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

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.

The advice I am about to give is dependent on two things already being in place in your business. First, you need to know what you love. Never veer your business too far from your passion. Second, you need to have a clear idea of who your ideal customer is. You should be worried about pleasing and serving this type of customer above all else.

With those two things in place, it is safe to follow this advice. Without them, you could derail your business. What is this advice, that is potentially so dangerous? Simply this, let your customer shape your business.

Customer Input

If you want a business that is loved by your customers, you need to be sure to pay attention to them. Proactively find out what they like and what they don’t like, and make adjustments accordingly.

Katharine Coles, of Mad Marketeer, is a strong advocate of this. She says:

Listen to your clients. If they complain that they don’t like something about your product or service, try to find ways to change to meet their needs. If they don’t like your customer service or they think you are not listening or being responsive enough, try to put new systems in place to address the issues. If they don’t understand your documentation or your contracts, make them clearer and easier to understand. One of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make is NOT LISTENING.

Adapting to fit the needs of your customers is an obvious move. Yet, sometimes business owners can get so caught up in what they know, they forget to find out what the customer knows. And if the customer knows something is too complicated, too slow, too out of date, they will move on.

Customer-Centric

By listening to each customer, finding out what their experience was working with your business, and making adjustments, you can create a business that is customer-centric. And when customers are happy, everyone is happy.

Don’t forget though, this can go horribly wrong. First, if you have a customer that doesn’t fit your ideal customer blueprint, you shouldn’t listen. That sounds harsh, I know. But what if your ideal customer is small grocery chains? Your business is flexible and serves these chains well. Now, maybe you have one sale with a larger grocery chain. Suddenly, this larger chain is making different demands on your business. If you change according to these demands, you know that it is going to hurt your smaller customers. What do you do? If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the small grocery chains are your ideal customer, you don’t kow-tow to the big guy. Always do what is best for your ideal customer first.

The same goes for doing what you love. Customers needs a lot of different things, even ideal customers. Some you can deliver with perfection and passion. Others you can’t. So, even if you see a need, it may not be your best move to fill it. Always run any new product or service pass the test of whether you are going to love doing it.

Listen and Change

If you keep those two things in line, you can safely play within the boundaries. Listening to ideal customers and adapting your business accordingly can be fun and very profitable. Focus on making the customer experience amazing. The only way to do this is to talk constantly to customers about it, listen to their suggestions, and make changes accordingly.

I’ll end with some advice from Iman Jalali, of Train Signal.

Listen to current and prospective customers and the communities around them. Listening to them is only part of being successful though. If you only listen and don’t react or adapt, listening does you no good. By utilizing tools like Twitter search you have access to millions of conversations, conversations that may be about your business. Conversations that may help shape how you conduct business and the future of your business.

The information you need to know is accessible to you, both through talking to your current customers and through your engagement with communities online and off. So stop making excuses, start listening and adapting. In the end, you win and your customers win.

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Follow Bradford Shimp on Twitter.

photo credit: Slack pics

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.

There is a famous scene in Miracle on 34th Street where Santa Claus is working at Macy’s. A customer is looking for a specific item, and Macy’s doesn’t carry it. Santa Claus immediately recommends to the customer to go over to Nordstrom’s, because he knows they have the product. The management at Macy’s is aghast at first. But then a strange thing happens. Customers start to flock to Macy’s. It seems the story of what Santa did spread pretty quickly and created some very positive buzz for Macy’s.

What got me thinking about this is a piece of advice that Marisa Wikramanayake gives in our free report, The #1 Thing a Small Business Can Do to be More Successful in 2010. Here is what she says:

Add value to what you are selling. You can do this by taking a genuine interest in your customers and helping them out as best as you can. I offer free cups of coffee over the free initial consultation for my writing/editing services and if I cannot help them, I make sure to refer them on to the other 90+ editors, writers, and web designers that I know. My point here is that from start to finish when my customers/clients deal with me, I want them to know that I want them to get the best solution possible for what they need. If I am not the best writer or editor for the job they have in mind, then I need to find that person for them. Even if you don’t make a sale, the clients/customers become your fans and then they and refer more people to you. Word of mouth marketing means you need to be someone worth talking about. Aim to be the person people cannot discuss without smiling by adding intangible and tangible value to your service/product.

