In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, managing and maintaining your client’s has increasingly moved online. Automated chatbots, AI-driven support, and self-service portals have become the norm. Yet, in the midst of this digital transformation, the “1 percenters” can still be the differentiator. I believe empathy and genuine interaction are the cornerstones of great and resilient relationships. I’ve explored why maintaining the “personal touch” is vital and how you can still (and should) balance technology with the personal touch.
Technology is a powerful tool that can enhance service we provide to our clients, but it will never replace the empathy and understanding that only people can provide. So, how can you find the balance between leveraging digital tools and maintaining personal connections with your clients?
Strategies for Integrating Technology Without Losing the Personal Touch:
My colleague Tony wrote an article in May 2024 highlighting the importance of building genuine connections with your audience – (ICYMI take a read) “Digital Marketing Beyond Ads: Building Genuine Connections with Your Audience.” Technology should support and enhance these connections, not replace them.
Creating a successful client service strategy involves more than just answering queries. It’s about making clients feel valued and understood. Here’s a few to keep in the back of your mind:
Personalisation and Attentiveness:
Training and Empowering Client Service Representatives:
"When a client complains, they are doing you a favour; they are giving you another chance to serve them to their satisfaction. You will appreciate the importance of this opportunity when you consider that the client's alternative option was to desert you for a competitor." — Seymour Fine
Heeding Client Feedback:
In my blog titled, “The Evolving Landscape of Customer Expectations: Adapting Your Business for Success,” adapting to client expectations is crucial. Technology can provide valuable insights, but it’s the human touch that interprets and acts on this data effectively.
Trust and loyalty are built through genuine connections with people. While digital tools can help these interactions, they cannot replace the authentic relationships that actual people create.
Techniques for Fostering Genuine Connections:
"You don't earn loyalty in a day. You earn loyalty day-by-day." — Jeffrey Gitomer
In Tony’s October 2023 blog titled, “Elevate Your Processes with dovetail digital: Meeting Evolving Customer Expectations,” he emphasised the role of actual human interaction in building trust and loyalty. The “1 percenters” of the “personal touch” is still the foundation of strong client relationships.
Neglecting client service will have dire consequences. In a world where clients have countless options at their fingertips, poor service can quickly lead to lost business.
Negative Impacts on Brand Trust and Customer Loyalty:
Example of a Company That Failed to Prioritise Client Service:
Learn more about the Optus customer service crisis: Optus Customer Service Issues
Companies that ignore client feedback and fail to adapt their service strategies risk losing their competitive edge. Don’t be the next cautionary tale!
Streamlining processes to enhance client experience is essential. At Dovetail Digital, our goal is to help our clients adapt their processes to meet evolving client expectations effectively.
We Help Businesses Adapt Through:
Another way of looking at it is through the lens of sport and understanding the difference between good sporting teams and great sporting teams. The experts will often tell you it’s the “1 percenters” that make good teams, great. The great teams practice the things that other teams may not because they don’t think they are as important or because they feel they are doing all things they think are good enough…
While technology may play a bigger role than in the past to exceeding client expectation, it will never replace the “1 percenters” such as the “personal touch”. Empathy, understanding, and genuine people interaction. These are essential for building strong client relationships and maintaining loyalty. Our business, Dovetail Digital, is committed to helping businesses find the perfect balance between technology and a “personal touch”.
Bridging the gap between your team’s expertise and technology with a tailored digital strategy that empowers your business to stay future-focused.
