Redesigning Customer interaction during Covid 19 

Coping with the ‘new normal’: why redesigning your customer interaction is important during the Covid-19


##### *It’s time to adapt to the varied customer behavior and decisions by switching to a better customer interaction strategy* 

Covid-19 brought so many things with it- like lockdowns, regulations, and shutdowns. Along with the far-reaching changes that altered our day-to-day lives, the pandemic has affected the purchasing decisions of customers too. These changes in consumer behavior and decisions can be challenging to business owners and industrialists.

As we all try to find balance in this new normal, it’s important to adapt and switch to a better customer strategy. We know how the pandemic has hit the business stores and purchase rate. We have seen how the definition of ‘online’ expanded as all of us were forced to stay indoors. So, online presence is inevitable for every business, now more than ever.

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## What does ‘online presence’ mean to your business?

Well, the first thing that came to your mind may be a website for your business. That’s a basic requirement for every business. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t even have a proper website when customers today expect a lot more than a website. To keep your head above water, it’s crucial to have a properly functioning website and a regularly updated presence on other channels of communication.

Customers want the businesses to be available on multiple platforms according to their choice. Defining your ‘online presence’ depends on the type of your business and the nature of your customers. It’s not about just having a social media account or a website. It’s about actively engaging with customers and regularly updating your content and strategies to meet the expectations of your customers.

It can seem like a Himalayan task to you, but tools like **Cloodot** are here to help you with your customer interaction and reputation management. So, worry less and start making a change.

## Updating your status

We can go on and on about how uncertain our present situation is. We can’t be sure about anything at all. This uncertainty has influenced the customer values and decisions as well. Imagine a person who drives up all the way to find a shop that is closed or someone unsure about whether the business is currently offering delivery services. Amidst all this chaos and confusion, isn’t it our responsibility to provide updated information about our status?

Knowing that we no longer provide a certain service or that we have switched to another way to abide by the regulations will help the customers a lot when they consider buying a product or service. The best thing you can do is to update your status on platforms like Google My Business so that the customers won’t have trouble finding it.

This is not only to increase your reputation but also to help a confused customer. Providing your details, contact information, and status will increase your authenticity and reliability for sure. Rather than feeding to the uncertainty, choose to update exact information on the available customer services at a particular time.

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## Connecting to customers 

In this era of digital transformation, competition has acquired a different shape and it’s hard to stay on top if you’re not aware of what customers need. That’s where connecting to customers comes into the picture. We already talked about the importance of an active online presence for a business to thrive in these times. You need a multi-channel presence to reach out to your customers anytime.

In other words, you must be easily available to your customers at whatever time, channel, or device they may choose. You will have to reply to their queries and address their grievances on time. It’s also about nurturing leads and providing an excellent customer support system. If you stay in touch with your customers and understand their needs and expectations, it will be a lot easier for you to make positive changes in your business. Well, you don’t have to think hard to know that this is not an easy task.

Still, you can’t discard this based on the time and effort you need to put in. Connecting to your customers across multiple platforms is worth it. Plus, you can always ease yourself with the help of an all-in-one customer interaction suite like **Cloodot.**

## Time matters 

We just send a ‘hello’ to a friend who is miles away from us and we hear back from them in seconds. We are all surrounded by instant messaging and it’s all a matter of seconds to us. Customers also expect timely responses from businesses when they place an order or just ask a question. If you take a longer time to respond to them, they may choose your competitor over you. To stop this from happening, you need to be alert and must assure that you’re updated.

A timely response is an important factor in customer satisfaction. If a customer is unhappy with your product or service, addressing their concerns as fast as possible helps you in mitigating the damage. It may even result in regaining the confidence of the unhappy customer. All these considered, the customer must feel that their concerns are addressed appropriately in much less time.

Time matters most when you ask for a review for it is most likely for a customer to leave a review before they leave your premises when the experience is still on top of their head.

## Building an overall customer experience 

Do you know what brings a company to the top even if the products or services they offer are similar to many of their competitors? It’s the **customer experience**. Customers today prefer a personalized and wholesome experience. That’s why how your business treats customers becomes crucial to your growth. You have to present a seamless customer experience that expands to multiple platforms.

We saw why you have to adapt to a multi-channel setup in this digital era. However, the effort you’ve put in to create such a world-class experience might be pushing you back. But what if you can find all of these conversations in one place so that you don’t have to jump from a channel to another? **Cloodot** offers you such an all-in-one inbox with so many tools to help you in responding to your customers on time. This way, you won’t miss any messages or reviews from your customers and your team can collaborate to create a better customer experience.

