Connecting With your Current Customers
Your customer is not just a buyer of goods or services; if treated right, your customer is a cheerleader for your business, a walking advertisement for your goods and services. However, the only way to ensure that kind of relationship is to stay in contact with those current customers. It’s easy, sometimes, in business to spend more time worrying about and working on obtaining new customers and forgetting how important the ones you already have are. The truth is it can cost upwards of five times as much to get a new customer as to retain an existing one.
There are a number of ways to keep your current client base close and thinking positive thoughts about you. Firstly, don’t “pester” them if they don’t want to be that heavily involved. Use a double-opt-in system for your marketing e-mail list. If a customer signs up for promotional e-mail mailings send an automated confirmation link they also have to use. That gives them a chance to cancel if they want. The more options you offer, the happier customers are. Also, every e-mail update you send out should have a working “unsubscribe” link in it somewhere. This unsubscribe link should lead directly to a page where the list removal is confirmed and where there is a totally optional spot for comments. The majority of people won’t comment, but read the ones that do, and respond if there is any kind of complaint or concern (but not if there isn’t). “I’m just reducing my e-mail” doesn’t require a response; “I’m unemployed and can’t afford you,” however, deserves a sympathetic, short note hoping things get better and the customer will return when they do.
You should have multiple on-line presences by now – your website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and maybe others. Always cross-reference between them, with prominent links to your social media pages on your web site, a “like” request on your LinkedIn page for your Facebook, or a “follow us on Twitter” link on your Google+ page. Give your customer as many ways to engage with you as possible. Ideally, at least some, if not all, will end up linked to you on all platforms they use. It is equally important to respond quickly when a customer does comment or respond on any social media platform, even if it means you have to hire a dedicated media marketing representative whose sole job is to monitor your social sites for comments, Tweets, and status notes from customers and immediately comment back. People love to be noticed and will feel appreciated if you take the time to respond right away to social media questions, comments or concerns (and it doesn’t hurt any when non-customers see you interacting with current customers). Just make sure whoever performs this task has a solid foundation of customer service skills and good written language skills, because you want all interactions to be positive, even if the original customer comment is a complaint. Mistakes happen; it’s how you respond to them that makes people remember you as a good place to do business.
Signing up for an email service provider, like Constant Contact, or having one designed just for your site by a professional, is well worth the reasonable expense just to be able to get reporting on how your e-mail is performing. A professional web design company, like Infintechdesigns.com, is just the ally you need to advise you on the best, most cost-effective way to go about creating a dedicated, web-based program designed to keep your current customer base happily engaged with your business. Contact us at www.infintechdesigns.com today and get started.
