Posts Tagged ‘relationships’

THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF POSTS ON WHAT YOU CAN DO TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR BUSINESS THIS YEAR. TO GET A FREE REPORT FULL OF SUCCESS TIPS FOR YOUR BUSINESS, CLICK HERE.

When I was a kid, my mom would always have me send out thank you notes for birthday cards and presents. She thought it was important to acknowledge when someone did something nice for you. She was right. And even though you don’t have a mom telling you to do it now, you should be sending out thank you notes to people who give you business, your customers.

Lizzy Shaw, of Lizzy Shaw Public Relations, suggests just that in our free report, The Number One Thing to Make Your Business More Successful. She says this:

Follow up with clients and customers right away and make sure they are happy with the service they received. This also includes thanking them for their business. If it is possible, a HANDWRITTEN note can be a clincher. I think that most people forget to say thank you, and certainly almost no one sends physical mail anymore, so a handwritten note makes an impression.

Relationships, Not Sales

As I write this, I have a stack of thank you notes that I need to write. This is an important part of the process, but since it is after the sale, sometimes we forget about it or put it off. What you need to do is stop thinking of customers in terms of sales and start thinking of them in terms of relationships. Do things to build and keep the customer relationship happy. Thank you notes are an important part of this.

A First Step

Even though a thank you may come at the end of the sale, you can think of it as a first step. Here is what I mean. The thank you note comes on the tail end of the first experience with the customer. Now that the transaction is over, you have reached that uncomfortable stage of the relationship. You can do nothing, and let things fizzle. Or, you could work on establishing a long term relationship, a friendship with your customer. A thank you note is only the first step in this. You’ll want to keep the conversation going with emails, phone calls, conferences, and more.

Make it Policy

Even if you don’t do any of that, sending a thank you note is just a nice touch. People like to be appreciated. So make it a policy and make it stick. Send a thank you out to all of your customers. If you are in retail, you probably can’t collect everyone’s address. But you can still have a thank you policy. Maybe you can collect as many email addresses as possible and send out a personal thank you email. Perhaps you can recognize your regulars and give them a thank you gift.

Make an Impression

As Lizzy Shaw says, a hand-written note makes an impression. Anything you do to personally thank your customers will have a lasting effect. The benefit comes in increased loyalty, increased likelihood that the customer will refer you, and just overall good will. There is another benefit as well. This comes to you, as you think about each customer and take a moment out of the day to appreciate them. This will lead you to valuing your customers more. In fact, as you see your own appreciation grow, you will probably want to build a thank you policy into your business so that each employee has a chance to personally thank customers and appreciate them.

So take the advice of moms everywhere, say thank you. Its not hard, and it is very rewarding. I’m going to write a few thank you notes today, how about you?

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses build their online presence at BroadRiverCreative.com

photo credit: laurenatclemson

What makes online conversation marketing via blogs, social media, and the like such a success is that it spurs interaction. Interaction can lead to many things, most importantly sales. However, for all the talk of interaction and customers gladly spreading your story for you, there is another side to the coin. While there are the conversationalists out there that will quickly build relationships with your business if you meet their needs and exceed their expectations, there are also a whole lot of listeners out there.

Listeners are quiet folk. They don’t engage nearly as much. If they get on your forums, its probably to find a specific answer to a specific problem. They aren’t commenting on your blog. They aren’t responding to your tweets. Because you don’t see the interaction, it is easy to discount the listeners, or to question if they are even there. But these people are listening. They are being impacted by the content you put out. They are just as loyal as the conversationalists. Sure, they don’t write blog posts recommending your company to everyone in the world, but that’s because they don’t have blogs. They are probably recommending you quietly to a trusted friend who they know will benefit from your business.

The quiet ones can be a hard group to connect with. If you are doing all of the right things online, but not seeing the results spring up like you wish they would, be sure to not throw in the towel too soon. The listeners outnumber the talkers, in my opinion. If you just stop blogging because you aren’t getting comments or seeing sales, you might be leaving some people out in the cold. If you have visitors to your blog, you should keep blogging. If you don’t have visitors, you should invest some time and money in education so you can be a better business blogger, but that is another story.

While you won’t get the kind of gratifying interaction on a regular basis out of the quiet ones that you will get out of the talkers, you will get great value. You get that value by consistently providing value. The listeners are the steady force behind your online efforts. They will subscribe to your newsletter and actually read it. They will attend your webinars. They will buy your products.