Santa Claus and Marisa set a pretty high standard. Recommending that your customer go to a competitor is easier said then done. But it is true that if you are concerned with what is best for your customer, that it will translate into loyalty. Will you have streams of new customers if you send one to someone else who can better serve them? Probably not, at least not on “movie scale.” But there will be at least 2 people that know your true value. Your customer will appreciate what you did. Chances are good that they will recommend you to friends and even come back to you for the services you do offer. Just as importantly, you will know that you are truly acting in the best interests of your customers. You can take real pride in yourself for that.

You’ll Get a Reputation

You will get a reputation if you conduct yourself in this manner. Its not just the customers you will send away. That level of caring will effect every aspect of your business, and the customers you keep will benefit from it.

You’ll also get a reputation for excellence. The business that knows when to send a customer somewhere else also knows what it is they are good at. By focusing on your strengths, you are showing customers a lot. For one, you are not desperate for business. For another, you care so much about providing the best “x” that you won’t try to do something outside your area of expertise. The more narrow your niche or expertise, the more satisfied your customers will be. Also, the more likely you will have to refer would-be customers elsewhere.

Know What You Sell

The key is to know what you sell. If you don’t sell what the customer needs or wants, send them to someone who does. It is your job to qualify the customer to your product or service. If you find they don’t fit, be like Santa. Tell them that you don’t sell that product, but you know someone who does.

Know Who to Recommend

In order to do this right, you really do have to know someone who does offer things you don’t, but in a related field. For instance, I offer web design and some marketing services to small businesses and professionals. I don’t get into building big, fancy, corporate sites. For that, I would recommend a friend, such as Bella Web Design.

I know of Bella Web Design because I network on Twitter. You need to network too, wherever you are most comfortable. Get to know your “competitors.” Chances are good that you will find some in the same industry, but with a different focus than you. Get to be friends, get to know their work, and get comfortable recommending them.

You do your customer no good by saying you can’t help them, but then not being able to point them in the right direction. Build up your network of similar businesses. Trust me, good things will come of it.

I would be interested to hear if you have ever had a “Santa Claus moment,” where you ended up recommending a competitor to a customer. Let me know in the comments below.

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Bradford Shimp builds web sites optimized for small business at BroadRiverCreative.com. His favorite movie of all time is The Princess Bride.

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.

Let’s talk about repeat customers. These are the backbone for many businesses. The more repeat customers you have, the less you have to worry about getting new customers. Yet, many businesses put most of their efforts on gaining new customers, and not enough on keeping repeat customers. With repeat sales, you may be grateful for them, but what do you do to ensure that they happen? What procedures do you have in place to not only get repeat customers, but to service them continually and to tap into them as a resource for new business?

Gerry Linda, of Gerald Linda & Associates, provided this piece of advice on repeat customers:

The best advice I can give is to stay close to your current customers. This is formally called retention marketing and it is often overlooked in favor of the pursuit of new customers. However, current customers pay all the bills. This is akin to dancing with the girl who invited you to the party. So keeping current customers is Job #1; Job #2 is up-selling and cross-selling them and Job #3 is obtaining referrals from them. By the way, as part of this process, it is essential to formally measure customer satisfaction. Repeat sales is not the same as satisfaction. Customers may be deeply unhappy and actively seeking alternatives. The only way to determine satisfaction is to assess it directly via research.

Gerry offers a lot of great advice here. I thought I would break it down piece by piece and add in my own advice to really help you get a handle on getting and keeping repeat customers.

