, to always carry with you. In this article you will discover that to communicate effectively you don’t necessarily have to follow specific courses or read specialised manuals: you can start with some basic rules.

What are the strategies for communicating effectively with your customers? How to avoid misunderstandings? How to enhance your services in the most transparent way possible?

Read on and you’ll find the answers.

Communicating well with customers: where to start

Happy and satisfied customers are the most important people for your business: they promote it, recommend it to others, talk about it on social media. But they are also the most forgiving people when things don’t go as planned (and it can happen, perfection doesn’t exist!).

If you feel that communication with clients is not one of your best skills, start with these 5 rules of effective communication: with practice, you will feel less fatigue and you will create healthier and longer lasting professional relationships.

1. Listen to your customers

There is no communication without listening, but active listening must also be practiced and is not always taken for granted. When meeting new potential customers, take the time to understand who they are, what they need, why they’ve been looking for you.

Focus on their words and don’t be afraid to ask questions if something isn’t clear to you – you can also take notes to read the key points of your conversation later.

This advice also applies to relationships with established customers: keep listening to the people who have worked with you for the longest time, never take them for granted!

2. Use clear language

Every profession has its own technical jargon, but technicalities must not become an obstacle. People are intimidated by complicated words or words whose meaning they do not understand: if you want to build a relationship of trust with your customers you cannot afford to raise barriers.

If you work in a very specialised field, use complex tools, deal with difficult topics, knowing how to communicate clearly what you do and how you do it is vital. So try to explain to your clients the meaning of the more technical terms, use everyday examples, or use diagrams and illustrations to explain the more technical aspects of your work.

A client who understands the fundamentals of your business will be much more inclined to trust you.

3. Call, write, speak up

To maintain healthy communication with your customers, you need to be there. This does not mean just responding when they call me or file a complaint (we’ll talk about that in a bit).

Depending on your business and your target audience, you can think of different ways to keep active communication with your present and future customers:

Whatever means of communication you choose, remember that it is important to give people the opportunity to contact you and establish a conversation with you both in the pre-sales and after-sales phases.

4. Deal with conflicts now

Even in the best of professional relationships, there can be moments of discontent. This is normal: having customers also means receiving a complaint about one of your products or services from time to time. We are used to considering complaints as a bad thing, but if handled correctly, even a bad episode can turn into an opportunity for growth.

For this to be the case, however, it is important to deal with conflicts with timing, calm and a bit of strategy .

In particular, focus on these aspects:

  • listen actively, to reassure and guarantee the customer that you want to solve the problem in the best possible way;
  • ask for details (documents, receipts, emails) to understand what went wrong and at what stage of the sales process;
  • make sure you know all the obligations and regulations that apply to your business (e.g. returns, refunds, etc.);
  • try to give the customer an idea of ​​the resolution times or send periodic updates to communicate your presence and attention to the case;
  • keep the communication active even after the problem is solved: it makes you more reliable in people’s eyes but it helps you to understand if you are handling even the most complicated cases well.

5. Ask for feedback

We also saw it in point 1: communication is a two-way activity, speaking alone is not valid!

Learning to communicate effectively also means making yourself available to customers and listening to their opinions.

Asking for direct feedback on your services or products helps you understand your customers better and think of new ways to keep them happy. There are many ways to do this, but a lot depends on your industry and your type of business.

Here are some ideas for ways to ask your customers for feedback:

  • text messages or emails intended for those who have already bought your service;
  • a survey to be sent via email or to be launched via your social channels;
  • a form feedback in a prominent area of ​​your website or app;
  • a phone call to ask specific questions about a product or service being sold.

Whichever tool you choose, remember that it’s important to give the client the space (or time) to answer, so ask open questions that leave people free to express themselves. Once you have collected the opinions of your customers, don’t let them get dust and use them now to improve!

In conclusion

There are hundreds of books and courses to learn how to communicate effectively with customers, but it’s not mandatory to start there. Healthy communication with the people who buy (or might buy) your services starts with five simple ingredients you can start using today:

  1. active listening;
  2. clear language;
  3. constant presence;
  4. conflict resolution;
  5. request for feedback .

If you want to put into practice what you have learned with this article, create an account in Jopla and quickly find new customers in your area!