Chances are that they will also help you spread the word. The difference is, they won’t do it on their own, at least not on a large scale. That isn’t because they don’t love your product, its because they aren’t talkers. They do not have platforms of their own. But don’t give up on them. Connect with your regular loyal listeners and buyers. Draw them out. You can probably get some pretty amazing testimonials from them. When they send you a referral, it will likely be a dead-on qualified lead. You’ll take one of these a year over countless unqualified visits to your site or hundreds of spam followers on Twitter. The quiet ones make up in value what they don’t deliver in amount of interaction.

You’re job is to not give up on them. Keep writing your blog. Keep posting your best insights on Twitter. Keep talking, and they will keep listening. While your words won’t always trigger a response that you will see, you are planting seeds. And if you ever do find yourself in a conversation with a quiet one, you will be amazed at the depth and value there. Listeners are learners and doers. They have an important place in your online conversation marketing plans. Don’t leave them out by stopping your end of the conversation.

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses develop online marketing plans at BroadRiverCreative.com.

If you want to develop relationships with customers, you need to keep the conversations going. Its like a game of tennis. The goal is to always get the ball back over the net. Of course, unlike tennis, you want your customer to send the ball back, so be sure to practice your lob.

Start

There are a lot of ways to get into conversations with prospects and customers. One way is to put a lot of balls in the air, so to speak. Being active on social networks, blogging, writing a newsletter, all of these have the potential to be conversation starters.

Of course, you could also be more specific. You can directly communicate to a person, perhaps via phone or email. This works best if there is some kind of prior history there.

Another way to get into conversation is to join one that is already started. I call this response marketing. By seeking out conversations that are already happening, or invitations to a conversation by someone asking a question, you are actually playing the first return ball. Your success rate for engagement will be higher here, assuming you actually listened first and provide a piece of information that is useful.

Lob

If you want the conversation to continue, you need to make it easy for the person on the other end to respond. There are a few ways to do this.

You can ask a question. Do this if you want to clarify a point, or if you have given some piece of information and want thoughts back in return. In any case, asking questions is a great way to elicit response.

Another thing you can do is keep your communication brief and to the point. If you say too much, you are going to be harder to respond to. Think of the difference between a brief email that makes one point and asks one question of you versus a multi-paragraph email that jumps all over the place and asks a bunch of questions. You have a far easier time responding to the short and specific email.

You could also give the person something to do. Be careful here. Make sure what you are asking will help the relationship. For instance, you may invite them to join your newsletter, or to attend your webinar.

Finally, you can go a long way just by showing interest in a continued conversation. Make it clear that you want to provide a full answer, or that you want to learn more about the person’s situation. Be friendly and caring and make all your resources available to the person. If you have shown genuine interest, they probably won’t mind when you check in on them a month later, or when you invite them to visit your web site. By caring and communicating, you are building trust.

Return

Perhaps the most important thing you can do to keep conversations alive with customers is to always return the ball. Here’s the thing, you may have to return it more than once. But its your job to keep the conversation alive, not theirs.

Being annoying isn’t allowed. Until you have built up trust, you need to work extra hard with each person, providing personal communication. In each communication, you can invite them to join the larger conversation on your blog, newsletter, or forum, but don’t push that stuff into their inbox until they have given their implicit permission.

So when you respond, make sure its a real response. Hit the ball they send over the net. If its a question, answer it wisely and follow up. If its a complaint, don’t ignore it. Solve the problem. If its communication, communicate back. Show that you are listening and respond in kind. Drop the form letters and be human. Whether someone is contacting you directly or just talking about something on Twitter, be personal and generous in your response. And don’t forget to make it easier for a person to hit the ball back.

photo credit: ????k?? ?????

Your customers should be a primary focus when you own a business. You need to be able to understand them and communicate with them so you can create a better product and sell it like crazy. But customers are not the only important connections you need to develop in your business. You should take some time to build a network of colleagues. This would include other small business owners, including some in your industry. This network is another great resource for your business.

It is from a network of colleagues that you can learn about changes in business and with which you can brainstorm new ideas for growing your business. You will also find shared opportunities and chances to collaborate. While your customers will be focused on their needs, your colleagues will be more focused on the same needs you have as a business.

So how do you find colleagues and start talking to them? Here are a few ideas.

• Go to trade shows and focus on building these relationships, and not just on getting leads.
• Join LinkedIn and look for other people in your industry.
• Join Twitter and find other people who own small businesses. A great place to do that is on the Small Business Buzz chat.
• Reach out to the people you come in contact with as you sell your product. There are people who sell to the same demo, but who are not your direct competitors.
• Ask your customers what other local businesses they use and love.
• Host an event and invite other area businesses (that sell to your customer base) to attend.
• Join local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce or a networking group.
• Join a mastermind group.

