The Top 6 Customer Intimacy Strategies for Any Business

One of the most valuable asset to any business is undoubtedly its repeat customers, and as valuable as they are, it is also very difficult to attain a customer base that is loyal to your brand if you do not have efficient customer intimacy strategies in place. To actually attain and retain repeat customers, a business needs to interact closely with its consumers. Otherwise revenue, brand loyalty and consumer sentiment can be affected in ways that ends up harming the business. If an organization only relies on the value of their core product to the customer for sales, it will eventually end up missing out on a lot of prospect. It is equally important to provide additional values and supply the needs that a customer might expect from a business that they are patronizing. A company’s ability to tap into a customer’s personal preference and needs apart from just providing the primary product is what all their customer intimacy is about.

So, what exactly is customer intimacy?

To be precise in technical terms, customer intimacy is a digital marketing strategy where an organization focuses mostly on customer needs, and assesses the level of alignment and prioritization of those needs by the company. The process includes interacting with customers through different channels and platforms. A company that can provide its customers with personalised experience will evidently witness organic marketing, stronger loyalty and increased ROIs.

There are multiple strategies to implement customer intimacy and a successful cross-channel integration of them can boost any organization’s productivity by up to 22%. Six of the most popular customer intimacy strategies include:

1. More of Customer Touchpoint:Thanks to the digital age of marketing, every day there comes around a new path to reach out to your customers. Every opportunity to interact with customers is a one worth grabbing. Some of the most effective digital as well as traditional customer touchpoints would include:
   a) Sale papers
   b) Customer service
   c) Call centres
   d) Marketing emails
   e) Regular blogs and content
   f) SEO
   g) Events and sponsors
   h)Store or facility appearance
   i) Packaging
   j) SMS
   
   
2. Handling Customer Service:Customer service is the most important way to show your customers that their individual experiences matter a lot to a company. Constantly providing quality customer support should be a top priority of any business. Quick response to grievances and accessible channels of communication help elevate the customer experience by many a notch and in turn fuels their loyalty towards your brand.
   
   
3. Social Media Integration:In the digital age, if a business cannot harness the power of social media that can prove to be a fatal loss for the organisation. Half the world is now online and if a business wishes to establish any sort of personal touch into their customer-seller relationship, it needs to get on the groove as well. Linking a business to its own LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other relevant platforms not only simplifies and personalises customer interaction but also allows customers to share your business with their contacts and respond directly to events and offers.
   
   
4. Integrating Data:The more consumers engage with the company the more data can be gathered by the company to analyse their preferences. Email campaigns, surveys, social media events can help streamline targeting and segment the customers better. The better focused a campaigning is, the better it can connect the customers to the company.
   
   
5. Solutions of Management and Leadership:The CMO of a business plays a key role in driving customer intimacy strategies to successful results. Strategic consultants can provide with team-building opportunities throughout the organization. When responsibilities and roles are clearly defined, it allows more precise focus on customer requirements.
   
   
6. Employee Rewards:Employees who are enthusiastic and are highly engaged with the company’s products and services should be compensated with rewards. Spiff programmes, bonuses and incentive plans not only boost the enthusiasm of employees but also pushes them to get familiar with the products and get involved in the decision-making process. Customer intimacy highly depends on the knowledge of employees about customer touchpoints and every other strategy in details.

At the end of the day, customer-intimacy strategy is all about building a customer-centric business that can provide a smooth customer support and adds some extra value for customers and target audience that can drive their loyalty towards your specific brand.