Persuading And Establishing Better Rapport With Your Customers For Better Business Success

As a business owner I have become much more aware when on the receiving end of business services as a customer myself and have started to notice much more how B2C companies treat their customers. One of the most prominent things I have noticed is how little skills staff have in communicating with customers and being able to foster a productive bond with them. Of the countless high street shops I browse in, whenever I ask a member of staff for help, it is usually greeted with a very short, matter of fact response and they spend no time engaging in extended communication with me.

It is often underestimated just how valuable it can be to be more engaging with your customers and take the time to develop a closer relationship with them. The closer the bond between your business and a customer, the greater degree of persuasion you may have over them, they are likely to feel satisfied and there is a greater chance that they will be a returning customer.

Therefore, as a business it would be useful for staff to perhaps achieve some basic tips for developing a more persuasive relationship with customers.

Likeness – one of the most influential persuaders is when you are able to let the customer know that you are both alike in some respects. People like people who are like us and if your staff can find an aspect of likeness with a customer it will enable them to build trust. This may sound a difficult thing to achieve in the short space of time you have with a customer. Your staff are not expected to start asking customers what their hobbies and interests are so they can then strike up a more in depth conversation about similar likenesses. What I am talking about is something more appropriate to the context. For example, a member of your staff may see a customer looking at a DVD they have picked off of the shelf and they approach them and say, ‘hello, have you been able to find what you are looking for? I see you are looking at The Shinning, I love Stanley Kubrick movies, is it for you or a gift because we have some of his other films’. Here you have spent a little bit of time engaging appropriately in context with the customer in order to establish a likeness. In this example, the DVD may have been for a gift and the customer might hate Stanley Kubrick, but you can’t win them all, it is just an illustration of how customers could be engaged in communication.

Scarcity – people in general and particularly customers are easily influenced when faced with scarcity. If they accept that there is a limited resource of something that they want and even more so when they believe that there is competition for it as well. It could be the last one of the Stanley Kubrick DVD’s in stock. Having spoken with the customer and developed a likeness, the member of staff could offer to check in the stock room and then confirm that it is in fact the last one as they have sold three already today.

Authority & Credibility – talking from a position of authority or credibility has a powerful benefit and customers will respond well to this. Therefore, it is useful to ensure that your staff are well trained in product knowledge and/or are able to demonstrate the relevant qualifications, if this is applicable. Or, it could be deferring credibility to a third party, such as explaining to a customer that the camera they are looking at was voted best camera by the Which magazine.

Reciprocity – customers are more likely to feel a sense of debt and duty to make a purchase if you do something for them. Are you able to offer customers something for nothing, but that they see as having some value to it? It may be throwing in some accessories, offering gift wrapping, home delivery or seeing if you can source that much sought after item from another store that is in scarcity, and offering to reserve it so that it does not get snatched up by another customer.

Testimonies – in the last of our key aspects of persuasive communication, testimonies has to be one of the most compelling of all. As many of us tend to stick to what we know is safe, we take comfort in knowing that others have also approved and benefited from what we are also thinking of buying. Testimonies are a great way to do this. However, you need to remember that credibility is key here, because anyone can write a testimonial and you need to find a way of persuading the customer that the testimonies are sound. The Ebay feedback system is a great concept because you know that these can not be faked. Another way is if you can get an authority to publish testimonials about you, such as a consumer magazine.

This article is written by J Keightley who is a professional life coaching specialist and ecommerce business owner of Giggleberries Mens Underwear, it explores the principals of developing rapport with your customers.