Do's & Don'ts for the Proper Handling of Customers

1. Why is the correct handling of customers crucial for your company?
2. Basic rules of customer communication
3. Now that we've looked at some basics in customer communication, let's dive into the
4. You buy a tool or become a customer somewhere and suddenly you're getting emails all the time. Emails that you're not interested in. They don't fit your use case and they don't provide real value. Especially with existing customers, you should be
5. helps you manage customer data and relationships. It's a powerful tool for businesses looking to improve their handling of customers. By using a CRM system, you can manage customer data
6. Fazit

Did you know that acquiring new customers only accounts for 10% of the total B2B customer journey? And yet, everyone concentrates on sales and the closing deal.

Companies can sell the most innovative services – if the customer management isn't right, it will be difficult to grow. Especially due to rising customer acquisition costs it’s becoming harder and harder to be profitable. This is where the correct handling of customers comes into play. With certain tactics you can turn your customers into satisfied, recurring buyers.

Only in this way can you prevent the worst case:customers who drop off after just a few weeks or months. To prevent this from happening to you, today we will look at the dos and don'ts of dealing with existing customers.

Why is the correct handling of customers crucial for your company?

High customer acquisition costs and a low lifetime value pose a major challenge for companies: they struggle with profitability.

Customer acquisition costs are often largely determined by outside factors, such as advertising costs on Facebook or LinkedIn. However, the amount of lifetime value of a customer is 100% dependent on you and your company. If you lose customers that you have acquired at great expense, it can be fatal for your profitability. But you can do something about this.

With strong customer communication and excellent support, you can significantly increase the lifetime value of a customer and also maximize your sales per customer.

Basic rules of customer communication

Before we tackle the dos and don'ts, let's take another look at the basic rules of customer communication.

Customer needs are paramount

The needs of the customer always come first. This is why you must build your communication strategy around it.

Ask yourself questions like:

• How do my customers want to reach me?
• When and where do my customers need help?
• How can I make process XY as smooth as possible for my customers?
• Where can self-service improve the customer experience?
• Where do the most challenges arise for my customers?

Crystal clear communication

Try not to throw around too many technical terms. Sometimes, jargon is definitely appropriate and useful, but often it leads to one thing: customers end up confused. They might even feel stupid and don't end up asking the right questions. Always try to make your communicationsimple and clear.Remember:

If you can explain complex topics in easy terms, you really understand them. Try explaining the topics to a family member - if they understand it, so will your customers.Tone makes the music

Customers want to be treated respectfully and politely. It is therefore extremely important to remain calm even in tense situations and not to lose your composure.

Avoid treating your customers condescendingly, even if you have much more knowledge in your field of expertise. Never assume the same level of knowledge. Be empathetic and pay attention to the statements between the lines.

Honesty & Trust

The principle "What you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) has become very important nowadays. If customers feel that unwanted surprises await them or that communication was not transparent, this can quickly lead to negative reviews.

A trusting relationship between you and your customers is therefore essential. You must earn this trust, and you can do this by being

honest and openand meeting the expectations of your customers.Everyone can make a mistake, so don't try to hide anything. It won't end well.

Quick reaction

More than ever, customers expect direct support and answers to their questions. Therefore, you must create processes and systems that enable exactly this. If answering a request takes a bit longer, communicate this openly before the customers have to approach you again.

Proactivity

If you already know, for example, that customers often have difficulties with a topic, then proactively offer a conversation or relevant support articles.

Just the same with problems. Let's say you have a marketing agency and your campaigns aren't going as planned. Tell it to the customers openly and transparently before they have to confront you. Open and transparent communication is the foundation for constructive exchange and optimization.

5 Dos when dealing properly with customers

Now that we've looked at some basics in customer communication, let's dive into the

Top 5Dos and Don’ts. Different communication channels

A complicated route with countless clicks to the support area can be annoying. If then a poorly programmed chatbot starts to respond and does not provide any help, it's very frustrating.

Often, customers simply want personal contact and to be able to ask their questions directly. Depending on the complexity of the problem, this is more than understandable.

Therefore, try to provide your customers with different ways to contact you.

1. Here are a few ideas:Email, telephone, WhatsApp, chat window, social media.
   
   If you think about it from the outset, you can combine different channels well. This saves you time, makes you efficient and lets you provide perfect support to your customers.
   Professional communication
   
   You are the expert in your craft. This should also be the case in communication and your behavior towards customers. Professionalism also means mastering grammar and spelling. You should avoid incorrect formulations and be able to express yourself clearly.
   
