Communicate with your customers often, preferably in person. Even sending a monthly email can remind people about the deals your company offers and how it’s superior to similar companies. No matter how charming, persuasive, or enthusiastic you are, customers will forget about you after a one-time meeting. After you meet with a new customer, send a follow-up email and thank him or her for their time. You should also follow up after you come home from a networking event. You can use Skype if you’re too far away from the customer for an in-person meeting.
Customer relationship management
Customer or client relationship management, also called CRM, is the practices and policies an organization follows when interacting with customers. Offer house calls or office visits to your customers if possible. That way, people can decide if it would be more convenient for them to come to you or for you to come to them. You can also buy your customer lunch and talk about business at a nice restaurant. If you have kids that are near the same age, bring your child to meet and play with your customer’s child. You could even meet and talk business while taking the kids to your local zoo.
Many people always offer guests who come to visit a drink or even a meal. If you’re not hungry, at least say yes to a drink to make sure you don’t offend your customer. Eating together can help you build a strong relationship. You could even get invited to hang out and watch TV after you finish your business.
Create a customer database
Many businesses have hundreds or thousands of customers, and they need a convenient place to keep customer information like mailing addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. You should also keep records of customer preferences, and order histories. Whenever a customer calls, write a short record of the conversation. That way, the next person to talk to that customer won’t have to ask what the problem is again, and the customer won’t have to keep repeating their problem again. You should also consider offering a refund or a partial credit if a customer has to call more than once to get a problem resolved.
Reward loyal customers
An increase in customer retention also increases profits, and repeat customers usually spend more than new customers. Give your most loyal customers a reward to say thank you. For example, you can give everyone who’s been using your company for more than five years a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant or store on their birthday. Many companies give customers coffee mugs, pens, bookmarks, bumper stickers, and other useful items. They show businesses care about their customers while providing free advertising.
Use customer surveys, polls, and questionnaires
A regular survey can help you learn about your customers’ preferences and needs. It also helps customers feel like they’re being heard and valued. These tools can give you useful information and ideas about what customers like and what new products or services they want you to add. You should also give questionnaires to employees and use market research to get a better picture of your typical customer. If employees aren’t satisfied, they won’t make the extra effort to build relationships with customers.
Make sure customers can contact you easily
If customers regularly wait on hold for an hour or two every time they call, you should hire more customer service representatives. Otherwise, you could lose customers who get sick of waiting on hold, even if they only need to pay their bill.
Use social media
Social media is very popular, and almost everyone has a Facebook or Twitter account. Create a profile for your business on social media and post regularly. It’s a great way to remind people about sales, promotions, and special events. You can also share positive reviews from customers and tell people about parties, special events, and contests. When customers ask questions on social media, answer them as soon as possible. Make sure all your followers can see the answers so that no one needs to ask a question you already answered.
If your company is relatively large, you should have at least one employee who focuses on social media. The same person can also start a blog with helpful information to attract more customers to your website. Whenever you can, use humor to encourage people to share your comments with friends.
Give customers a chance to donate to charity
When customers make a payment online, they can click to donate $1, $2, or $5 to your business’s favorite charity. For example, your local veterinary clinic could make it easy for people to give to the Humane Society. Since smartphones are so popular, many people choose this option when it’s available even if they went to the business for service. It also shows customers that you care about more than just profits.
Be honest
Without a reputation for honesty, integrity, and transparency, building relationships with customers can be very difficult. For some businesses, customer trust is just as important as the quality of the products or services available. Because of this, you should always keep your commitments and be honest about any problems you have. If you can’t meet a deadline, you have trouble finding a particular product, or you encounter difficulties while providing a specific service, notify the customer immediately.
If you’re coming to the customer’s home, try to give a specific time. Most people have better things to do than staying at home all day waiting for a minor repair. When you go on vacation or you don’t feel well, you should let clients know, too. You can also create an online resource for customers to track orders, monitor the progress of a project, or learn more about products or services.
Meet deadlines
Make sure you leave at least a few extra hours of time before every deadline. That way, you won’t have to disappoint a customer because of a family emergency or because you got stuck in traffic on the way to work. Most of the time, you’ll be able to impress your client by turning in work early. If you can’t meet a deadline, just make sure you tell the customer as soon as possible.
Treat every client like your most important customer
When a customer talks to you, always listen carefully instead of looking at websites on your phone or trying to take care of work for another client at the same time. Your customer will be able to tell you’re distracted even if you’re talking on the phone and not in person.
Simply put, happy clients are more likely to make referrals. Provide all clients with your best service, regardless of whether they are a Fortune 500 company or a small business. You never know who your clients may know or to whom they will refer you. Just as importantly, when they switch jobs, either within their company or to a new one, you want to be the partner they recommend to their new team. Lastly, it is important to remember that today’s small companies could be the big companies of tomorrow, and it’s incredibly fulfilling to be a trusted partner fueling that growth.
Make your business unique and welcoming
A cute office pet will get customers talking about your business. Many new clients may come check out your company just because they heard about your cute pet. An office pet helps employees relax as well as giving clients something fun to do while they wait.
Find some common interests
You can talk about your favorite foods, your pets, your kids, or other subjects to help build a relationship with customers. Just make sure you avoid controversial subjects like politics or religion. You can make good friends with many clients if you occasionally talk about things that aren’t business.
Businesses are all about relationships. When you nurture them, your sales and your number of customers will soar.