Share Experiences

The great thing about talking to colleagues is that you have a forum to share experiences. This is where you can talk the inside baseball of your business. The details of running a business is deeply interesting stuff for you, but its probably not an great topic for discussion on your customer blog.

By sharing experiences with other small business owners, you can learn from each other. Perhaps one of you tried something new in marketing, and it really worked. Now the others can adapt it to their businesses.

Being a small business owner can get lonely. Having a close network of other small business owners to help encourage and spur you on can make a lot of difference.

Brainstorm Ideas

Beyond the emotional impact and the sharing of experiences, you can use your network to brainstorm new ideas that you are working on. Its great to think through things ahead with people who have had similar experiences.

Colleagues will bring in a perspective of an owner, but with a different take than you. You’ll get ideas by brainstorming with this group that you could never get from customers, employees, or even friends and family. Other people that live where you are at will have a truer sense of what it takes, including the amount of risk that is acceptable.

Blow Off Steam

Sometimes, you need to vent. You can’t vent to customers or employees. And you don’t really want to bring it home to your spouse all of the time. Colleagues can understand you. If you are close enough with some of them, you can call them up and tell them all about the crazy customer, the tight budget, or whatever. Chances are that they can relate.

If your network is local, you can also get together and have some fun. Colleagues are people who share similar interests, so chances are you can have a friendly get together and forget the business woes, if just for a little while.

Collaborate

A good network of colleagues also presents opportunities for collaboration. By talking to these people, you are developing relationships with possible investors, partners, affiliates, or mentors.

If you have complimentary businesses, chances are good that you can work together on some marketing pushes, say hosting an event together. You can also send referrals each other’s way.

When a group gets together and starts helping each other out and investing their time in each other, everyone in that group benefits.

So take some time to develop relationships with colleagues. There are a lot of mutual benefits to be had.

One important facet of having a business presence online is accessibility. You want to make it easy for people to reach out to you. You can attract all of the eyeballs you want to your site, but if you aren’t accessible, you won’t be able to build any relationships. If you are going to practice conversation marketing, you need to make it possible for others to start the conversation with you. Here are 10 tips on how to be more accessible online.

1. Put contact info everywhere

Wonder why people never call? Maybe its because they don’t know your number. Your primary contact info should be everywhere, including your web site, business cards, and all of your marketing material. Make it easy for people to find your number, email, or any other means of contacting you.

2. Set up a Twitter account

Twitter is tops for ease of access when it comes to the social networks. Having a Twitter account and actively using it opens up a new channel of communication.

3. Set up some chat accounts

People actively use chat software, such as AIM, Google Chat, and Skype. You don’t have to use all of them, but you should use some. There are even chat clients that support multiple chat platforms.

Take this a step further by incorporating chat into your web site. Google Chat has a function to make this easy. It is often easier for people to reach out to you via live chat than to pick up the phone.

4. Have easy to find and use contact forms

Have a contact form on your web site. It is up to you what information to ask for, but if you just want a person to reach out to you, make it simple. Ask for name and email, along with their question.

5. Get active on Facebook

Facebook is here to stay, obviously. Chances are, you probably already have a lot of customers actively using Facebook. So it makes sense to start an account for your business. Alternatively, you can start a fan page for your business using your personal account.

Provide links on your site to friend you on Facebook. Once you get established there, many of your Facebooking customers and prospects will reach out to you there.

6. Allow comments on your blog

If you write a blog, allow for comments. Don’t worry about spam or negative stuff, you can moderate your comments to keep that stuff out. By having comments, you are opening up another means of communication. It is a good idea to respond to the comments on your blog as well as to send an email response to the commentator. Its a great way to start a conversation.

7. Get a toll free number

Make it as easy as possible for people to call you. If you don’t have a toll free number, consider using an online service such as Ring Central to get one. People will be more likely to call if its free.

8. Make signing up for your newsletter easy and obvious

Your newsletter is a primary means of regular communication from you to your customer. Sometimes, the only way  a person will reach out to you is to sign up for it. So make it easy and painless. Include big links to it on your site, and only ask for name and email when a person first signs up.

9. Host webinars and calls

A great way to be accessible is by putting yourself out there. Hosting a webinar or live call on a regular basis allows people to interact with you on a group level with the opportunity to make it more personal by them asking a question. This is easier for some people than picking up the phone and asking questions directly. With a webinar, they have a chance to just listen in. Its up to you to excite them enough to move that to the next level of interaction.

10. Engage in plenty of conversations

A hermit is not very accessible. Instead, be the life of the party. Be everywhere. If you are active on social networks, a regular blog commentator, a blogger yourself, you will have more face time and make it easier for people to discover you and engage you in conversation. Just by being there, you are naturally much more accessible.

photo credit: Mr. Read

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com