Building Loyalty Through Personal Touches
We all appreciate the small, personal touches that make us feel special. It creates a stronger bond between you and the person who makes you feel special. In business too, it's the small, personal touches that make your customers feel valued. And when they feel valued, they are more likely to remain loyal to you, even when your competitors offer a more competitive price. In all the rushing around during a busy day, it's easy for us to overlook crucial relationship building opportunities with our customers. Yet many of these opportunities are far more cost-effective than any marketing campaign!
With the technology available these days, it's not difficult to build personal profiles of people we value. Just stop for a moment and think: In your business, whose relationships do you really value? It shouldn't only be your customers. What about your staff members, your suppliers, your professional advisors, media rep, in fact anyone who is likely to be an advocate for your business?
The next step in building loyal customers is asking the question: What are we going to do to recognise the value of those relationships? It could be as simple as sending a card thanking a customer for doing business with you. Perhaps sending out valuable information that will help them personally or in business? It also gives you the opportunity to provide information about new products or current products your customer may be interested in. It may be remembering the name of their husband/wife/partner or what their favourite pastime is.
When building a personal profile, gather as much relevant information as you can about the person. This includes:
- Their birthday
- Their wedding anniversary
- Their spouse/partner and children's name(s)
- Their interests and hobbies, their favourite music, etc.
Depending on the size of your business, you could simply develop the old card index system or there are plenty of software CRM (customer relationship management) programs that provide prompts for important events in a customer's life, such as their birthday. It might seem like a lot of work, but think about it. How do you feel when somebody outside your family and close circle of friends remembers your birthday? Are you going to start building a personal profile of the people whose relationship you value right now?
If you’d like one of Better Business Group’s Special Action Reports “37 Customer Delighting Tips”, email me yale@betterbusinessgroup.com.au or call 1300 711 743.
To Your Business Success
Cheers
Yale Morgan
www.betterbusinessgroup.com.au
About Yale Morgan, SME Business development specialist
Yale heads up the Better Business Group (BBG), which, as a company has proven business development products and systems, that range from "Do It Yourself" products to fully systemised Business Coaching Programs.
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