Switching to a better customer management tool enables you to stay on top by redesigning your customer experience. Most successful brands have already partnered up with customer interaction management software to fit the changing standards.

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### The bottom line 

Covid-19 has permanently changed our market and economic condition. We know how hard it is to sustain your business at such difficult times, but there’s no use in blaming the situations that we’re in. That’s why we have to take action to adapt to the new normal and to keep going. **Customer interaction** must be in the center for our business to stand upright. How your business engages digitally with the customers is going to determine the growth of your firm. The business firms, which adapted to the newer technologies and tools, are less affected by the pandemic than others are. All you’ve to do is to focus on your customers above everything and to take steps towards better customer interaction management.

More resources should be devoted to nourishing your relationships and increasing customer satisfaction. You’ve to maintain constant communication with your customers to thrive in these times. By implementing changes according to the altered situations, you can stay ahead of the game. Offering a unique customer experience starting right when someone visits your website to the completion of the purchase is going to get you more customers. That’s how you stay as their no.1 choice, despite the situations. The pandemic has shown us, among other things, the importance of staying connected and updated.


How to handle negative reviews and how to make use of them for a positive change. 

Making positive changes with negative reviews

## **Why do we say negative reviews are useful and how to make use of bad reviews?**

> “Bad service. Low-quality product. I would never recommend this.”

Every one of us may have experienced this blow of **negative reviews**. Imagine a stranger who walks against us in the street shouting, “you are a bad person!” to our face! We may get hurt, cry, feel down, or be annoyed.We may end up shouting back at the stranger the first insulting words from the top of our head or we may just walk away, carrying the pang.

Well, we don’t have to imagine a customer (and sometimes, many of them) telling the public that our service/product is bad. That happens. Along with good reviews praising us, We’ll receive the negative ones too.

As we said in the first case, we may take this personally and may get hurt. We may delete the review altogether instead of responding to it. What’s worse, we may react the same way.

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But, are bad reviews that bad? Is there any way we can make use of these reviews to improve the business? In fact, there is. Negative reviews are many times better than positive ones if we have the heart to accept criticism and a will to learn from mistakes.

Still, You may have trouble dealing with the question, how to respond to bad reviews on Google and/or social media. Customer review is the most important factor in your online ranking. You must take care while responding to negative reviews. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you how.

## Bad reviews don’t define your business.

I admit it’s not very easy for us to take criticism lightly. However, we’ll have to remember however hard we try, we can’t be perfect. We’ll have flaws and that’s okay. The most important thing is, these bad reviews don’t define your business, just like your past flaws don’t define who you’re today.

To make them our ‘past’ mistakes, of course, we’ll have to get past them. Know that admitting our mistakes is the first step to improvement. It’s all about learning from our mistakes and becoming better.

Ultimately, as you overcome your weaknesses, you’ll avoid bad reviews in the future.

## Negative reviews aren’t that negative.

Imagine that we pay attention to good reviews alone. Eventually, we will assume that we are the perfect business without flaws. We may never notice our shortcomings before they will seriously damage our business.

**Negative reviews** just make us aware of our mistakes or shortcomings. They tell us where we’ve gone wrong and what we’ve to care more about.

It’s our turn then to realize these issues and take positive steps to solve them. Take each of those reviews as an insight into your weak spots. The next thing to do is to think about ways to fix that fault. Call your whole team and work together to right a wrong.

## Why deleting a bad review is not a great idea.

Let’s face the truth. It’s not easy to remove a bad review. In some cases, it’s impossible to do so. Talking about Google, the legitimacy of the business matters most. Google values honest feedback from customers. So, we can’t just remove a review if we’re not happy with it. Besides, what’s the point of review sites if we choose to show only our good side?

If your review sites are all loaded with reviews appreciating you and not even pointing out a single problem, the customers may get suspicious. It may seem artificial and fake, thus inverting the effect of good reviews. Yes, the ‘too good to be true’ logic always pops up in our mind.

## Getting rid of bad reviews.

However positive bad reviews can turn out to be, our ultimate aim is to avoid them. We must set a goal to get rid of bad reviews altogether, though it’s not possible. Getting rid of them does not mean you’ve to delete or remove them. We have to deal with them to mitigate the damage they’ve done.

