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Have You Tried Being A Customer Of Your Business Lately?

Written by: Ray Stewart

Article Overview: This may sound odd - but have you looked at how you treat your customers recently? I was discussing this earlier today with a client whose business has stagnated after he moved into a new office last year and we were looking at possible reasons why that would be. We looked at the products he was offering, how he was conducting his marketing, what factors locally had changed, was the "credit crunch" likely to be an influence, and so on..

Have You Tried Being A Customer Of Your Business Lately?

This may sound odd - but have you looked at how you treat your customers recently?

I was discussing this earlier today with a client whose business has stagnated after he moved into a new office last year and we were looking at possible reasons why that would be.

We looked at the products he was offering, how he was conducting his marketing, what factors locally had changed, was the "credit crunch" likely to be an influence, and so on. We spent an hour or so brainstorming and quite by chance I asked him how people got in touch initially to make enquiries before becoming a customer.

His reaction was quite surprising. He said that the business had moved but he was using up the marketing materials and letterheads from before the move. Of course, the phone number and address had changed with the move but he was loath to dump his old literature. Instead he had a redirection of the phone and post and thought that would do.

On impulse, I picked up the phone and dialed the office number which was being redirected and guess what? yup, it was unobtainable. I then asked him if the bundles of re-directed post were still being delivered at the office and he thought for a moment and said they had seemed to dry up a while ago and he thought the new address must have filtered through to the customers.

Another quick phone call to the Post Office revealed that he had redirected the post for 6 months, but then not renewed it.

Here then we had something concrete. It is not surprising that business has been hard to come by lately - his customers could not get in touch easily. Those who had his mobile number were lucky, but others didn't, and any new prospects certainly wouldn't have.

The moral to this tale then... regularly check that all your lines and methods of communication are open for business all the time.

You should aim, at all times, to make it as easy as possible for people, customers and prospects alike, to get in touch - and keep checking them all regularly - just in case!!!

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Article Tags: credit crunch, impulse, letterheads, literature, marketing materials, methods of communication, mobile number, phone call, phone number, post office, prospects, redirection, something concrete



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Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: Paypal process $315 million in payments per day. - I agree with you David, their Customer relations suck. This mean other payment systems like 2CO and WORLDPAY should work on their customers relations to take more slice of the market.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.


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