Customers are the lifeblood of a business. Some may further define this as ‘good’ customers are the lifeblood, but I won’t spend time on that argument right now. There are a few fundamental tactics everyone should use to get closer to the customer and build deeper value and relationships.
5 Ways to Show Customers You love Them:
- Stay in touch. This may seem obvious, but it’s easier said than done. Staying in touch with your customers requires discipline and planning. Decide how often you want to touch base with your customers, for what reasons, and build a contact schedule. Then, and this is the hard part, stick to it.
- Develop a way to track their requests. There are probably 1000 ways to skin this cat. You can use a CRM like salesforce.com, or you can use something as basic as Microsoft Excel. I’ve even spoken to sales and support reps who still use pen and paper- Do what works best for your business, but do something.
- Respond to their requests quickly. This is a big one. In our fast paced world of ‘gotta-have-it-now’, your customers are impatient and they’re expecting to hear back from you very soon. 24 hour response times that were acceptable a few years ago are now rubbish. Think of the last time you waited 24 hours or more to hear back from someone on a question you asked…Annoying, isn’t it.
- Ask if their needs have been satisfactorily met. Remember my post on ‘Assuming confusion until proven otherwise’? Well, assume your customer’s are not happy until they tell you they are. Just because you answered a question doesn’t mean it actually solved the customers needs. And it definitely doesn’t mean they are happy with your response.
- Pay attention to how they are using the product. This can be done through analytics, or simply the old-fashioned way of physically observing someone using your stuff. Customers cannot always tell you exactly what they like or dislike, but you can quickly figure it out by watching their actions.
TAKE ACTION: Talk with your customers, regularly. Ask them questions about their experience and what would make it even better. Schedule time to do this, now.
