If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, you would have definitely experienced this before. You were building such great rapport with your customers and suddenly, they seem to disappear, ghosting you and leaving you utterly confused, wondering whether you have done anything wrong. Being ghosted definitely hurts but dealing with customer ghosters is actually commonly seen in businesses.
There could be several reasons that contribute to the customer ghosting such as it is the customer’s peak season, they are away on a long vacation, they are going through some organisational changes, they had a bad experience or they simply do not need your product and/ or service anymore.
What To Do When A Customer Ghosts You
When it comes to such situations, how you wish you had a magic wand like Harry Potter to wave and make everything all right again. But we all know it is not gonna happen so what can businesses do when customers ghost them?
Here are 3 best practices:
1. Provide incentive treats
If you are stuck in the status quo with your customer, it might be because they are not finding any value in speaking to you. In such cases, it is recommended to give them something tangible that would stir them to have a conversation with you.
Eg. Include relevant metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs) or trends in your email that recap the challenges they started out with and how far they have come today. Memes are a good way to illustrate this “How It Started vs How It Is Going” fact. Just a teaser will do so you can attract them into wanting to speak with you more.
2. Revisit their customer journey
It is a good practice to conduct regular reviews of your customer journey and when customers start ghosting, this is one of the core sources which you can go to for valuable insights. Has it been a while since they logged into your platform and do they have any unresolved tickets? Check for email bounces too because they might have moved on to a new company. Has anything changed in the ways they communicate with you which might have been overlooked?
You will be surprised that the little nuggets of information help provide more clarity on the whole picture. As Pooh Bear says, “Pay attention to the little things”. You might be able to identify specific pain points or an issue that you can help the customer with the new information you have. With this angle, you will be able to restart the conversation and revive the relationship, opening a new door of opportunity.
3. Remove the risk
Do you agree that in life, it is always good to have a back up plan or alternatives? This same principle applies to customers too. There are always customers who are at risk of churning or ghosting so it is critically important to have a plan in place for how to identify this segment of customers. When the ghosting starts, you can launch this plan.
The plan should include strategies like providing incentives for them to communicate with you to keep them as customers, announcing any new product launches or improvements you have available, offering informative materials or useful tools as well as providing them with cohesive communication.
Tips To Prevent Customer Ghosters
A relationship requires effort from both parties and businesses should do their part too. Usually, after the “initial passion” during onboarding and/ or implementation is over, we tend to leave customers in the cold for a while after stability until a need arises or the time for renewal of contract.
That’s a big no no because the lack of personal interaction or engagement would make customers feel less valued and them thinking that they do not need your product and/ or service anymore, pushing them into ghosting mode.
To prevent this from happening, here are 4 simple and effective tips to keep your customers connected with you.
1. Maintain regular communication
It is impossible to keep in touch with your customers manually and in the world of evolving consumerism today, digitalisation is crucial irregardless of your communication model.
Data has become the new foundation on how you can personalise your communication with customers and deliver the value they need to drive business growth. Automation of workflows is highly advisable so you can be alerted to any issues immediately in order to respond readily. These simple steps help your customers feel valued and supported.
Maintain regular communication easily by using specialised platforms that help keep customer conversations engaged and active. Platforms such as Rych can help any business stay in touch with their customers through its omnichannel capabilities, keeping conversations from different platforms into one which makes communication easier.
2. Stay aligned
It is imperative that you and your customers stay on the same page regarding their goals and ambitions so you can collaborate successfully and help them achieve their goals. One great way to ensure this is to conduct quarterly business reviews (QBR).
It also allows you to check whether their goals are still the same ones during the initial stage of onboarding and if not, you can note the new ones and come up with a plan to help them achieve these. Create a plan for the QBRs and stick to them by leveraging customer portals to maintain transparency and collaborative efficiency.
3. Monitor, monitor, monitor
Constant engagement with your customers is mandatory to prevent them from ghosting you so don’t neglect the fundamentals – your metrics. Monitoring user engagement metrics like product adoption rate, customer health score, customer sentiment indicator and support metrics are essential to understanding your customers and providing them with the best possible customer experience.
When these metrics are monitored on a regular basis, you can respond readily at the appropriate time. Action speaks louder than words and when your customers see that you can deliver beyond their expectations, the probability of churning and ghosting will be greatly reduced, leading to increased customer retention and satisfaction as well as better sales revenue.
4. Have multiple accessible points of contact
Customer retention is made easier when you have cordial relationships with multiple people at different levels of hierarchy at your customer’s company. Try to acquire points of contact with end users, middle management and executives so you always have a point of contact when an issue arises or if a contact leaves the company unexpectedly.
When you have established a cornerstone of relationships within the customer’s company, you will not lose the customer abruptly just because your previous point of contact left the company but rather, also have other people who can attest your service so you can enjoy continual business longevity with the customer.
In conclusion, digitalisation is critical to business success and having an omnichannel platform like Rych will help prevent customers from ghosting you. Conversations from multiple channels in a single overview creates a seamless experience for your customers, prompting speedy action from your team and making customer retention easier.
