Customer loyalty is one of the most important—if not the most important—considerations for modern companies in virtually every industry. Fortunately, the secret behind customer loyalty isn’t really a secret at all; customers just want to feel heard and valued by your organization. If they’re not feeling it, they might start to look for greener pastures with a competitor.
These days, customer loyalty is more than just a buzzword or basic incentive program. While these programs don’t necessarily hurt anything, they’re really only surface-level deep. That’s why B2B companies that truly want to set themselves apart—and make their customers feel like true partners—are prioritizing collaboration.
Visual collaboration software enables companies to develop more meaningful and productive customer relationships, benefiting both parties. In this article, we’ll explore the basics of visual collaboration tools—what they are, what they can do, and how to choose the right one for your business.
Why Is Customer Collaboration Important?
Simply put, collaboration with customers is the best way to ensure that your customers feel understood and valued. It helps them feel less like a customer and more like a partner. As noted in a recent Gartner report, “Presentations see greater engagement and understanding through a live interactive experience rather than using static slides.” Old-fashioned slideshows are out—modern, visual collaboration tools are in. Simply put, this type of tool is more accessible, versatile, and engaging.
Keep reading for some ideas of how you can take customer presentations and engagement to the next level by making them more inclusive, interactive, and collaborative.
What Are 5 Ways to Build Collaboration Into the Customer Experience?
There are several different types of collaboration tools designed to enable greater alignment and build stronger relationships between companies and their customers. Some of the most common categories and collaboration tools examples include…
- Communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.
- Online collaboration tools like Google’s G-Suite, Dropbox Paper, and Evernote.
- Cloud storage and document sharing tools like Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive.
- Project management tools like Monday, Wrike, and Trello.
- Calendar and scheduling software like Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and Calendly.
Within each of these categories, there are countless applications to choose from. And while many companies can piece together multiple solutions to create a culture of customer collaboration, the best results come from more centralized comprehensive solutions—like Alleo.
Our unique platform is designed to bring together the best collaboration tools within a single solution. This makes it much easier to ensure that the tools all work in unison, without requiring difficult workarounds or creative configurations. It also reduces the number of disparate tools within the tech stack, which reduces costs. It also enables companies to have a single point of contact for troubleshooting and support, should any technical difficulties arise.
What Are the 5 Essential Features of an Online Collaborative Tool?
Comparing different collaborative technologies can feel overwhelming, but it becomes much easier once you’ve identified your needs and know what to look for in a productive solution. For starters, there are 5 essential features to look for:
- First, it should be accessible, in a way that enables inclusion from multiple stakeholders and perspectives.
- It should also be customizable, so that it can be tailored to the needs and priorities of the company as well as its customers.
- It should take a simplified approach that drives adoption and usage by reducing common barriers to collaboration.
- It should be engaging and intuitively designed so it’s equally easy for company leaders as well as customers to work together with minimal friction.
- It should be flexible enough to accommodate current needs, with a scalable architecture that’s ready to adapt to any shifts in priorities, as well.
Which Is the Best Collaboration Tool for Your Business and Customers?
Whether you’re in the market for your first visual collaboration tool or you’re re-evaluating your current tool set to potentially upgrade, start your search with Alleo.
Why Alleo?
In short, with Alleo, you can…
- Consolidate multiple tools and technologies to streamline collaborative processes.
- Ensure inclusion and collaborative equity by incorporating and capturing different stakeholders’ viewpoints.
- Leverage an innovative, flexible, and scalable solution to meet your current—and future—needs.
With Alleo, Better Collaborative Experiences Are Just a Click (or Two) Away
If you’re ready to take your customer collaboration to the next level, you’re ready for Alleo. For more information, you can learn more about our platform and its many use cases here, or sign up to schedule a demo.