   It is also a sign of professionalism to treat customers courteously and to draw attention to problems or challenges in good time.
   
   Professionalism in working with customers also means not being guided by emotions. You should communicate clearly what the next steps are, and then be able to stick to these. In this way, customers feel supported by a structured plan and are not overwhelmed by your new ideas.
   
2. Segmentation
   
   Nobody can help everyone. Therefore, you must be able to segment and cluster your customers.
   
   Even from a profitability perspective, you tend to know who your A, B, and C customers are. This means: Who brings
3. good saleswith relativelylittle effortand stays with you for a long time? Who costs you a lot of time and money, only to be unsatisfied in the end? You should focus on the profitable customer groups already in the marketing phase. Account-Based Marketing is a way to do this. Customers should be grouped according to specific criteria such as buying behavior, demographic characteristics, or interests. You should also generate insights from metrics such as employee counts and sales of your customers. The better the segmentation, the higher the level of personalization you can achieve on a large scale.
   
   With this, you can say and deliver the right things to your customers from the first point of contact. Likewise, you can optimally support your customers later in the journey - you know what challenges they have and what helps them. This increases customer satisfaction and thus your sales.
   Onboarding/Customer Success
   
   Many startups constantly optimize their sales processes. By doing this, they are focusing on just 10% of their customer journey. Of course, this generatesNew BusinessBut with high customer acquisition costs, it doesn’t really help if customers are not properly monetized after closing.
   
   Therefore, it is essential to understand exactly what and above all why it happens after closing. If customers are dropped like a hot potato after closing, they will have a bad experience in the early days and weeks.
   
   Onboarding aims to familiarize customers with all facets right from the start. Any questions and
4. uncertainties should be clarified and customers should feel that all necessary information has been provided to them. Webinars and sessions with multiple customers at once work well here.Customer Successrefers to the strategic support of customers to ensure that they work successfully with the products. It is important to build a close relationship with the customers and to respond to their individual needs.
   
   In this way, the two disciplines ensure sustainable activation and use of the products, while building a close relationship with the customers.
   Structured customer relationship building
   
   Customers should not be seen as one-time buyers and closing should not be seen as the "end". In reality, closing is just the beginning of the relationship. That's exactly how you should structure your customer journey. In fact, your customer journey can become its own flywheel.
   
   Personally, I like the HubSpot Flywheel a lot, it is comprised of
5. 3 areas.
   
   

1. Attract: Here we're talking about marketing and sales. Potential customers are addressed and made aware of the solution with the goal of generating qualified leads.

2. Engage: Here we're talking about sales and onboarding. Leads become customers and need to be fully acquainted with the product.

3. Delight: Here we're talking about support and customer success. The customers are made happy and can achieve their goals thanks to your solution. Customers become promoters. Promoters are people who are big fans of your solution and love to recommend it.


5 Don’ts in dealing with customersIn addition to the dos, there are also don’ts in handling customers. Below I'll show you five important points that should be avoided.
Too much marketing

You have the customers, their contact data, and probably also the double opt-in. And now? Sell at all costs? Not a chance!

You know it probably yourself:

You buy a tool or become a customer somewhere and suddenly you're getting emails all the time. Emails that you're not interested in. They don't fit your use case and they don't provide real value. Especially with existing customers, you should be

especially careful

1. not to chase them away. Instead think of content that genuinely helps.
   Inaccessibility and too much self-service
   
   Self-service is a good way to save time when handling customer issues. Too much of a good thing can quickly become a problem, though.
   
   Especially in B2B, customers should have a simple way to contact you and ask you questions. If the help center doesn't provide the right answer and no contact can be found, it can be very frustrating. Here specifically consider the topic of customer satisfaction. Depending on ticket size, it can make sense to assign your customers a personal account manager.
   
   Thus, you ensure that problems are solved quickly, and customers remain customers for a long time.
   Lack of transparency
   
   Lack of transparency is a breeding ground for mistrust.
   
   You know before the deal that the cost will be significantly higher to have a truly successful project? You must share this with the customers. Something went wrong somewhere and a project is not going as planned? Silence is not the answer here. Tell the customers what's going on and work together on a constructive solution.
   Ignoring Complaints
2. 
   
   You must take complaints from your customers seriously and handle them correctly. Enter into open dialogue and find out where the problem is and how you can solve it.
   
   Dealing with difficult customers and many complaints is not always easy. Therefore, it is important to properly train your service team and use the right software for it.
   Lack of professionalism
3. 
   
   Another "Don't" in dealing with customers is insufficient training of employees, which can endanger the company's reputation and annoy customers.
   