Lost in Pursuit

It is true that in sales there is a tendency to focus on new customers more than old ones. Sometimes this is built right into the system, with reps getting a greater commission on new sales. Even without that trigger, sales reps may not think they are growing if they aren’t constantly going after new customers. And since new customers take more time and effort, going after repeat sales often gets shortchanged.

Part of the problem is that a large number of repeat sales happen anyway, without an active pursuit. If you do a good business, your repeat numbers are probably pretty high. However, they could be higher. And, as we will see, its not just the repeat sale that matters. Repeat customers can add more than their return business. Start thinking referrals, testimonials, and up-sells.

Keeping Current Customers

The fact is, you should have a plan for keeping current customers. There should be sales and marketing devoted just to them. For instance, if you have a small company with two sales people, you might consider devoting one to new sales, and one to repeat sales. This is two different personality types, by the way, so it may come down to hiring the right people. In the sales world they are called the hunter and the farmer.

A lot of salespeople are hunters. This is why they naturally pursue the new sale and sometimes neglect the repeat sale. Your business may already have farmers, but maybe they are in customer service, or some other part of your business. Tasking the right people to take care of repeat customers is important.

As part of your plan, you should have ongoing communication with your current customers. Send out weekly emails, write a blog, do monthly webinars. It may be a good idea to write out a marketing plan just for repeat sales. One nice thing is that you don’t have to worry about the prospecting, which is often the most expensive and time-consuming part of getting a sale. Spend energy on keeping current customers, and your repeat ratio will rise, and with it your bottom line.

Up-Selling and Cross-Selling

While keeping current customers helps keep the blood flowing in your business, you still need to grow. So you have to go out and get new customers, right? Well, yes, but not so fast. Gerry talks about up-selling in his piece of advice, and he makes a great point. Often, you can actually increase your profit with your current customers.

Up-selling is when you sell a current customer on something more expensive. Its not more expensive just for the sake of it. Maybe they started with your basic package, but they are ready to upgrade.

Cross-Selling is when you sell your customer something else, besides what you have already sold them.

If you have a decent customer base, you can make a lot of money with these methods. Good money, too. Often, you are looking at a better profit when you up-sell and cross-sell. For one thing, it is not as expensive to get the sale. Secondly, you can put a larger markup on some of these products.

Think about your business. Do you have any kind of upgrade available. If not, maybe its time to put one in place. Maybe you need to add a few extra services and sell a higher-priced package. Maybe its a new complimentary product. There are tons of ways you can offer an upgrade.

A cross-sell can be very easy, but it can also get you in trouble. If you try to add on new services or products to your business, you may get distracted from your core. You know best what you can handle and what you can’t. You are ready to add a separate line if you are organized and profitable with what you currently offer. If its still a daily struggle, do yourself a favor and don’t add anything extra.

You can cross-sell without adding services or products yourself. You do this by affiliating your business with other businesses who sell to the same customer. So, if you sell windows but not doors, you can partner up with a company that does doors but not windows. All you do is sell your customer on this other business and collect a fee. Pretty easy way to make some extra money.

Referrals: The Oil Well Waiting to Be Tapped

There is another way to make money from your repeat customers. They can provide you with referrals.

You can go about referrals two ways: willy-nilly or purposeful. Willy-nilly takes referrals when they come. Purposeful puts in place a good system for asking for and getting referrals.

Tapping into current customers for referrals in a purposeful manner can fill up your prospect list. Suddenly, without focusing on new sales, you have a bunch of leads for just that, new sales. Done right, you will have to do a lot less cold prospecting.

Referrals are often not tapped to their fullest potential. This is an oil well of new business that you don’t want to ignore.

Satisfaction

In the end, your success with repeat customers all comes down to whether you do a good job satisfying your customers. If you have high customer satisfaction, repeat sales will come easier, as will up-sells and referrals.

Gerry Linda suggests doing regular customer satisfaction surveys. You need to keep your finger on the pulse of current customers. Part of having a high satisfaction rate is being willing and able to adapt your business to customer needs and desires.

