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Enhancing Customer Relationships

Guest post by: Terri Levine

Article Overview: Businesses spend exorbitant amounts marketing their services and products to customers, forever trying to build their customer base and attract new customers, little realizing the pot of gold that exists in their existing customer base.

Enhancing Customer Relationships

It costs you more to gain a new customer than to develop the same amount of business with an existing customer. Current customers already know you and your product and services and have a relationship with you. These customers are your gold and need to be cherished and mined.

Use these steps to create life-long customers:

1. Needs - understand your customer and what their needs are. What are their most important goals and how can you or your product or service help them achieve their goals? No 2 customers will be alike and their needs will be unique. While you can sometimes guess at their requirements and make suggestions and offers, don't assume you know what they need more than they do.

1. Communication - create a way to be in contact with your customers that don't feel that you are bugging them or trying to sell them - simply letting them know you are there and you care. E-mail is one quick and easy method and don't forget the use of mobile text messages.

1. Ask - find out what your customers want and pay attention to their changing needs over time. Ask the customer what you can do to best serve them. Like yourself, they also need to change and adapt to keep up with modern living.

1. Serve - just as after a marriage court-ship the tenderness, love and respect has to continue for the marriage to flourish, serving your customers is not something you do once in a while. Be involved in serving throughout the relationship. Don't be afraid to recommend other companies if they have a product or service your client needs and you know it will best serve those needs. They will appreciate it and rather than lose their custom, you will increase their loyalty.

1. It goes without saying that you should always be friendly and courteous and teach your staff to treat existing customers with absolute respect. Teach them to go out of their way to try and please these customers - you don't want to lose them to the competition.

1. Remember your clients on special occasions. Send cards for significant events or use email or text message for smaller, less significant greetings.

In a nutshell, if you make your customers feel valued and appreciated and wanted, they will give you return business.

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Article Tags: customer service, customers, marketing, marketing to clients



Related Forum Posts
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.
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: Welcome to Entrepreneur University! - Hi Evan and GT, Can you clarify? If you join the "Preferred Customer" you are not entitled to commission? Why? This is the the $79.95/month account, I don't understand why you are not getting commission from it?
Re: Email Marketing Benefits - Robert, Many lists consist of more prospects than customers. Customer lists are the best, but they are created because prospects successfully transform into customers.
Marketers, Learn What You Can, Cannot Control Online - I am a Customer Service Representative in my company so naturally every once and a while I get angry customers fed up with my companies policies. Oh! I remember one day on my way home from school I was walking by a gas station and there was a man with a huge cardboard sign outside a small car mechanic business telling people not to go there because they are crooks. I am pretty sure they lost tons of business. I know my mama kept away from there after I told her about it. I found it pretty funny. I wonder if the guy got arrested or fined though....


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