subject: Connecting With your Customers [print this page] Connecting With your Customers Connecting With your Customers
Having a locally owned and operated business can take time to grow finding customers, promoting a product or service, and reaching your clientele via the internet. When your business is still small, or if you prefer to keep it that way, it's important to connect with your consumers: you want to build a strong foundation with them, in the hopes of the relationship growing into a committed partnership over time. In other words, you want to maintain the loyalty of your customers by showing them said loyalty in return.
Being a responsible company is all in your mission statement and business ethics, but rather than discussing this, I want to focus on how to build and maintain customer relations in the local market. No matter how large or small your customer base is, you want to network with them. In order to do this, you ought to utilize email to its full potentialfor the customers you already have, send them notifications, updates, product or service news, special discounts, etc., directly to their email accounts. Sound familiar? It should many large companies use this practice often to attract and keep consumers: email clubs are definitely worth the investment.
With the technological advances of today, you can easily establish a name for yourself on the web within your chosen marketsmart phones offer you and your clients constant access to your website, and the utilization of social media helps to connect your business with your consumers. It's important that your site includes your business contact information, other than email; your customers will want to reach you for product/service help, questions and/or concerns, comments or complaintsyou name it, they'll want to say it. Therefore, it may be wise to look into another phone line designated specifically for customer relations. Depending on the size of your business, you may be able to handle the work' phone yourself. If your business has a physical location, put the address on your website; if your customers want to send you physical mail, it's important to include an address.
Whether your business is exclusively on the web, or you have store locations, you may want to take the following tips into consideration when building customer relations:
1. Communicate. As already touched upon, using social media, email, telephone, or traditional mail, it's important to reach out to your customer base.
2. Customer Service. This goes hand-in-hand with communication: providing excellent service to your customers will show them you are willing to go that extra mile. If you have employees, lead by example and make sure they will follow your commitment to your customers.
3. Reliability. Make sure deliveries to your customers arrive on time; if you provide a service, do so in a timely manner. If something changes, inform your customer immediately. Perhaps you might offer them compensation for the lost time.
4. Thank You's. It may sound silly, but thank your customers for their continued business or referrals. Send them some kind of compensationa small gift basket, coupons for a free item, etc.
5. Product Awareness. Be cognizant of what your regular customers purchase, and keep these items sufficiently stocked. You may also want to stock other products that accompany these purchases; as a simple example, if you sell tables, you might want to also sell chairs!
While these are just some tips to keep in mind when building loyalty within your customer base, you should never forget the importance of adding a human element in everything you do. If your business is exclusively web-based, you'll need to push yourself further than your competitors in order to prove to your customers that they should devote their time and money to your business. Make your customer feel valued, and you'll be rewardednot only in profit, but in loyalty as well.