I would suggest one other measure of customer satisfaction. This will help in getting new sales, as well. Have a strong plan for getting testimonials. Go out of your way to get customer testimonials. Collect them directly and also ask customers to fill in reviews online, at third-party sites like Yelp, Google, and Facebook.

If this is easy, and you get a lot of great testimonials, then your customer satisfaction is likely pretty high. If this is a struggle, and you aren’t getting good testimonials, you need to take action to improve satisfaction.

Repeat customers are the source of life for your business, perhaps even more than you realize. Value them. Put your plans in place to keep more customers and to get more out of each customer. In time, you will see focusing on customers creates an engine of growth within your business, one that can be more easily sustained then the constant turnover of digging up new customers from scratch.

photo credit: alancleaver_2000

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses build a great web presence. Start with a web site, and go from there. BroadRiverCreative.com.

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.

Having a customer is a great thing. This is a person or business who spends money on what you have to offer. Do you value your customer? Of course you do! How about this? Do you value your customer relationship?

Now you may be giving me a blank stare and wondering, what’s the difference? I’ll tell you. A customer is valued for that one purchase. Thank you ma’am for spending your money with us! A customer relationship is different. It is an ongoing conversation between you and the customer. It is what happens between sales.

The Customer Relationship

Most customer relationships happen something like this. Customer is wooed by you. Customer buys from you and falls in love with your business. You send customer a nice note, telling them how much you appreciate them (actually, more often, you don’t). You don’t call customer again for awhile. They happily use your product and maybe even think of you from time to time. If you are lucky, they tell a friend or two about you. Hopefully they remember your number, or at least your web address.

Time passes, you’ve each gone your different ways. But suddenly, one of you needs the other again. Maybe it is the customer. Maybe he or she needs more of what you are selling. So they look around for your number, or visit your store. Oh hey, I remember you! Thanks for coming back. And the cycle repeats. Or maybe its you. Maybe you need another sale, and of course you have the customer’s contact information. You’ve had it all along. You send a coupon or get on the phone. Remember me? Lets do business again!

Its actually a said story. You start with excitement, respect, even love. But that love is allowed to cool. The relationship is ignored until it becomes a necessity again. Its like some families on the holidays. You may have customers, but you don’t have customer relationships.

Staying in Contact

I got thinking about all of this because of a tip I received for my free report on business success in 2010. You can get that here. This tip came from John Schulte, the President of the National Mail Order Association. Here is what he said:

Every day, contact four customers or prospects. Pick up the phone. Drop them a note. Send a fax or an e-mail.

If you stick with this program, at the end of the year, you will have made 1,000 bonus contacts. And you’d better

believe it will produce business.

What do you say? If you contact a customer, how about a simple thank you for the business note? If the customer is

always prompt with payment, let them know you appreciate that. If you have a new item or service, let them know

about it. If you come across a clipping of interest, send it with a post-it note attached letting them know you

thought of them when you saw it.

Your bonus contacts needn’t be formal communications. They don’t have to be long. But every one lets the

recipient know that you were thinking about him or her, and took the time to let them know.

Every day, contact four customers or prospects. Pick up the phone. Drop them a note. Send a fax or an e-mail.If you stick with this program, at the end of the year, you will have made 1,000 bonus contacts. And you’d better believe it will produce business.

What do you say? If you contact a customer, how about a simple thank you for the business note? If the customer is always prompt with payment, let them know you appreciate that. If you have a new item or service, let them know about it. If you come across a clipping of interest, send it with a post-it note attached letting them know you thought of them when you saw it.

Your bonus contacts needn’t be formal communications. They don’t have to be long. But every one lets the recipient know that you were thinking about him or her, and took the time to let them know.

Good Business Sense

If you think of customer relationships in the same terms you think of your friendships, you will instantly understand the importance of staying in contact. The only difference is that this relationship leads to more money. A customer who you stay in contact with is far more likely to send referrals your way, for instance. And buying frequency will generally go up. There are good business reasons to take time to stay in contact with customers between sales.

