One of the most difficult aspects of customer service is getting your clients to engage with you. After you spend so much time and effort devising what you see as a foolproof customer service plan and don’t hear a peep from your clients in return, it can get extremely disheartening. So, what can you do to inspire better communication between you and your clients? Here are a few tips with the help of Rob Krugman and his article, “3 Building Blocks for Creating Engaging Customer Communications.”

1. Be Available

Your availability extends beyond the amount of time you spend ready to respond to your clients. It also includes how you’re available to them. You can’t limit yourself to one preferred method of communication. You need to let your clients know that you are ready to speak to them via emails, phone calls, letters, or whatever other method they prefer. Your initial outreach with clients depends almost entirely on their comfort, so be flexible and open to adjusting to meet their contact preferences.

2. Be Precise and Concise

We have heard this advice from English teachers our entire lives, but have we really put it to use? This rule is especially important when it comes to customer service emails. If your clients open an email from you and see a small novel, they’ll be less likely to respond. They get a surge of emails every day that they need to sift through and prioritize, and they’ll just see each paragraph you write as taking away from the time they’d spend on other tasks. Keep it to the point and make that point clear.

3. Involve Them

If your outreach doesn’t clearly benefit your clients, why on earth would they take the precious time needed to respond? This ties into your clarity: make your purpose clear, and let them know how their response will benefit them in the future. Write emails that ask specific questions about your service and how it could be improved, and make it obvious that you sincerely value your clients' input during the service crafting process. Who wouldn’t respond to something that’s going to aid them?