How to Connect With Customers: 19 Tips to Build Loyalty and Trust
Improving customer experience is a constant challenge for CX leaders. Even with the right data and tools, it can be hard to make an impact if you haven’t figured out how to connect with your customers. Often, this translates into high customer churn or poor brand loyalty.
Through years of working on CX programs, I’ve found that even small, strategic changes can make a huge difference in how customers feel and how they engage with your brand. In this guide, I’m sharing 19 proven strategies to help you pinpoint friction points, reduce effort, and create stronger emotional connections with your customers.
What Is Customer Connection?
The emotional and psychological relationship between a brand and its customers is called customer connection. In my experience, a strong, positive customer connection is formed when people feel genuinely understood, supported, and valued by a brand or company.
Like most CX professionals, I’ve tested my fair share of platforms. I found that while many delivered on features, few delivered on feeling. However, Notion stood out right from the first login. Notion’s onboarding process made me feel seen, without trying too hard. Here's why:
- Simple, Relevant First Step: The first screen doesn’t throw features at you. It simply asks how you want to use Notion—for work, personal life, or school.
- Understanding Collaboration Needs: The next screen asks if you plan to use Notion alone or with others. That one question subtly acknowledges that people collaborate (or don’t) differently. It also shows that the tool is adaptable.
- Encouraging Exploration: Then comes “What’s on your mind?” It gives you options like habits, travel, career, hobbies. Notion doesn’t push you to fill in everything. It doesn’t rush you.
Notion gets the basic principle of personalization right—It isn’t about knowing everything about your user, but about listening from the start. That’s what customer connection really looks like.
Why Connecting With Customers Is Your Competitive Edge
Customer connection is more than a soft skill. It’s a strategic, hard-to-replicate advantage that drives real business results. In today’s market, where products and services are often similar, the emotional bond you create with your customers is often the defining factor that drives long-term success. And you can only do this by consciously improving customer experience.
When customers feel emotionally connected to your brand, they don’t just purchase once—they return, remain loyal, and spread the word to others. This connection directly impacts several key business outcomes:
Customer Retention
Building an emotional connection helps you retain customers over time. Customers are more likely to stick with a brand that understands their needs and makes them feel valued.
A Deloitte report revealed that 62% of consumers say loyalty programs make them feel recognized and appreciated. This, in turn, fosters a sense of emotional connection, reducing the likelihood of customers switching to a competitor.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Lifetime Value = Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan
When customers feel personally connected to your brand, they tend to spend more and stay longer. The stronger the emotional bond, the higher the customer lifetime value. In fact, an HBR article states that even a 5% increase in customer retention can translate into a profit increase of up to 95%.
Customers who feel connected to your brand also become more forgiving if issues arise. This loyalty translates directly into greater revenue over the customer’s lifetime with your brand and further reduces the risk of churn.
Brand Advocacy
Emotionally connected customers are not just repeat buyers. They become your brand advocates. They share their positive experiences with friends and family, often leading to organic referrals. And with social media, word-of-mouth publicity spreads fast and far. Nielsen found that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any kind of advertising.
Understand Who You’re Trying to Connect With
You can’t forge strong relationships with customers if you don’t understand them at their core. Apart from knowing who they are, you need to dig deeper and understand why they do what they do. This means pushing past demographic data and surface-level assumptions to get to the behavior, intent, and emotional triggers that actually drive customer decision-making.
1. Create Customer Personas That Go Beyond Demographics
Traditional customer personas often focus on basic demographics, missing crucial insights that drive potential customer decisions. How will you support customers if you don’t know what makes them tick (or ticked off)?
Instead of age or location, delve into:
- Goals and motivations: Understanding your customers’ helps you align your product or service with their core needs.
- Pain points and objections: By addressing these challenges directly, you can position your brand as the solution.
- Behavior patterns: By identifying the key actions customers take when engaging with your brand, you can predict the customer behavior and personalize experiences.
These insights help you build more detailed and actionable customer personas, ensuring that your messaging and experiences truly resonate with your target audience.
