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Building strong relationships with your customers is crucial in the insurance industry. This goes for customers you interact with online as much as it does for those you meet in person. Here are a few ideas for pulling it off gracefully.

Be responsive. If a customer has a problem, address it right away—especially if they got your attention in a public forum such as Twitter or Facebook. A large audience will be watching to see how you respond to customer service issues, and it’s important to be clear and transparent—and get it right. Respond to customer complaints in whatever medium they deliver them, and go over and above in resolving the issue if you can.

Give shout-outs. Many people are looking to build their social media profile. You can help by doing what you can to elevate their voice. Retweet them, “Like” their posts, enter into online conversations, and mention them to your own audience. This can help you build relationships, broaden your reach to the other person’s audience, and generate goodwill.

Don’t ask for anything. When trying to build relationships online, it’s important not to ask anything of your prospects. An email newsletter that mostly contains exhortations to buy isn’t likely to get a lot of clicks—and may not make it past Spam filters. Instead, be useful. Offer helpful tips and provide articles that speak to your prospects’ biggest insurance-related headaches. Train your prospects to expect useful things from you every time you send an email, and you’ll have much higher “open” rates.

Be accessible. Let prospects get in touch with you any way they want—including over social media. Respond as quickly as you can—ideally within a day, or faster if the issue is urgent. Let your potential customers see that it’s easy to reach you, and you can help reassure them and make them feel comfortable working with you.

Building relationships online isn’t that different from doing it in real life. It’s important to reach out with the recipient’s benefit in mind—not your own. Design your email marketing campaigns, social media presence, and other messaging with ways to help your prospects in mind—not just ways to sell your insurance products. Respond to issues quickly and always be accessible. With these habits, you should be able to build outstanding relationships online that help your business grow.