What Do You Say?

Yet, you probably don’t do this, at least not as well as you could be doing it. That question that John asks is the tripping point for most of us, “what do you say?”

John provides a couple of ideas. I would just say this. Talk to your customers like they are human beings. Be personal, caring, and considerate. I would also suggest this. Start sending out weekly emails to all of your customers. The more you do it, the easier it will become. Think of these emails a quick note to a friend. You can add a few unique, personal emails into the mix every day, but for the most part, a general email to everyone will do the trick. Write as if you were writing to a friend. Don’t sell, at least not in every single one.

You can also connect with customers easily by becoming their friends on Facebook or Twitter, or joining their network on LinkedIn. Just reach out regularly. A personal hello goes a long way, and you never know what kind of conversation it will lead to.

Next time, before you make that sales call, will you already be comfortable with your customer? Making the sales is so much easier if you’ve committed to keeping the relationship alive in between sales.

photo credit: david.nikonvscanon

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Bradford Shimp can be friended on Twitter @bradfordshimp or on Facebook at Facebook.com/bradfordshimp. He helps small businesses establish their presence on the web via great web sites and online marketing plans at BroadRiverCreative.com. One of his favorite modern authors is Jasper Fforde.

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.

I’ve been thinking about failure, or more particularly, my fear of failure, lately. I think fear of failure is pretty common, even in successful folks. In fact, sometimes success can lead to a greater fear of failure. It is harder for the successful businessman, esteemed by his peers, to admit failure than for someone who is just starting out.

Here is what I have come to, and maybe it will be helpful to you.

Get good at failing, and you will at some point have success. Never be willing to fail, and you will never succeed.

Here is how that plays out. If you allow your fear of failure to hold you back from trying things, you will never have a chance at success. If, however, you are willing to fail at something publicly, you will have an equal chance at succeeding at it.

I, for one, fail all of the time. I don’t like it, and I’m not proud of it. But I think if I can get comfortable with the idea that it is okay to fail, I will be more successful. Failure, after all, is just a step on the path to success.

Failure is usually only damaging to your emotions. At the same time, it can be brain food. The things you can learn by trying, and failing, are many. The trick is to try again. If your failure keeps you from trying again, you won’t be able to apply any of the great things you learned.

Failing doesn’t make you a failure. Not getting up and trying again does. Be willing to fail publicly. Be honest about it, nurse your hurt feelings if you must, and learn from the experience. Then get out there and be willing to fail again. Eventually, you’ll have success. Even better, you will have the knowledge that success often takes failure, and you won’t guard that success so tightly that you will avoid future risk and embarrassment.

In a side note to this post, I recently met a guy named Jason Markow on Twitter. He put me on to a February event called #FailWeek. During the week, you can write a blog post about your biggest failure and then link it up to others big failure stories. It is an interesting concept, and I think it goes hand in hand with being willing to fail publicly. If we can embrace our failure, laugh about it and learn from it, we are that much closer to being successful people. If you want habitual success, you need to get your mind and emotions into shape for it. Embracing failure is part of this. If you want to learn more about #FailWeek, go to Jason’s blog and read about it.

photo credit: .Larry Page

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I’m @BradfordShimp on Twitter and I help small businesses get found online over at BroadRiverCreative.com. My favorite food is chocolate chip pancakes.

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.

Customers are what makes it happen, as far as business is concerned. With that said, it is surprisingly easy to take your eyes off the customer as you pursue your business success. It is even easier for employees to make wrong decisions where customers are concerned. In fact, the more disconnected an employee is from the customer experience, the easier it is to be rude, to be careless, or just to take too long to help the customer out.

It is important to keep a watchful guard here, and to make sure you and every employee is really valuing the customer. Dale Little, a business strategist at dalelittle.com, says you should “encourage employees to focus on customer contact.” The contact part is essential. The more involved an employee, or you for that matter, is with the customer, the easier it is to empathize and deal with the customer in a caring way.