   To ensure that employees are appropriately trained, it is advisable to offer regular training and development opportunities. A good training should not only provide them with the necessary knowledge, but also practical exercises and examples of how to apply this knowledge.Which tools can assist you in properly dealing with customers?
4. The right tools will help you improve your dealings with your customers. Here are some tools that can help you:CRM systems
5. 
   
   A customer relationship management (CRM) system like theHubSpot CRM

helps you manage customer data and relationships. It's a powerful tool for businesses looking to improve their handling of customers. By using a CRM system, you can manage customer data

centrally

1. and always have an overview of the state of the customer relationship. You can store not only contact information and communication histories, but also create customer surveys and conduct feedback surveys. Thanks to the data analysis features, you can better segment your customers and launch personalized marketing campaigns.
   Chatbots
   
   Chatbots help you to automatically answer customer inquiries. They are particularly useful when you receive many customer inquiries and don't have enough employees available to quickly process inquiries. By using chatbots, you can improve yourcustomer serviceand increase customer satisfaction.
   
   You can, for example, set up a chatbot like or that serves your customers in real-time, automatically answers frequently asked questions, or forwards customer inquiries to the respective employees.
   
2. Social Media Management Tools
   
   Social media management tools like Hootsuitecan help you manage and monitor your social media channels. They can help you better adapt your social media content to the needs of your customers. Plus, you can produce and schedule content in advance, which gives you more structure with the right content plan.
   Email Marketing Tools
   
   Superchat
   
   With email marketing tools like ManyChatActiveCampaign
3. you can plan, create, and send email campaigns. With these tools, you can send personalized emails to your customers and measure the success of your email campaigns. For example, you can set up automated emails that are sent to specific customer groups when they take a certain action, such as purchasing a product. The special thing: Most of these tools can be easily integrated with CRM software. So, you can often save a lot of money at the CRM provider.
   Feedback Tools
   
   
4. Feedback tools can help you collect and analyze the feedback of your customers. You can, for example, create surveys and send them to your customers or collect customer feedback on your website. By using feedback tools, you can measure customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.
   With the collected information you can improve your customer communication and optimize your dealings with your customers. However, it is important to choose your tools carefully and make sure they fit your business and customers.ConclusionThe right way to deal with customers is essential for the success of a company. Winning new customers is just a tiny part of the customer journey. Building a sustainable customer relationship is much more important for your company.To achieve this, companies should adhere to basic rules in dealing with customers. These include the use of various communication channels, the

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   segmentation of customers
5. , optimizing onboarding and customer success, and transparent communication.In addition, tools such as customer relationship management software (CRM) or chatbots can support correct customer interaction.Overall, professional dealing with customers will contribute to increasing loyalty and sales in the long term. It's worthwhile investing in optimizing customer communication and customer service. Feedback deiner Kund*innen zu sammeln und zu analysieren. Du kannst beispielsweise Umfragen erstellen und an deine Kund*innen senden oder Kundenfeedback auf deiner Website sammeln. Durch die Verwendung von Feedback-Tools kannst du die Kundenzufriedenheit messen und Verbesserungspotenziale identifizieren.
   ⁠⁠Mit den gesammelten Informationen kannst du deine Kundenkommunikation verbessern und den Umgang mit deinen Kund*innen optimieren. Wichtig ist jedoch, dass du die Tools sorgfältig auswählst und darauf achtest, dass sie zu deinem Unternehmen und deinen Kund*innen passen. 

Fazit

Ein richtiger Umgang mit Kund*innen ist von entscheidender Bedeutung für den Erfolg eines Unternehmens. Die Gewinnung neuer Kund*innen ist nur ein winziger Teil der Kundenreise. Der Aufbau einer nachhaltigen Kundenbeziehung ist viel wichtiger für dein Unternehmen. 

Um dies zu erreichen, sollten Unternehmen grundlegende Regeln im Umgang mit Kund*innen beachten. Darunter die Nutzung verschiedener Kommunikationskanäle, die Segmentierung von Kund*innen, die Optimierung des Onboardings und des Customer Success sowie transparente Kommunikation.

Zusätzlich können Tools wie Customer-Relationship-Management-Software (CRM) oder Chatbots dazu beitragen, den richtigen Umgang mit Kund*innen zu unterstützen.

Insgesamt wird ein professioneller Umgang mit Kund*innen langfristig dazu beitragen, die Loyalität und den Umsatz zu steigern. Es lohnt sich also, in die Optimierung der Kundenkommunikation und des Kundenservice zu investieren.