 |
Further
Reading ...
|
|
Web Business Success: From Zero to Profit In Seven Days - David Howlett
The week before I planned to launch my website, I had some products to sell and an ecommerce system in place to take the orders and process the credit card payments, but, unfortunately, like many new websites I had absolutely no visitors on the...
Offline Advertising for Online Companies - Michele Borowsky
The goal of any business should be to reach the most amount of people possible with the right message at the right time and for the right reason. Many people with online companies are missing out completely when all they do is networking, search...
Customer Service Is Still The Key To SUCCESS! - Boyd Goodfellow
Pick any industry. Who is at the top? How did they get there? I can guarantee the answer to that question is two words: "customer service." Sure, cost is important, variety is important, all those things are important. But when you're new to a...
Will Inquiries Lower Your Credit Score? - Scott Brown
What are inquiries? When you apply for credit the creditor or lender checks your credit report to verify that you qualify for the credit or loan you are applying for. The "inquiry" is then reported to the credit bureaus and shows up on your credit...
|
|
|
Customer Retention with a Personal Touch
|
 |
Written By:
Tony Valle
|
|
|
Personal contact with customers is a crucial element in the success of any new business – and it’s one of the most common casualties of growth. As a company grows, the president tends to fade away into his or her office. That can lead to loss of leverage right at the point when a company is starting to take off and needs it most.
The danger is that the company can become just another faceless entity that the customer deals with every day. This danger increases in this era of reliance on computers to handle communications with customers. Think about instituting a policy of sending a personal thank-you note to each customer. It’s not that difficult to do if you stick with it. Just sit down one evening per week and work through your list of customer contacts from the previous week.
Savvy companies will track customer contacts in their contact-management databases, but you can get away with keeping a simple Excel spreadsheet of all thank-you cards sent. Trust me, your customers will not forget it!
To really kick the personal touch into gear, spend one day per month doing nothing but making “courtesy” calls to your existing customers. Don’t have any plans to do real business – just call to say hello. Your clients will be pleased and astounded that you took the time just - continued below ...
|
|
|
continued ...
to check in. To ready your mind to play the role of friend rather than business associate, make the calls from home that day.
Really any little thing that you can do to make your customers feel that you remember them and care about them is priceless. I have a particular customer that mentioned to me one day that she was a tremendous Ray Charles fan. Months later when Ray passed away, I sent her a little note of condolence. I don’t think she will ever forget that gesture. She later told me that I was the only one who mentioned anything to her that day. She had been feeling like nobody knew or cared until she received my note.
What opportunities to make personal contact with clients are you missing each day? Sure, it’s easy to use convenient excuses like “I just don’t have the time,” or “I’ll get to it next week.” Just remember how much more difficult and time-consuming it is to find a new client rather than to keep a current one.
In the end, taking time to keep in contact with your customers will pay a lifetime of dividends both personally and professionally.
About the Author
Tony Valle is owner of Promethius Consulting, LLC, a unique web-design and marketing firm. Learn more at http://www.promethius.com
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| _Additional Resources ... |
|
Google Proof Your Site with Links - John Gergye
Let me try reading your mind. You're thinking, "What? Google proof my site with links? I thought links helped Google rank my pages higher?" And you're absolutely right. They do. But links do something else. They give you a backup source of...
Five Myths About Inflation - William Cate
Five Myths About Inflation By William Cate A classic definition of inflation is any increase in the money supply. Understanding inflation is vital to anyone seeking investment profits or attempting to build a successful company. As with most basic...
Playing the High-Stakes Biotech Game - Sam Subramanian
Shares of biotechnology companies have declined, after the much anticipated American Society of Clinical Oncologists meeting in early June in New Orleans. This sector has been on a roll ever since Genentech (NYSE: DNA) vaulted 45% on May 19, 2003...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