Dale goes on to say, “customers require undivided attention and focus. The red carpet treatment for a client may mean the difference between your company making the sale or maintaining the existing business relationship, or someone else taking the business from you.”

Can you truly say that you give all of your customers the red carpet treatment? Or do you take some customers for granted? I realize that there are a few customers you would rather just get rid of, but that is no excuse to be ambivalent toward the rest of your customers. In fact, my challenge is this; proactively get rid of bad apple customers so that you have an easier time giving the royal treatment to everyone else.

Lets talk for a few moments on how to value your customer.

Build a Culture of Caring

If you want every employee to show care for customers, you need to focus on building the right culture. Always stress the importance of the customer and take time to train on proper etiquette and procedures for dealing with customers.

I don’t think a blanket statement such as “the customer is always right” works. The customer is not always right. Employees need to know how to deal with customers when they are wrong, when they are rude, or when they are clueless. Everyone should treat customers politely, no matter what. Complaints and questions should be dealt with promptly. When a customer takes the time to contact your business, it should become a priority to get back to them.

Perhaps the cardinal rule of building a culture of caring is to not talk badly about customers behind their backs. Employees pick up on this and it sometimes overflows into actual relations with the customer. Instead, truly value customers, even difficult ones. If they are bad for business, get rid of them so you are not tempted to disparage them within your business.

Arrange Interactions for Employees

A great way to build empathy between employees and customers is to arrange for them to meet face to face. Salespeople who take time to build relationships with customers often go out of their way in protecting those customers and taking extra special care of them. Think of ways other key staff, such as customer service reps and technicians, can meet customers.

One idea I like is having a company picnic where you invite customers and their families. This could be an opportunity for everyone to let their hair down and to interact as people. You could also encourage employees who talk to customers on the phone to take some time for personal conversation with them. Employees involved in making your product or delivering your service could take field trips to see how customers are benefiting from what they do.

If an employee has a personal connection with a customer, they are far more likely to give that customer the best treatment.

Institute a Thank You Campaign

Instill an attitude of thankfulness at your business. Give each employee a stack of thank you cards and have them hand write thank you notes to customers throughout the year. Many employees can get involved with this. Your customer service reps might send a thank you note to someone who was exceptionally pleasant to work with. Accounts receivable could send a thank you for an early payment. Salespeople should send thank you notes for every sale. You should send thank you notes as well from time to time.

By giving thanks, you help everyone to value customers more. And every customer appreciates a thoughtful, hand written thank you note. It is far better to do this for retention than to send a pre-printed Christmas card.

Reward Caring

Why not have a most caring employee of the month award? It can go to someone who went out of their way to make sure things went well for a customer. It could be a packager who stayed a little late to make sure an order got out, or a salesperson who suggested sending flowers to a customer who was sick.

Recognize your employees efforts to value the customer. Doing so will show that you appreciate those efforts. It will reinforce the good behavior and show that you care about valuing the customer. Tie some kind of reward, perhaps a gift card, in with this program.

Create Customer Friendships

Finally, encourage friendships with customers. Don’t glare at employees if they are having a friendly chat with a customer on the phone. Allow salespeople to use social networks to stay up to date with customers. Encourage deeper relationships by hosting events such as a picnic or even a customer thank you dinner.

The closer customers feel to key people in your business, the more loyal they will be. Its okay to be personal with customers. Sure, there is a danger that lines will be crossed. Monitor employees for anything inappropriate. But allow your people to go beyond the standard rapport building tricks.

When there is a bit of history between customer and company, with a personal touch, there is a better chance that the customer will get great treatment and feel a greater loyalty to your company. So encourage friendliness.

The customer is valuable to your business, in a monetary sense. The question is, can you learn to value your customers in a human sense. If so, the money will surely follow.

photo credit: Eva Cristescu

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses create useful web sites and online marketing campaigns to go with them at BroadRiverCreative.com.

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, sign up below this article.

