Tips on Improving Your Company's Communications with Customers

These days, it’s not enough to sell your product or services to customers. That’s important, of course, but so is how well your company communicates with your target audience—and prospective customers—on an ongoing basis. Should your communications approach fall short, or otherwise confuse customers, you’re at risk for losing them to a competitor.

By contrast, effective customer communications yield a wide range of benefits:

• Enhanced consumer loyalty
• Deeper grasp of customer needs and preferences
• Strengthening “customer-centric” branding

“Make your customers happy and word will spread,” notes Zendesk. Here are tips on enhancing your communications with customers:

Speak the customer’s language, not company jargon.

As we’ve noted before, “All too often, businesses forget that their customers rarely understand the intricacies of their products or services as well as they do.” Don’t let internal jargon or other verbal infelicities cloud messaging with customers. Make sure you speak their language, not yours.

Equally important is the ability of your customer service team to act with empathy. Hire wisely in this area, as an employee’s aptitude for patience and understanding can go a long way in customer communications.

“Some customers need that extra word of assurance or a higher level of engagement to feel satisfied with the outcome,” notes Freshworks.

Serve as your customers’ one-stop information resource.

Communications with customers shouldn’t end when a sale closes. You risk potential customer alienation when you offer product manuals and leave it at that.

Rather, strive to act as an information in ways that matters to your base. Make sure your customers can access data about their related needs or interests—including how-to guides, relevant videos and web content, and other options for repair or replacement, as needed.

Select the relevant channel(s) for customer communications.

Success in reaching customers depends a lot on the channel (or channels) you choose to employ. Customers with more traditional preferences want to able to talk with a real person, so be sure your team can personally respond in a timely manner (ideally, within 24 hours of getting the call). Other customers might prefer communicating via social media or a chat function on your company website.

Web chat apps enable companies to automate a series of responses to commonly asked customer questions. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all customer inquiries, but many customers who might otherwise feel frustrated when a product doesn’t work properly, can get a rapid response that offers a viable, satisfying solution.

Leverage the clout of social media.

Like it or not, most of your target audience probably spends a great deal of time on social media. That’s OK, since your business can “live” there, too, and actively engage with customers on a variety of platforms. In many situations, it makes good business sense to appoint an individual to regularly monitor your presence on X, Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere—both to promote your products and services, and to be proactive in contending with customer issues or complaints.

On social media, “you can monitor every mention your business receives, note the ones with complaints or questions, and then respond with an offer to help,” notes Walden University. The upshot? Satisfied customers who can move forward and not have to wait around for someone to get back to them.

Want to learn more about how to make your customers happy? Check out “5 Ways to Enhance Customer Satisfaction in 2025.”