How to get to know your audience

Your audience is a fundamental part of your business.

These are the people you’re trying to reach, sell to, help solve problems for, and educate. Although you know the importance of a solid customer service strategy, you might not know where to start.

Many brand managers fail to train their customer service representatives properly. Instead of honing the organization’s voice and mission, many reps focus on the notion of “sell, sell, sell” and forget they’re approaching customers with different needs and interests.

The best customer service reps must work to get to know their audience in a way that goes deeper than simple facts and figures.

Here are three steps to help you do that.

1. Call your customers.

Understanding your audience it’s easier than many PR pros might think.

The process should begin with approaching your current customers. Study them, see what they previously bought from you, then call them and ask them how they are doing. If they say they’re happy with their current product or service, ask what they would change or improve.

Though you’ll probably garner a few complaints, you’ll also receive good insight that will help you develop nuances and better service.

2. Thoroughly train your team.

There is a huge misunderstanding with how managers should train service reps.

Though sales training is important, you must also teach the soft skills of customer service. Listen to your clients and determine which questions to apply to your messaging and marketing strategies.

Make sure your team knows how to interact with customers on various channels.

3. Having a social media presence.

Some businesses fear using social media to connect with their target audience.

They shouldn’t.

It’s important to be where you target audience is, and many of today’s customers are device-driven and avid social media users.

RELATED: Join us at Facebook HQ for the Social Media and Storytelling Summit.

People want to be heard—and they want attention. Stop the generic marketing and sales messages from 20 years ago. Instead, personalize your messaging.

Don’t take your audience for granted. You must nurture, connect with and listen to them in a way that’s natural and approachable.

Corina Manea is a PR professional, social media strategist, founder of NutsPR and client service manager for Arment Dietrich and SpinSucks. A version of this article was originally published on NutsPR.

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