When it comes to the internet, timeliness is everything. Promptness is something your customers will notice and remember—but so is lateness. Staying attentive to what your online audience is telling you makes a major statement about your business’ professionalism, transparency, and integrity. If you want to stay on top of your online presence and keep up an excellent relationship with your customers, you need to prioritize timeliness.
As you may already know from experience, keeping pace with your online presence may be easier said than done. The larger of an online audience you develop, after all, the more online interactions you are likely to experience every day. Eventually, you may find yourself struggling just to keep up. If you want to keep a steady hand on the helm of your online presence, it may be helpful to take the time to understand what types of interactions you’re most likely to find yourself dealing with—and why timeliness is so important in the first place.
What Are the Most Common Online Interactions?
Website Messages
If you provide a form for your customers to contact you on your website, make sure that you’re keeping an eye on the messages that come through. If you allow this section to fall by the wayside, you may end up with a backlog of unanswered questions and a lot of irritated customers.
Customer Emails
As a rule, anyone who emails your company directly to ask a question or make a comment should receive a response within at least 48 hours—the sooner, the better. Make sure that the email address you provide on your website’s contact page is a current one, and that you are checking it at least once a day.
It’s absolutely essential to stay alert to all of your business’ interactions on social media—whether they’re on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or another popular platform. Retweet or like friendly comments, answer questions as quickly as possible, and be sure to thank anyone who simply leaves a complimentary message.
What Does Timeliness in Online Interactions Tell Your Customers?
Timeliness deepens your connection with your customers.
One of the great advantages of social media for businesses is that it removes many of the barriers that once separated you from customers who couldn’t visit your store in person. Now, you can talk to your customers instantaneously at any time of day or night, even if they’re on the other side of the world. Timely responses make that interaction more meaningful, making customers feel as if they’re engaged in a genuine back-and-forth dialogue with you.
Timeliness helps you clear up potential misunderstandings.
If there’s one rule about today’s consumers that holds true across the board, it’s that they always have questions—and they want them answered now, not later. If a customer has a nagging question that he or she can’t get answered, that customer is likely to end up clicking away from your site and forgetting about that potential purchase. Being available to answer your customers’ questions allows you to make sure that you’re not losing sales due to failure to communicate.
Timeliness projects a positive image of your business.
If your customers’ questions are going unanswered for hours or even days at a time, it tells your customers that your business’ leadership is asleep at the wheel. Even customers who stay with your business are likely to end up grumbling to themselves and feeling less charitable toward you. Answering all questions as fast as possible sends a completely different message to your audience. It tells them that you are capable, competent, and dedicated to making sure that your customers are completely satisfied with your services.
How Can You Make Sure That Your Online Interactions Stay Timely?
This just leaves one dilemma—how do you ensure that you don’t fall behind on your business’ online interactions? If you’re anything like most business owners, you already have a lot on your mind. One of the best solutions is to hire a professional content provider to handle all of your social media interactions for you. When you rely on an outside company to take care of these matters on a daily basis, you’ll be free to focus on running your business without the continual distraction of worrying about whether your customers are getting their questions answered.
If you want to make sure that your business’ online presence stays as accessible and responsive as possible, Pennington Creative can help. We can take over your social media accounts and answer questions on your behalf to ensure that your customers never feel like they’re being ignored. We’ll also create the smart, winning posts you need to capture your audience’s attention and stay relevant and engaged. If you’d like to learn more about how our content services can be of help to you, contact our team today through our website.