So, how do you collect this data? There’s no shortage of tools to gather and analyze qualitative and quantitative data. Here are some of them:
| Tool type | Purpose |
| Surveys | Capture trends, quantitative data on customer likes and dislikes, satisfaction scores |
| Customer interviews | Provide qualitative insights AND emotional context, revealing the deeper "why" behind customer actions. |
| CRM data and analytics | Allows you to track actual behaviors, providing data-driven insights for product development, marketing strategies, and customer support. |
| Empathy mapping | Helps you understand how customers feel at each stage of their journey. Critical in identifying emotional touchpoints and designing human-centered experiences. |
| Psychographic data | Provides a deeper look into customer values, lifestyle, and personal beliefs, allowing you to design experiences that align with their worldview. |
2. Collect and Act on Customer Feedback
Asking for feedback isn’t just about collecting data. It’s how you tell customers that their opinions matter. When you actively listen to their feedback, you’re not just trying to solve a problem, you’re building a meaningful relationship.
Continuous feedback loops create a sense of respect and show customers that you’re invested in their experience. Closing that loop and letting customers know exactly how you acted on their feedback makes them feel heard and valued.
To create these feedback loops, you can use a variety of channels:
- Surveys: Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys help you consistently measure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Review platforms & social media: Not all customer feedback comes directly to you. These days, it’s all over the internet and, as a CX leader, it’s your team’s job to find it. Social media and review platforms help you to track sentiments and allow you to engage (and diffuse situations) in real time.
- Support tickets: Analyzing tickets can help you identify the recurring issues and address the root cause of customer concerns.
By consolidating this feedback into a Voice of Customer (VoC) framework, you can gain clear insights into your customers' needs, frustrations, and preferences. VoC enables you to identify patterns that can inform product refinements, your messaging strategies, and guide your overall customer experience.
Pro tip: Instead of viewing negative reviews as criticism, see them as opportunities for improvement. Reviews offer insight into customer expectations, which even surveys can miss.
3. Map Emotional Touchpoints in the Customer Journey
Customer journey mapping isn’t just about listing touchpoints. It’s about finding where customers feel delight, frustration, or uncertainty.
Onboarding confusion, checkout friction, or long waits for support can be emotional hotspots. Mapping them helps you pinpoint where trust is built or broken.
For instance, a needlessly long or complicated checkout process can lead to a high cart abandonment rate. Or the $10 shipping fee might be putting off even the most ardent followers of your brand.
By zeroing in on these high-impact moments, rather than optimizing every step, you prioritize what truly matters. That’s how journey mapping moves from diagnostic to strategic and creates experiences customers want to return to.
Make Every Customer Interaction Feel Personal
Having customers think, “this brand truly understands me” is every CX leader’s dream. When your experiences feel personal, customers remember you, come back, and trust you more. But this isn’t something that happens by chance. Your team needs to know how to make every interaction count.
4. Use Customer Data to Tailor the Experience
Remember the time when the extent of personalization a customer could expect was “Hi, [First Name]”? That doesn’t cut it anymore, especially not in B2B. Real personalization is about showing that you understand who your customers are, what they do, what they care about, and what they need next.
Zendesk does this well. When a customer is exploring a ticketing feature for the first time, Zendesk triggers an in-app message. It’s timely, contextual, and helpful because it meets customers where they are.
That said, there is a line between personalization and intrusion. If it’s helpful and adds value to the customer experience, it’s support. But if you’re just there to gather data, that feels like spying.
5. Train Teams to Respond with Empathy, Not Scripts
Empathy is what customers remember long after the issue is resolved. And sometimes, it starts with ditching the script. So how do you deliver empathy?
Train for real connection: Teach agents active listening—tuning into what customers say and how they say it. Train your reps to mirror customer tone, pause before replying, and be adaptable, instead of sticking to templates. On calls especially, tone and pacing matter. Rushing through a conversation can feel dismissive, while a steady, calm voice signals care and attention. Real empathy requires flexibility, and that means that you, as a CX leader, need to empower your agents to go off-script and offer creative solutions.
Practice with purpose: Use coaching and roleplay to help teams respond with presence. The goal isn't to memorize lines, but to meet people where they are, especially in emotional or high-stress moments.
A standout example? Chewy.
If a customer’s pet passes away, Chewy responds with empathy, even though, from a business perspective it means halting shipments. They send flowers or a handwritten card, acknowledging the customer’s loss. This heartfelt gesture earns lifelong loyalty (former pet owners are often future pet owners too).
