Keeping in Touch with Your Customers »
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We all know it is important to keep in touch with our customers but do we do it well, often and effectively enough?
Let's take a common yet hypothetical situation:
You have developed a reputable customer base that has taken years to establish through aggressive networking and nerve racking cold calls and business development. Every once in a while you touch base with past customers and contacts just to see how things are going and see whether any further assistance is needed. Usually this is appreciated, the customer feels valued and the benefit to you is that they have had yet another positive exposure to your brand that will build on your already established relationship. As with any relationship business or personal, you need to maintain it to grow trust, commitment and mutual benefit. The key to the maintenance of this relationship is communication that is relevant, desirable and of value.
Gradually your contact database begins to grow in size and regrettably you have less and less time to focus on keeping in touch with past customers due to following up hot prospects and focusing on current customer needs. The result:
Customers feeling unappreciated and forgotten.
Loss of referral and potential growth opportunities due to not being top-of-mind.
Loss of brand awareness.
And the list goes on.
So a key question is … If we desire business growth, can we afford not to keep in touch with past, existing and potential clients? From my perspective, and I’m sure a majority of yours, no we can’t! Keeping in touch maintains awareness and ensures visibility.
One cost-effective and efficient way of achieving this is through providing a non-profit regular e-newsletter that is based on your unique business offer and relates to the relevant business issues that your customer base is interested in. The realised benefits of a resource such as this include:
One-to-one interaction with current and prospect clients that can be personalised.
Building and maintaining existing relationships.
Leveraging brand awareness and identity (being remembered).
Referral through subscribers recommending or forwarding the e-newsletter to a friend.
Unlimited geographical coverage.
You are able to keep one step ahead of your competitors. (how?)
Able to communicate awareness of industry trends relevant to your customers' businesses.
Lets customers know they can come to you with related business issues.
Develops a comprehensive database over time.
Internally creates a knowledge building work environment where staff can contribute articles of interest to customers. This helps with their individual development and knowledge building as well as external recognition.
The key benefit is regular communication in a cost and time effective manner. With identified benefits such as these and the realised impact this type of resource can have on maintaining and strengthening existing relationships, how can you say no to the benefits technology can bring?
Remember implementing an e-newsletter takes careful planning and you have to make sure that the content you include in this resource is content your readers want to hear. Firstly try to understand the purpose of implementing the e-newsletter and then try to identify the different technical attributes that are associated with developing a best practice resource such as this. Once you have a clear understanding of why you're doing it, what you want out of it and how you want to develop it, then you can go to your preferred website supplier to construct it. Taking short cuts can only result in failure, in turn having a detrimental impact on your brand.
The most crucial factor to bear in mind in developing any external communications is the relevance and desirability of the content. Don’t construct an e-newsletter about your organisation, make it about them! The rewards will come back to you.
______________________
VantagePoint is a leading marketing management consultancy that provides best practice strategic marketing advice for its clients and assists them to develop pathways for finding, building and keeping profitable customers. VantagePoint offers a complimentary monthly e-newsletter that challenges and probes local and global marketing issues and provides readers with customer driven strategic marketing insights and resources. The VantagePoint e-newsletter can be reached by clicking through their homepage and subscribing at: www.yourvantagepoint.com
Nigel Patient
We all know it is important to keep in touch with our customers but do we do it well, often and effectively enough?
Let's take a common yet hypothetical situation:
You have developed a reputable customer base that has taken years to establish through aggressive networking and nerve racking cold calls and business development. Every once in a while you touch base with past customers and contacts just to see how things are going and see whether any further assistance is needed. Usually this is appreciated, the customer feels valued and the benefit to you is that they have had yet another positive exposure to your brand that will build on your already established relationship. As with any relationship business or personal, you need to maintain it to grow trust, commitment and mutual benefit. The key to the maintenance of this relationship is communication that is relevant, desirable and of value.
Gradually your contact database begins to grow in size and regrettably you have less and less time to focus on keeping in touch with past customers due to following up hot prospects and focusing on current customer needs. The result:
And the list goes on.
So a key question is … If we desire business growth, can we afford not to keep in touch with past, existing and potential clients? From my perspective, and I’m sure a majority of yours, no we can’t! Keeping in touch maintains awareness and ensures visibility.
One cost-effective and efficient way of achieving this is through providing a non-profit regular e-newsletter that is based on your unique business offer and relates to the relevant business issues that your customer base is interested in. The realised benefits of a resource such as this include:
The key benefit is regular communication in a cost and time effective manner. With identified benefits such as these and the realised impact this type of resource can have on maintaining and strengthening existing relationships, how can you say no to the benefits technology can bring?
Remember implementing an e-newsletter takes careful planning and you have to make sure that the content you include in this resource is content your readers want to hear. Firstly try to understand the purpose of implementing the e-newsletter and then try to identify the different technical attributes that are associated with developing a best practice resource such as this. Once you have a clear understanding of why you're doing it, what you want out of it and how you want to develop it, then you can go to your preferred website supplier to construct it. Taking short cuts can only result in failure, in turn having a detrimental impact on your brand.
The most crucial factor to bear in mind in developing any external communications is the relevance and desirability of the content. Don’t construct an e-newsletter about your organisation, make it about them! The rewards will come back to you.
______________________
VantagePoint is a leading marketing management consultancy that provides best practice strategic marketing advice for its clients and assists them to develop pathways for finding, building and keeping profitable customers. VantagePoint offers a complimentary monthly e-newsletter that challenges and probes local and global marketing issues and provides readers with customer driven strategic marketing insights and resources. The VantagePoint e-newsletter can be reached by clicking through their homepage and subscribing at: www.yourvantagepoint.com