By facing the issue and taking positive actions to change them, we have to make sure we don’t receive the same kind of bad review again. Of course, when we fix one problem, another will come up. Take this as a journey to perfection. We may not be able to stop bad reviews completely, but we become better on the way.

The best way to project your positive reviews over negative ones is just getting more good reviews. As you get more good reviews one after another, negative ones will automatically be pushed down to the bottom of the list. Using tools like Cloodot can help you to gain more reviews like this easily.

Note that you’ll have to focus on responding to the review and solving the issue rather than turning them down.

## Your response matters.

It’s always better to respond to the review in question.

Remember that your potential customers will go through negative reviews as well. What is going to assure them about you is how you respond to the negative reviews or whether you choose to respond at all.

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The choice is yours- to respond to them maturely or to avoid them altogether. Answering the concerns of the reviewer is not only going to help you in winning back their trust, but also it will boost the confidence of potential customers in you. In other words, you can make amends with unhappy customers and show prospective clients that you’re trustworthy and responsible.

Your response to the negative reviews talks volumes about you. It displays your ability to deal with the issue and to offer solutions. It highlights your earnest desire to improve and to address the problems of your customers.

## How to respond to negative reviews?

We’ve seen the ‘why’ part. Let’s deal with the ‘how’ question now. You need to respond in a way that your customer feels acknowledged. Ideally, your response must prompt them to change their attitude towards you. First, you need to keep in mind these before you respond.

**Be calm**: though it may seem hard, it’s not impossible. Being emotional about the review can affect your response and thereby your reputation.

**Don’t take it personally**: It may seem like a personal attack to you. But, understand that it’s not. The customers most probably record the problem they have encountered. Though none of us are enthusiastic about criticism, let’s understand that it is not directed at us but to a shortcoming of our business.

**Face the problem**: Whatever the problem is, you have to face it. We can’t always run away from our problems. It’s now or never.

**Be sincere**: whether you’re apologizing or admitting your mistake, be sincere about it. The last thing your customers want is a hollow response.

**Find the right person to respond**: Every negative review is different and therefore must be treated differently. Finding the perfect person to address the issue is the key to producing the best response to a negative review. With tools like Cloodot, you can easily assign a conversation or review to anyone on your team.

**Correct respectfully if they’re wrong**: You cannot acknowledge your mistake if they’re groundless. Some customers may write wrong feedback too. Gently correct them and clear the misunderstanding.

**Pay attention to the actual problem**: Some customers may rant about anything and everything. We’ll have to pinpoint the issue and think about possible solutions. Set aside the phrases showing the emotions and dig deeper to get to the point. If they’ve just made some vague statements, you can calmly enquire about the issue they’re concerned with.

**Don’t defend yourself**: It’s not about proving who is right. When it comes to negative reviews, it’s always safer to stand in the ‘customer is always right’ position. Even slightly defensive notes can appear childish and can ruin your whole response. Keep in mind that your response is the reflection of your business. Denials and justifications can only help to make the conflict worse.

**Respond as quickly as possible**: Responding to the review after a long time won’t do any good at all. It’s always better to address the issue ASAP. But, however hard you try, you still may miss reviews. That’s when an all-in-one messaging and review management tool like Cloodot comes in handy. This way, you’ll stay updated about all the recent reviews and you can immediately respond to them.

Finally, let’s get to the ‘how to reply to bad reviews’ question. When you respond, you should:

* **Apologize**:

Acknowledging your mistake and sincerely apologizing are the first things you’ve to do. Saying sorry can make a lot of difference. It may even influence the unhappy customer and alter their sentiment. A simple sorry has the power to change the opinion of someone about you.

* **Appreciate their effort**:

No matter how terrible the review is, you just have to thank them for taking the trouble of writing a review. You may think thanking them is not reasonable, but it can also impact their attitude towards you and make them rethink their own words. So, appreciate them for letting you know the problem they’re facing.

* **Address their concerns**:

This is when we actually get to the issue and acknowledge the problem they’ve raised. If you’re considerate of their anxieties and concerns, it can do a great deal in restoring their loyalty.

* **Offer a solution**:

Now, you’ll offer them the solutions we’ve thought about. For this, brainstorm with your team quickly and try to come up with the best possible solution.

* **Take the conversation to a next level**:

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After suggesting a solution, offer the customer a private call where you can discuss the issue further. This willingness to take effort from your part can impact them and they may even decide to delete the review( but, don’t expect this).

