Great Customer Relationships=Customers For Life

| Tuesday, October 5, 2010
By Kathy Jiamboi

As Mother Teresa once said, "There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."

What a powerful statement. Everyone is looking for love and appreciation. If you are looking to demonstrate trust and create an endless bond with clients, showing appreciation is a great approach.

Most businesses spend less money on their existing customers than the funds spent on gaining new clients. Your list of present customers is your greatest resource. To get more profits focus your dollars on your existing clients or patients.

One thing you could do in your business is develop a customer appreciation program. Recognize your top customers each month with some sort of gift or acknowledgment. Send thank you notes after each order. Reward them with gift cards for client referrals. Acknowledge birthdays, weddings, births, and other important life events. These are little things that are a lost art in business today. When was the last time you received any kind of personal correspondence from a company you do or did business with? Just adding this to your marketing mix will make a difference.

Here are some suggestions for beginning your own client recognition program.

Make use of Holidays.

Send Valentine's Day candy and cards with the message, We Love Our Customers.

Send an ornament at Christmas.

Deliver chocolate bunnies at Eastertime.

Use Halloween to send a bag of treats.

Memorial Day or July 4th are great for showing patriotism with flags, red, white and blue items.

Make use of the Seasons.

Send something cold on a hot and humid day.

When the leaves begin to fall, deliver pumpkins or apple cider.

In the dead of winter, send some hot chocolate and a coffee mug with your logo.

Send out flowering seed packets in the spring.

Make use of your vendors and resources.

Develop a vendor offering created just for your clients.

Get your vendors to provide an educational seminar.

Who do you know who has specialized knowledge who would love the opportunity to provide helpful information and gain access to potential clients?

Make use of Education

Deliver educational books either of interest to your clients or ones that maybe beneficial to their business.

Invitations are a great resource.

Invite your customers to breakfast.

Invite them to stimulating workshops.

Use Events.

Throw an annual client appreciation bash. Let them invite a friend (maybe a new client for you). Here are some ideas:

Have a Cinema Party-give out popcorn, candy and beverages, show a classic film. Thank your customers with your own movie before the feature film.

Have a Photos with Santa Day. Everyone loves pictures. A local photographer may provide a special price to get the opportunity to reach your customers.

Throw a party at a water park.

Have a special day at a museum. Have photos taken and give each guest a commemorative photo.

After all is said and done, our existing customers are all any business has. Make sure you a treating them as valuable as they are to your business.

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