In any line of business, communication is key. You need to communicate with your customers about everything from how your product works to how to lodge a complaint. Communication helps your customers understand the product, become familiar with your brand’s ethos, learn how to buy or return a product, and helps your company stay front-of-mind when they decide about another purchase. Without good communication, your entire customer pipeline can quickly crumble and become ineffective.
While communication is definitely crucial, it can sometimes be possible to overdo it. Let’s discuss how over communication can actually do more harm than good and how to find the perfect balance in your customer communications.
The dangers of over communication
Over-communication can refer to giving away too much information or to communication that occurs too frequently. Both mistakes can have a seriously negative impact on your customer relations.
When you over communicate, it can feel spammy
These days people are inundated with emails and text messages and the ever-loving pain that clogs your PO Box or mailbox. People receive government communication, brand ads, personal emails, credit card offers, and more on a daily basis. According to the Harvard Business Review, there is an average of 200 emails in every email inbox and only 25% of incoming emails receive a response, even less when it comes through the post office.
If you send a lot of unsolicited mail to your customers in any form, these communications can quickly start to feel annoying and spammy. Many brands make the mistake of sending the same marketing emails to everyone on their list. Multiple times!!! Use targeted lists to narrow down the recipients for each message to ensure your communication is reaching people who are more likely to be interested.
Too much information can turn people off
Even if you don’t communicate with your customers too frequently, you still run the risk of over-explaining. A little too much information is just as bad as no information at all. Most people skim long documents and articles. So the longer and more detailed your content, the less likely people will be to actually engage.
Getting too specific may limit your lead numbers
There’s no need to pack in extremely detailed specifics about your product. In fact, the more specific you get, the more likely you will be to turn off certain potential customers (unless they happen to be the smaller segment of people who love the nitty gritty). Try to keep your communication as neutral and broad as possible to entice as many customers as you can.
Signs you’re over communicating
Looking for signs that you have a tendency to over communicate? Start with your metrics.
You send more than one email a week to your customers
Every company and customer is different, but a good rule of thumb is to stick with one weekly email. Less than one email a week can easily slip under the radar, however, more than one email a week can quickly begin to annoy your customers and lead to them leaving your mailing list.
Customers are unsubscribing from your mail list
Keep an eye on your unsubscription metrics. It’s normal for some customers to sign up for a newsletter and then change their minds. However, when a large portion of your subscribers are opting out of your emails, it’s a good sign that your emails have become too frequent or too irrelevant for your customers.
Your blog rate bounce rate is high
Email isn’t the only method of communication. If you have a blog, ensure that your customers are engaging with your content. Check your blog post bounce rates for signs that the content you are posting is uninteresting to your customers.
Your CTR is low
Some customers may read your emails but decide not to click on your CTA. Check your click-thru rate metric for insights into how relevant and engaging your email content is.
How to strike the right balance in customer communication
Looking to improve your communication and reduce instances where you overcommunicate? Here are a few tips:
- Reduce the numbers of emails you send to one a week
- Create targeted lists to ensure that the right customers get information that matters to them
- Keep initial communication with a customer broad so that you keep them interested
- Use visuals or graphics rather than long articles to keep them engaged
The Secret Weapon
A very easy way to enhance the effectiveness of your communication with customers is with a gift. A gift shows that you care about them and their time, and also care about the message. Birthday Co is your communication secret weapon – we make sending gifts with your customer communication as simple as a few clicks. We can help you make the most out of the holiday season, birthdays, or even send to prospective customers. Make your new account now, or try a free sample to see the ease of use and high quality we offer.
Conclusion
Communication is a key part of any business’ customer relationship plan. While too little communication can quickly lose customers, too much communication can have the same effect. We hope you’ve found these tips and tricks useful so you can always strike the right balance when communicating with your customers.
Sources
https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/?kui=gFQh55421G14VJsGmFlg7w#_ts=1515694321980
https://www.smartrmail.com/blog/email-marketing-frequency-best-practices-2019/