6. Ensure Brand Voice Consistency Across All Teams
Customers don’t care which team they’re talking to, but they do want to feel heard. But when sales sounds polished, support sounds stiff, and marketing sounds like a different personality altogether, it can be a jarring experience. An inconsistent brand voice creates confusion and that disconnect quietly erodes trust. On the other hand, a shared voice shows you’re aligned, reliable, and paying attention.
Tips to build a shared brand voice across teams
- Create a brand voice guide with tone, phrasing, and real examples across use cases.
- Adjust voice by context. For instance, a refund email shouldn’t sound like a campaign.
- Co-create with all teams—support, sales, and marketing should shape the voice together.
- Train and coach regularly using real messages and calls.
Be Where Your Customers Are — On Their Terms
Customers don’t want to chase you down. Whether it’s chat, email, or a video call, meet them where they are, how they prefer. Good customer support is, first and foremost, about being accessible.
7. Engage on Preferred Channels
Omnichannel support is now non-negotiable. Customers want to switch channels mid-conversation and not lose the thread. According to a Salesforce report, 76% of customers choose different channels based on context.
To figure out which channels matter, I recommend looking at your data. Where are most of your tickets originating from? Or ask customers directly through surveys. For example, Gen Z might reach out on a social media platform like Instagram or WhatsApp, while long-time customers might prefer email or phone calls.
Once you know where your customers are, make sure your approach fits. You might need to make any or all of the following iterations:
- Empower social media teams to handle quick queries (or direct them seamlessly to your support team).
- Train support agents to manage in-depth problems over email or phone.
- Ensure context follows the customer across platforms. This means unifying customer data and using customer service software that allows internal notes.
More than a technology choice, omnichannel is about building trust. It is about showing customers you’re present, available, and reachable on the channels they use.
8. Offer Low-Effort Communication Options
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures the level of effort customers must put in to solve their issue. The lower the effort, the more likely they are to stay and see the interaction through.
For a customer, an interaction is “low-effort” when they don’t have to explain their problem over and over or wait forever for a response. Here are some ways to reduce customer effort (and increase satisfaction):
| Tool or Tactic | How It Reduces CES |
| Live chat | Allows quick, real-time conversations without making customers wait on hold. |
| Chatbots | Enables canned or AI-generated responses to common customer problems. Bonus points if it can smoothly hand off to an agent, if needed. |
| Self-Service | Empowers customers to help themselves. Make sure your self-serve resources (knowledge base, FAQs, articles) are easy to find. |
| Simple IVR menus | Keeps phone support smooth with short, easy-to-follow options. Pro tip: Don’t bury the “speak to a representative” option and design your IVR in a way that routes callers to the right agents. |
| Callbacks | No one likes long hold times or elevator music. Offering a callback to customers reduces the frustration of waiting and helps streamline agent workflows. |
9. Don’t Overlook In-Person or High-Touch Moments
Building real connections matters, especially with high-LTV B2B clients. While digital touchpoints are important, in-person events, virtual demos, and one-on-one calls feel more personal and help create a much stronger bond. By adding these high-touch moments, you strengthen relationships and offer customers a memorable experience that digital-only touchpoints just can't provide.
For example, HubSpot uses personalized video support to help clients navigate the platform, ensuring a smoother, more meaningful experience. This is a powerful way to build trust and improve customer engagement, even after a purchase.
10. Set Clear Expectations Around Response Times
The truth is customers don’t expect perfection, but they do need clarity. The Zendesk CX Trends 2023 report states that 72% of customers want immediate service. In my experience, good customer service means, at the very least, an immediate acknowledgment—even if it is an automatic response.
While “immediate” doesn’t always mean you need to respond in five minutes, you should be upfront about your response time. If your support page says, “We typically respond within 12 hours” and you actually respond in 4? That’s a win. You’ve under-promised and over-delivered. Also, you built trust, and reduced the chance of a second follow-up message. This transparency prevents confusion, lowers frustration, and builds credibility.
Here’s an example of an automated email response from the City of Toronto about a mailing address change request. It says: “Online mailing address change requests are typically processed within 48 business hours.”
This is an example of clear, helpful communication customers can count on. It confirms receipt of the request, provides an order number, and gives an estimated timeline for completion. It also explains that they will let the user know when the request has been processed.
