7 Simple Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Customers
It may seem straightforward, but the key to a successful business is keeping a pulse on you current customers. It takes a lot of your company’s resources, and your clients’ time, to decide to work together on a project. It is in both companies’ best interest to keep working together, but it is your job to keep your company top of mind. Your goal is to turn that single transaction or experience into an ongoing relationship.
Another reason to renew a relationship with a client is to seek out a customer as a referral or case study. Organized referral programs are relative new to the market, so you may be tasked with seeking out referrals from clients that you don't speak with on a normal basis. Maybe your company had a great partnership with a particular client for a one time deal, you haven't talked to them in a while and you would still like to use them as a referral. In both cases they would be a prime target for Topferral!
The tricky part with staying in touch with a client is finding the balance between reaching out in a meaningful way and becoming a nuisance. The difference is usually in value. If your exchange can add value to your customer, than they are more likely to look favorably on your call.
7 Simple Ways to Stay In Touch With Your Customers:
1. Set Up An Alert On Each Customer:
Keep track of what is being said about your customer online. Google Alerts is a great tool, but there are some other good third party options (Talkwalker & Mention). It is recommended to customize the alert to also keep track of what is being said about their competitors, as that information may be pertinent. This simple task along with scanning the subsequent results will save you time and will connect you with your client.
Then take the information received and send congratulations on promotions, information about competitors to appropriate departments, trends in the industry, etc. Even if they have seen the article or information they will appreciate the gesture.
2. Offer To Recommend:
Your customer is not going to ask you to recommend them for a skill or referral on Linkedin. You are a customer though and worked closer with them and even some of their colleagues. Be proactive and give them a them a strong but accurate referral. People appreciate those actions and will pay you back in the future.
3. Show Some PR Love:
Give you customer some individual PR for their company by profiling them on your website or blog. Interview them, ask for tips on how to use your product, industry insights, etc. They will gain some respect in their company, have a published piece profiling them and you get a customer review - win-win.
4. Do Something Nice:
It is pretty straightforward advice, but do something nice that would make your client happy. You have gotten to know your client while doing business with them, so you have some idea of what they enjoy. If they like baseball, give them tickets to the next home game. If they are a foodie, a gift certificate to a new high rated restaurant. You don’t always have to spend a lot of money; you may have heard of a free concert or event that they would enjoy with their family - mention it to them.
Sit down and think about each client and write down a few things. Try to make some effort to do nice things for your clients on occasion!
5. Ask for Meaningful--Not Gratuitous--Input
Your client is more knowledgeable about their industry and how they use your product in their industry than you are. Take their advice and learn from them. Ask if they will be open to be beta testers on a new feature or improvement.
Ask if you can take them to lunch and pick their brain on new direction your company may be thinking of going. Try to keep in mind that they might assume that you are just trying to sell them on new products. But it is a great way to stay in touch with your clients and keep a pulse on what is happening in their industry and how it relates to your company.
6. Comment:
Try to subscribe to any of your customers blogs and follow their social media channels. Keep track of what their voice is and what message they are projecting. Comment on blogs and posts, but make sure to be insightful and positive! Your customers will appreciate the support.
7. Keep Helpful Notes:
This is a great tip for any salesperson; take notes about your clients! When clients talk about family details, hobbies, schools, trip locations, etc, take notes in your CRM or under their contact details. Before a meeting, glance through the notes. For example, you run into one of your customers and you ask how the college search is going for his son who is a senior in high school? You just turned a short “hi” into a conversation and made a lasting impression.
These tips are great ways to keep up relationships with your customers and should be followed even if your company is no longer doing business with their company. People change jobs or opportunities for new business pops up all the time. Keep yourself top of mind with your customers (current or former) by continuously networking and striving to give them value.
For more information on how to stay in touch with your current customers see the article on Inc.com by Jeff Haden.