If you are looking for success in your business, you may need look no farther than your customers. Customers are a wealth of information that, if properly tapped, can help you mold and shape your business into a success machine. Not paying attention to your customers can have dire results.

Listen to what Ross Felix of Dating Revolution, Inc. had to say about the importance of customers for his business.

It sounds elementary, but my startup wouldn’t be in business if my competition truly listened to its users. There are so many flaws in the online dating market, flaws that we confirmed by interviewing hundreds of daters. Don’t “think” you know what your customers want, go out and ASK them. Thanks to our customers and future customers, we’ve now found a way to democratize online dating and create a site that reduces or eliminates their pain points.

Listening to customers and the wider market can help you position your business for success and really outshine your competitors. But listening isn’t always easy. Too often, small business owners are too busy looking at the trees of their business to ever get an understanding of the forest of their customers. In other words, you get so focused on the details of your business that you miss what is going on in the world of your customers.

Andy Hayes, of Travel Online Partners, says it like this.

Get some customer feedback. If you’re already asking for feedback, then ask something different. You’re too close to your website, to your brochure, to your products and services. You can’t see the little things that are wrong or missing but are causing problems. Get the feedback and do something about it. Your customers will thank you with more business.

Understanding what customers needs are, and what drives them to buy, is essential. This understanding comes best through constant interaction. The good news is that interaction is a little easier today, with more and more people willingly interacting online.

There are all kinds of ways to engage your customer. Susan Jacobsen, of LUV2XLPR, Inc., suggests using tools like Twitter and LinkedIn to pay attention to customers and to react to both positive and negative feedback. She says to look at customers who are using these tools as advocates for your business.

Companies are surrounded by advocates and it’s up to them to listen to what’s being said on blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Testimonials used to be touted via quotes on a static website; now advocates proclaim their praise to thousands. These advocates can propel companies ahead, and small businesses need to acknowledge their influence. The right comment on the right blog or via Twitter can have a bigger impact on the bottom-line than an uninteresting quote in some regional newspaper left on a doorstep.

If you aren’t plugged in to the online universe, you will be missing more and more opportunities to move your business ahead by listening to what customers are saying. The more you fine tune your business to their needs, the more likely they will become advocates for your brand. Whether they talk about your business in a Facebook status update, or on a personal blog, these comments can have a very positive effect on your business. By listening first to needs, then adapting your business, you will find yourself listening more and more to positive feedback, which will help propel your business forward.

Social media is not the only tool to use for listening. Dr. Marlene Caroselli suggests using focus groups, surveys, and on-site evaluations to get a better idea of customer needs. While this may sound big business, it is not. It is easy to set up a focus group of your customers, for instance. Just invite a group out for coffee and dessert. Going to your customer’s place of business to see how they are implementing your product is also a great idea. If you are working with consumers, this may be more difficult. Use friends as case studies instead, or do an interview with a willing customer where you talk about their use of your product.

Sometimes, you don’t need to do anything to hear from your customers. Sometimes, they complain openly to you. Use customer complaints as an opportunity to improve your business and strengthen your customer relationships. When a customer complains, you know there is a disconnect somewhere between your offering and their need. So listen up. Then, when appropriate, adapt. Katharine Coles, of Mad Marketeer, gives this advice.

Listen to your clients. If they complain that they don’t like something about your product or service, try to find ways to change to meet their needs. If they don’t like your customer service or they think you are not listening or being responsive enough, try to put new systems in place to address the issues. If they don’t understand your documentation or your contracts, make them clearer and easier to understand. One of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make is NOT LISTENING.

If you learn how to listen, you will learn what you need to do to make your business better. Customers are your lifeblood. If you make moves that alienate them, you are pushing your business in the wrong directions. If, on the other hand, you are constantly concerned with what they want and make sound business moves to provide for that want, you are on your way to a more successful business.

photo credit: B Rosen

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Bradford Shimp designs and implements WordPress web sites and blogs for small business. If you need a cost-effective web site with control over content, learn more at BroadRiverCreative.com.