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Article #4

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Strong Relationships Create Tighter Bonds with Your Customers
by Scott Greggory

Good customers are hard enough to come by in a healthy economy. But during tough economic times, they quickly distinguish themselves as worth their weight in gold! Over the years, many companies have been shocked into an appreciation of their customers. It's unfortunate that it took declining sales or even bankruptcy for some companies to realize just how important their customers are. For some, it's too late. But for other companies, slower economic times have helped them set a new course, one aimed at developing and maintaining mutually beneficial RELATIONSHIPS with customers.

Many years ago when I lived outside a small rural community, I would visit a certain farm stand about once a week during the summer and fall months. The lady who ran the stand didn't have nearly the selection of the local grocery store down the street. I remember that some of her produce was even a bit more expensive than the store's. But she knew my name. And she used it every time I visited her stand. She was friendly. She always asked about my day and seemed to take a genuine interest in how I was. She'd even throw an extra apple or two in the bag every now and then. And every time I left her stand, I got a warm "thank you" and a request to come back and see her again soon.

I never got any of that from the grocery store.

Sure, the store's melons were a quarter cheaper, but I never left there with the sense that I had just been cared for. Whether she was a savvy businesswoman, just a nice person, or a mixture of the two, the lady at the farm stand knew how to keep me coming back. Over time, she earned my loyalty by building a relationship with me, making me feel important, showing her appreciation for my business, and giving me added value – again, something I wasn't getting at the grocery store. In this increasingly impersonal and competitive world, you can see how that approach could go a long way toward helping your company win and keep customers, especially during leaner economic times.

There's much to learn about cultivating customer relationships, but I'll touch on just a few basic points. The first deals with the concept of account penetration. It is far easier, far less expensive and far more profitable to sell ten different products to one person over a period of time than to sell one product to ten people. The goal with account penetration is to increase your share of each customer, rather than increasing your share of the market. Meeting that goal requires building more mutually beneficial relationships with the most important of your customers. Part of that relationship building comes from knowing what your customers' specific wants and needs are; and not just how they relate to your company, but their overall goals, their "pains," their plans for the future, etc. This requires the development and maintenance of a customer relationship management system that can track information about your customers and prospects - their specific purchases, service requests, and any other information that can help you recognize habits, uncover potential problems, or predict future needs.

When you take a legitimate interest in helping your customers succeed, when you serve more in a consultative capacity and less as a vendor looking for a quick sale, when you truly work on behalf of your customers’ interests, you are more likely to engender the type of loyalty that's necessary for a long-term business relationship to prosper.

Next, partner with your customers. Find ways to get more involved with their businesses, and let them into yours. Develop ways you can work together for the betterment of both companies. As a business or marketing partner that delivers real value, you become much harder to shake if and when money starts to get tight.

Finally, the customer whose business consistently nets your company a million dollars per year is much more valuable to you than the customer who spends a thousand or two once in a while, so why treat those two customers the same? That's not to suggest that you don't apply the basics of good customer service to every customer or prospect, but committing an equal number of employees or the same resources or benefits to the thousand dollar client as you would to the million dollar client can't possibly yield the same return. And if your employees believe there is no difference between clients, what incentive do they have to provide preferential treatment to those who deserve it? Your more valuable customers should receive an even higher degree of service, above and beyond the call. After all, they pay for it every day with their loyalty to you.

Copyright by BusinessVoice, Inc. To republish or redistribute this or any content on this website, please contact Scott Greggory at scottg@businessvoice.com.