*Next time you receive a bad review, smile to yourself that you perfectly know how to deal with the negative reviews. Though it may sound absurd, laughing at negative reviews can help a lot. Remind yourself of the positives of negative reviews and respond to them carefully. While taking them lightly, bear in mind the seriousness of the issue and take special care to fix them. After all, value negative reviews as constructive criticism and take them as an opportunity to improve and grow.*

Reviews are the most important ingredient for the success of your business -you may have heard this statement in many shapes and sizes.

Online reviews for growing your business

Reviews are the most important ingredient for the success of your business -you may have heard this statement in many shapes and sizes. And yes, you already know the importance of online reviews and how they are going to help you. But, did anybody tell you how exactly reviews are going to help you in growing your business? If not, this article is for you. From influencing customer’s decisions to ranking on top of search results, we’re going to list the perks of getting more reviews. Wait, there’s more- we will also tell you the best way to manage online reviews on your road to success. Here we go:

### Why are reviews important

Let’s see why reviews are important. Here are a few benefits of online reviews:

A great form of advertisement – The first thing first- good customer reviews are going to be the best advertisement you can have. What will attract a person considering your product or service than other people applauding your brand? More customer ratings and reviews you’ve got, more people will start to flow to your business. It's mass psychology that’s at work here, as people are more interested in using the ‘popular’ product or service. As more people find that you’re the favorite of many, they naturally prefer you to your competitors and as you guessed it, your business will automatically grow.

* ###### Influence customer’s decision: the key to convert -

You know for sure that customers will go through all your reviews before making a choice. For a confused person, positive reviews offer assurance that they’re making the right choice. Besides, customers are more likely to believe what others who bought the product have to say than what you have to say. Even if there are negative reviews, your commitment and responsibility will be properly highlighted by replying to them in the right way. Need to know more about making use of negative reviews? Check out our article on turning negative reviews to your merit here.

* ###### Get on top of search results-

Google ranks your business based on the credibility and authenticity of your business. How many customer reviews you get and how often you get them are crucial when it comes to evaluating your authenticity. It goes without saying that getting on top of search results increases your online visibility and thereby attracts more customers.

* ###### Get to know if your customers are satisfied-

Online customer reviews tell you a lot about how your customers are feeling about your product or service. It’s a great way to understand customer satisfaction and disappointments. Negative reviews offer a chance to recognize our shortcomings and can be used as fuel for improvement and growth. Knowing our customers is inevitable while running a business. Online product review not only gives you feedback on the product, but also helps you to evaluate your customer support. Plus, a heartfelt review of a customer can light up your day. You’ve to learn to deal with the negative reviews along the way too.

* ###### Evaluate your own performance (your team’s too)

You know how crucial self-evaluation is, especially when it’s about business. By evaluating online customer ratings and reviews, you’ll get a picture of yourself and how you can get better. Performance analysis plays a major role in making better decisions. Successful brands use tools like Cloodot to access visualized analysis of performance based on online interactions. Cloodot also offers a detailed report of your performance sent out to you.

## How to get more reviews?

That’s all about how best reviews are for your business. Now, it's time for the ‘how’ question.

Now that you actually appreciate the importance of reviews, the next question is about the best way to make use of online reviews. Managing online reviews include:

* ###### Request reviews in a convenient way
* ###### Share the reviews through social media
* ###### Engaging with every single review
* ###### Create a space to leave a review across platforms
* ###### Responding to them promptly
* ###### Identifying your shortcomings and making improvements
* ###### Evaluating performance

See in detail about using online reviews to grow your brand and leverage revenue, in our e-book on growing business with reviews.

Managing reviews across multiple platforms can be both tricky and tiresome. Cloodot makes asking for reviews, collecting them, and responding much easier. With an all-in-one inbox suite like Cloodot, you can find your reviews on multiple channels in one inbox. You can thus navigate through them and respond to them with convenience. Forget about the time-consuming online review collection and say hello to super-easy, single-click review requests. By keeping track of every message and review across platforms, your team can develop an excellent customer support system. Reviews are your stepping stones in creating a good online reputation. Cloodot is here to help you make your journey to a good reputation much smoother and effortless. Start with us today.

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Coping with the ‘new normal’: why redesigning your customer interaction is important during the Covid-19

Making positive changes with negative reviews

Online reviews for growing your business

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