Earn Customer Trust Before You Ask for Loyalty
Customers only stick around if they feel like you really get them and have their back. CX experts know that the magic ingredient needed to turn one-time buyers into loyal customers is trust. This kind of trust is earned by showing customers that you care about more than just sales. This section highlights some ways in which companies can earn customer trust.
11. Deliver Value After the Sale
The relationship doesn’t end once a customer clicks “Buy.” In fact, that’s when the real connection starts. Whether it’s thoughtful onboarding, quick check-ins, or helpful tips along the way, showing up after the sale shows customers that the relationship isn’t merely transactional.
Proactive support can go a long way. It can be anticipating a question before it’s asked or sharing a feature a new user hasn’t tried yet. These little moments remind customers you’re paying attention, even when they’re not reaching out.
Coming back to my example of Notion: After someone signs up, Notion sends helpful emails introducing core features like slash commands and subpages, complete with quick tips and tutorials. It’s their way of saying, “We’re here to help you”. And, this post-sale connection keeps users engaged long after onboarding.
12. Acknowledge Mistakes and Communicate Transparently
Mistakes are inevitable. But, as long as it is addressed properly, there’s no reason why you can’t retain your customers. A well-crafted apology can transform a negative experience into a trust-building opportunity. Here's how to structure it:
- Own the error: State clearly what went wrong.
- Express empathy by acknowledging the customer's frustration.
- Outline next steps: Detail how you're addressing the problem.
- Give a little extra: Offer something thoughtful, and make it clear you're listening and learning from the moment.
For example, H&M demonstrates this approach effectively. When facing delivery delays, they send personalized emails acknowledging the issue and often include a 15% discount code as a goodwill gesture. This kind of transparency not only resolves the immediate concern but also reinforces customer loyalty.
Pro tip: If you know a mistake was made, don’t wait for the customer to find out. Proactive acknowledgment means much more than reactive support.
13. Surprise Customers with Personalized Gestures
Not all surprises are equal. The most impactful gestures are thoughtful, relevant, and feel earned. To truly stand out, steer clear of gimmicky messaging, generic discounts, and mass emails.
By tying gestures to real achievements or behaviors, brands create emotional connections that strengthen loyalty far beyond the transaction.
Example: Fiit, the fitness app, surprises users who consistently hit their workout streaks with a custom training plan and a “You crushed it!” video message from their favorite coach. That’s contextual, personal, and gives users the encouragement they need to stick to their fitness goals (and continue using the app, as a result).
Leverage Technology to Empower Customer Connections
Technology doesn’t just speed things up, it can bring people closer. Of course, spending all your money on tech stack alone won’t help you connect with customers. But customer service tools can help teams show up with the right context, at the right moment.
14. Centralize Customer Data Across Teams
Sales knows one thing, support knows another, and marketing? Often something entirely different. When systems don’t talk to each other, customers end up repeating themselves, agents duplicate effort, and the experience falls apart.
Centralizing customer data using a CRM or a shared support platform brings everyone onto the same page. That means faster responses, fewer mistakes, and more human service.
For example, a customer calls support to check if they can return an item. When an agent can see a customer’s order history, purchase context, and store preferences at a glance, they can go one step beyond just quoting the return policy. The agent might be able to tell the customer that the shirt they bought 10 days ago has a 15-day return window, but the store they shop at is typically closed on Mondays. So they should head in by Sunday to be able to return the item. This level of personalization elevates the customer experience and builds trust.
15. Automate For Efficiency, But Bring Agents In When Needed
Automation should make support smoother, not colder. For routine tasks like tracking orders or changing passwords, chatbots can be great. They can also deal with simple, common FAQs, and reduce the number of tickets your agents need to deal with.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus can streamline your call center operations, automate routing, and even address common questions about billing or payment information. AI tools can also automate other processes, such as routing tickets or sending reminders.
But when complex questions or emotional touchpoints come into play, it’s best to seamlessly hand it off to a human. Balancing automation with agents helps make your operations more efficient, without compromising on customer connection.
Create a Customer Connection Strategy That Lasts
Strong connections don’t happen by chance, they’re built with intention. It’s not just about solving problems quickly. A strong customer connection is about showing up consistently, listening deeply, and creating experiences that feel personal.
