Avoid the sin of ignoring your customers I’m going to be controversial in this issue of Practical Marketing: you ignore your customers and prospects, and in doing so you miss massive opportunities to generate more business. Ok – hopefully you’re still reading so that I can explain myself and provide you with some useful pointers for how to avoid this sin in the future.
How many of our businesses have a regular method for open dialogue with clients? How frequently do you communicate with them – both sending and receiving information – and I don’t just mean transactional communications? Have you ever bought, rented or used a mailing list of target prospects, mailed them once or twice and then abandoned them? I’m sure we’d all be lying if we said we weren’t guilty of at least one of these sins. You know how it is, when you first start the business you are close to all your customers, they get 1:1 attention from you, you speak regularly, you listen to their requirements carefully and you are able to respond easily and quickly to what they need. As your business grows and more people become involved, as both customers and members of staff, a divide grows between you and the client. Before you know it you spend 12 months without speaking to or writing to a client, and then you’re surprised to learn they are buying from someone else! Research which looked at the reasons customer defect proves the point perfectly: Why do customers leave?
(Source: Michael LeBoeuf – How to Win Customers and Keep them for Life) When I first saw those figures I was astounded. Customers leave because they don’t feel ‘loved’. We’ve ignored them! This is our life blood we are talking about, without customers we can’t survive, and we’re letting them leave, for some businesses in their droves. The same research suggested that a customer thinks you’ve forgotten them if you don’t speak to them for 6 weeks or more. Wow. That’s a big ask for most businesses, but it does demonstrate why the modern keep in touch mechanisms via Twitter, Blogs, Linked In and so on, which put the customer or receiver of information in a position of control, have been so effective for some brands. I always recommend to clients regular communications via e-newsletters, e-shots, mailings, service calls and face to face meetings with the most important customers. You can make the process as formal or informal as you like and of course it doesn’t have to be the business owner making the contact. As a business grows it’s important to not only delegate work tasks but also client contact and ownership. I think many professional firms really shoot themselves in the foot in this regard. When an accountancy or solicitors firm first takes on a new client for example, they get full, partner level attention. But unless that client is really significant within the space of a few months, if not weeks, the work is being completed by a more junior member of staff (nothing wrong with that by the way) but the partner is now impossible to get hold of and the junior is unable to answer the kind of questions the client really needs answers to. Getting this balance right isn’t easy, but data intelligence and proper systems can help the client continue to feel ‘loved’. Why not create a database of all your clients and develop a plan for regular contact – whether that’s via a newsletter; with bespoke information related to likely advice or product needs; key dates to contact them or to coincide with events or product launches. The bigger your business the more sophisticated the system will need to be, but work on a few core principles: Core principles of your client communications plan
My advice is to start small, don’t over engineer things. Keep it simple. There’s no need to go to great expense in fancy design. I am a firm believer that it is far more important to focus on the message. Decide what it is you want to say, make yourself clear and invite feedback so you can improve for the future. Getting the message right isn’t as straight-forward as you might think. Using an appropriate tone, making what you write interesting, grabbing people’s attention in a crowded inbox all need to be carefully considered. Remember if there’s no benefit or intrigue in the headline, 90% of people won’t read on. My top tips are: Tips for Client Communications
With modern technology and a bit of imagination and graft, there really is no reason any of us should ignore our customers, or prospects. Until next time… Further reading:
Written by Teresa Harris, Second Opinion Marketing. Teresa is an independent marketing consultant working with professional practices, small businesses and public sector bodies to develop effective marketing plans which achieve their business objectives. As a marketing coach Teresa works with new marketing managers and small business owners to enhance their marketing performance. Contact Teresa on 01789 740396 or by email. Practical Marketing is emailed monthly to subscribers. If it has been sent to you in error we apologise. You can unsubscribe here. For more ideas, tips and articles visit www.secondopinionmarketing.co.uk © Second Opinion Marketing 2010. All rights reserved. Second Opinion Marketing 73 Banbury Road Ettington CV37 7SR ©2010 Second Opinion Marketing. All Rights Reserved.
We're passionate about marketing and don't mind sharing our knowledge - take a look at our