85% of consumers prefer to have text conversations with businesses rather than phone calls. Creating excellent customer interactions are not luck; they are all strategy. The best strategy any business can adopt is to interact with customers the way they want to be interacted with. 

Even though excellent customer service relies heavily on a business implementing a strong customer relationship with each and every customer who works with them. That being said, over 50% of small business owners say they have no customer engagement strategy in place. Loyal customers are the biggest advocates for businesses, and they are also the best financial asset to a business, so having a strategy in place to create strong relationships with customers is essential. 

If you’re in the beginning stages of creating a strategy for excellent customer interactions, here are some important things to consider:

• Keep your interactions creative. Consumers receive marketing messages all day long through emails, text messages, Tv commercials, social media ads, etc. To make your interactions stand out, they should be creative. Adopt a certain voice and brand and stick with it so your business remains recognizable. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com said it best, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” 
• Omni-channel communication is no longer a thing of the future; it’s the expectation today. Customers are all over the place online and in real life. Meeting customers where they are means that your business makes communication convenient and simple. This sounds like a lot of work for a business owner, but keeping all of those conversations in one place, and having the ability to respond right from there is now possible and is the best way to keep customers happy while never missing a message again!
• Text your customers. That’s right- consumers prefer text messages. Nobody wanted to talk on the phone even before the 2020 pandemic hit, and now that we’re accustomed to virtual everything, that’s even more true. Text your customers, let them text you and make your business stand out because of its accessibility and responsiveness. 

There is no such thing as luck when it comes to creating strong relationships with your customers. Making an effort to strategically create loyal relationships sets businesses apart from the competitors and allows your customers to feel valued by your business as more than just a number.  

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, subscribe to the FreshLime Newsletter here. Connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. And last of all, if any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!