How a virtual customer service assistant can help you create and nurture relationships

An ongoing challenge for many businesses, especially for smaller, leaner organizations is to create a connection beyond the transactional nature of the customer-business dynamic.

Smaller, leaner organizations lack the resources needed to follow-up and communicate with their clients in a timely manner because they just don’t have enough hands to tackle everything. Building a meaningful connection with their  customer base seems almost impossible.

What’s more,  businesses need to be prepared to communicate with customers across a wide variety of channels on a timely basis, since different customers have different preferences for the communication channels they prefer to use.

This presents a challenge, as expectations have evolved:

• Customers always want and expect the highest quality of service.
• Inconveniences that would otherwise be seen as small can trigger bad customer reviews and hurt your reputation.
• Complaints that were once sent as angry letters are now posted as public reviews and social media comments for everyone to see.

With online reviews now the go-to barometer of business reputation and reliability, how can lean organizations tackle these challenges? Our top three suggestions:

• Build relationships by engaging with your customer base regularly through multiple channels
• Ask for feedback, and act on it
• Get a part-time or full-time virtual customer service assistant to focus on customer outreach and responses

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Make a connection with your prospects and customers

Customers who feel a strong connection with your business are likely to be more forgiving when something goes wrong, and less likely to leave bad reviews.

Social media makes it easier than ever to build & nurture personal connections. A good way is to look up your best prospects and clients on social media and engage with them: start a conversation or congratulate them on their personal achievements. Just a short message can become the seed that will plant a long-lasting relationship!

You’ll also get additional information on the client’s background:

• Where they live,
• Their area of work,
• Their hobbies,
• Favourite movies, sports, and so much more!

This will help you make a personal connection with your customers beyond the service you offer.

Ask for feedback

Once you have developed a client-customer relationship, make sure you ask for feedback. This will help you improve your client experience, and your customer will appreciate your interest in what they think of your service.

What can you outsource to a virtual customer service assistant

Connecting with customers during irregular hours and engaging with them is exactly the kind of task small businesses should consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant with a background in customer service. Whether it’s answering emails, sending social media direct messages or meeting requests, a virtual assistant can keep your customer service machine running, even while you’re offline.

A virtual assistant will also help you save money vs hiring new full-time staff. You don’t have to spend on office space, additional taxes, maintenance costs, employee benefits, etc. Virtual Gurus can match you with a virtual assistant who is skilled in customer service to fill the gaps in your team’s schedule.

To make sure that your virtual assistant is well-equipped to handle incoming inquiries, make sure to provide them with the necessary tools so they can provide a successful experience:

• Let your virtual customer service assistant know the type of language that your company adopts so engagement is in line with your brand persona.
• Prepare a list of “canned answers” or examples your assistant can use for different types of inquiries and which team member or department they will need to reach out in case your virtual assistant needs additional information.
• If you or members of your team are going to be out of the office, make sure your virtual customer service assistant knows about your team’s schedule so they can let the client know when to expect an answer.

Let us help you achieve the growth your business is looking for while you continue to engage and impress current and potential customers.

If you’re looking for more ways in which a virtual assistant can help your business, check out five of them here. If you’re ready to find your match, book a call with us.