Customer interactions = an opportunity to increase retention and loyalty
So you’ve built an app. Now what?
Hopefully, your customers find it useful, entertaining or life changing.
Invariably, though, some of them will find that they have an opinion, question or suggestion that they’d like to share with you.
Your app customers have questions
When customers want to reach out and talk to you, many developers think instantly, “Oh, something is wrong, there must be a problem”. To the contrary, however, many of our developers find that giving customers the ability to provide feedback from within the app results in a surprising number of kudos, suggestions and positive engagements.
Even when the customer is reaching out to tell you about a problem, they’re giving you the chance to truly win their loyalty over the long run. Think about it, your customer can’t get something to work right and you come in to save the day with A+, stellar customer service, surprising and delighting them. How great is that?
Put a name to your app
Even more importantly, when your customers are hearing back from you, they’re associating a name and a person with your app – giving it an identity that is more tangible than just an app icon. That customer you emailed with who started referring to you by your first name? They’re most likely going to be coming back to your app now that they know you.
Creating a personal connection with a customer is one of the biggest reasons why companies who are excellent at customer service continue to make significant gains in customer satisfaction, loyalty and profits. Companies like Zappos and Nordstrom have perfected the art of making each and every customer feel a personal connection with the company by delivering happiness.
Creating connections and delivering great customer service are easier than ever before
So how do you integrate awesome customer service into your app? Here are a few simple principles for doing so:
- Provide a way to contact you in the app. With smartphones, an email address or telephone number should be interactive and launch the necessary tool when clicked. Make this available so customers don’t have to search for your contact info. Services like ours actually allow you to embed feedback forms into your apps giving customers a way to contact you directly so they don’t have to switch apps in order to get in touch with you.
- Make it social. Let your customers leave feedback on whatever social channels you maintain. Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc. If you are on it, integrate it.
- Chat it up. Email is great but some people feel that it takes too long to get a response. And seriously, nothing can turn a customer into a madman quicker than listening to Muzak versions of Nirvana while they are on hold. Chat, however, provides immediate satisfaction.
- The power of video. Go ahead make a tutorial. Incorporate that into your app and see all the happy users smile!
- Let people tell their story. Nothing sells better than positive reviews. Make it easy for your customers to tell others how easy it was for them to do this or that with your app or how well it worked for them. Not only will this help sales, but it will help existing customers feel like your stuff actually works.
Remember, feedback from your customers – both good and bad – can help make your app a smashing success. Make sure that before it gets into the hands of your customers you have given them some way to get their feedback to you directly!
