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Customer retention leads to business growth, plain and simple. When teams are working remotely, focusing on communication and employee retention as well can boost productivity and customer satisfaction.

Retaining clients is one of the most important reasons you build strong customer relationships. You want your customers to be satisfied, so they’ll refer others and keep coming back for more. Just a 5% increase in customer retention can mean a revenue increase of 25 to 95%. So it’s about business growth, too.

But consider that customers create relationships with specific teams and employees. That’s one reason why employee retention can also have significant impacts on whether or not customers stick around, not to mention that positive company culture is contagious.

When more teams are going 100% remote, how do you continue to focus on retention? And how important is a satisfied team of employees to overall growth?

Here are tips for creating a positive remote culture, improving communication, and better connecting with your customers.

Managing a remote team culture

When a team is working together in an office, it’s easy to take for granted how easy it is to be in constant communication and stay on the same page. But when a team has had to shift a remote working environment, this ease of communication can be lost.

Remote communication has to be more intentional not only between team members but between the company and its customers, as well. You need to focus even more on maintaining customer relationships since the normal on-site touchpoints are no longer there.

Teams may tend to under-communicate when working remotely. Make sure that this doesn’t happen by striving to over communicate. That’s the only way to maintain customer relationships and team collaboration.

Both considerations are crucial so that employee and customer retention rates don’t decrease but increase when you have to pivot to a remote culture.

Tips for improving communication

So how do you improve team and customer communication while everyone is remote?

First, focus on continuing face-to-face calls with video conferencing. While it is important to implement a chat feature and technology so teams can be in communication, it’s essential to maintain actual meetings as well, even though they’re virtual.

It’s especially important to communicate with customers this way. You can build expectations and stronger relationships when you can chat face to face.

Next, make sure that employees have resources they need to limit their home distractions. Ask them if any new equipment would help or if they need support in creating a home office. And stay flexible. Especially if your workers have families or home responsibilities, it may work better for them to shift their working hours throughout the day. Giving them flexibility can reduce stress and help them manage their work-life balance.

Also, encourage your employees to unplug sometimes. It can be a big challenge for workers to separate their work and personal lives when they’re working from home, so encourage them to set boundaries for themselves. Don’t expect them to check their email after hours, for example. Make sure everyone is taking regular breaks throughout the day.

Finally, celebrate with your team. When you experience a win, make sure everyone can take a break and that employees get credit. Reward everyone when a goal is met or exceeded. This helps foster a positive spirit and better engagement in a remote environment.

As teams shift to a remote environment, it’s a time to show empathy to both employees and customers. When you can create a work culture that develops from that place of understanding, employee and customer retention rates will soar.

The importance of customer feedback

The saying, “no news is good news” should not apply in a remote working environment. Instead, be proactive about gathering customer feedback. What are the current gaps in communication and service? Where can you improve?

View your customer relationships as more than numbers and stats. These are human relationships that need attention and nurturing to grow. And you’ll never know how you’re doing unless you ask. Listen to what they’re saying and don’t react right away. Just take it in and hear their concerns.

Implement a process to put a greater focus on customers who are not as engaged. If something is wrong, gathering feedback will show that to you. Only then can you address it and improve. When you’re constantly looking for ways to perform better and serve your clients more efficiently, you’ll start to see growth.

Remember that positive and negative feedback are both helpful to your company. There’s only a problem when you’re not getting any feedback.

Meeting customers where they are with texting

Client texting has been a point of debate over the last few years for companies. They don’t want to take communications completely off the grid, since KPIs may not be trackable on personal devices. Or, if a team member takes a vacation, the customer may not get their question answered promptly.

However, if you fail to offer texting as a customer communication method, you could be missing out on that simple way to talk that your customers actually prefer.

The solution is using a platform like ConnectWise, where you can integrate customer texting with your team quickly and easily. This is made possible with our new integration with Tixt by Gozynta. Surveys can now be given over text instead of email. Or, when a user is having an issue, the customer can text the MSP’s unique Tixt number. From there, a worker will be assigned to manage the ticket and solve the problem quickly.

The Tixt integration allows client texting to be kept within the company, and team members don’t have to worry about giving out their personal numbers. KPIs can be tracked through the system and show how many texts are received, how many calls team members are taking, and survey information. Tixt helps with both customer feedback and ticket management for teams of all sizes, making these processes simpler for the organization and its customers.

The blend of tracking these KPIs and being able to offer a more flexible communication method like texting helps boost customer retention. You have visibility into success metrics that will help you keep improving, and customers are more satisfied when they can talk to you instantly via their favorite way to talk.

Both customer and employee retention rates are key factors in leading your business down the path to growth. When you need a tool that helps you track feedback from customers and focus on employee engagement, Crewhu can help you increase retention rates. Learn more by scheduling a free demo.