16. Build Customer-Centricity from the Inside Out
Customer connection starts inside your walls long before a support ticket is raised. If teams are only measured on speed or sales, that’s what they’ll prioritize. But when leaders reward empathy, track metrics like CES or NPS impact, and coach with real customer stories, it triggers a shift towards a customer-centric culture. Suddenly, it's not just about output, it’s about outcomes.
That said, CX isn’t just one team’s job—it’s a shared responsibility. Product, sales, and even finance should know how their work touches the customer. That only happens when you align goals across teams and give frontline staff the tools and trust to act. When everyone feels like they own the customer experience, it shows—and it has an impact on metrics that matter, like loyalty, CLV, and retention.
17. Reward Loyalty and Show Your Appreciation
Loyalty grows when customers feel genuinely seen and appreciated. Make it clear that their loyalty means something. A thank-you note, early access to something they care about, or a simple gesture can go a long way.
Example: Sephora’s Beauty Insider program nails this. Members get to pick their own birthday gift, choose tailored samples, and hear about new launches before everyone else. Although, at the heart of it, it is a points-based reward system, it still feels personal and reflects the brand’s personality.
18. Create Community Spaces Where Customers Feel Seen
Support doesn’t always need to come from your team. Often, the most trusted answers come from other users who’ve been through the same thing.
Whether it’s a user forum, Slack group, or subreddit, strong community spaces give customers room to share, troubleshoot, and build real connections. They also take pressure off your support team while growing a loyal, self-sustaining base.
Look at Notion’s subreddit or Figma’s community hub. These aren’t just brand-hosted spaces, they’re full of people who genuinely want to help. That peer-driven support creates a sense of community, trust and, over time, advocacy.
But the community doesn’t grow on its own. You have to show up. Highlight valuable user-generated content and keep things constructive. Lead, but don’t micromanage.
Pro tip: Communities can just as easily go south if customer experience deteriorates. Monitor the community for early warning signs or complaints, and address them proactively.
19. Don’t Forget Every Customer is Unique
The needs, abilities, and preferences of each customer are different. That’s why one size never fits all. The best teams anticipate these differences. They segment not just by channel, but by behavior, intent, and even accessibility needs. And they act on it, whether that’s tailoring how support is offered, or proactively sending the right message at the right time.
CRMs can help, but the real value lies in the mindset. At the end of the day, it’s important to treat people like individuals, not data points.
Mistakes to Avoid When Trying to Connect with Customers
Even with the best intentions, brands often miss the mark on connection. It’s more than saying the right words. It’s about understanding what blocks the way.
Making Assumptions About Your Customers
Guessing what your customers need is easier than asking. But that’s how you end up with tone-deaf emails and irrelevant features. Skipping market research or using too small a simple size can lead to gaps in understanding, and those gaps show. Your outreach should be driven by careful listening, not just gut feelings.
Inadequate Customer Service Training For Staff
Your frontline team plays the most important part in creating customer experience. If they’re unprepared, CX crumbles fast. Invest in customer service training, role-play, and coaching that goes beyond scripts. Encourage your staff to upskill and get certifications to improve how they deal with customers.
Not Listening Actively
Customers drop signals everywhere: support tickets, churn reasons, social media, and product reviews. Active listening means actually looping those insights back into your sales playbooks, UX tweaks, and messaging.
Delayed or Inadequate Responses
When customers don’t hear back, they feel ignored and lose trust. When responding, fast isn’t always possible. But, being clear is possible. Specify when they’ll hear from you (use automated replies, if needed) and stick to your commitment.
Cadence matters, too. Regular updates like “We’re still working on it”, “Here’s where we are” help customers feel seen, even if the issue isn’t resolved yet. When people know why there’s a delay, they’re more likely to be patient. So, build internal habits that support transparency.
Final Thoughts: Customer Connection Is Built, Not Bought
Tools and tech can make connecting with customers easier, but they’re not the real magic. What really builds strong customer relationships is the mindset behind every interaction, the consistency, and genuine care you bring each time. Without that, even the best tools fall flat.
Take a moment to audit how you connect with your customers today. Are you showing up in ways that truly matter? Or are there gaps where your efforts feel shallow? Real change starts with that honest reflection.
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