Follow Up Marketing Experts Blog

Keep at the top of Your Customers' Minds

By Kate
Marsden

A lot of sales
and repeat business is about being in the right place at the time, so your
business needs to pop up frequently to maximise that chance. It's better to
over-communicate than under-communicate, as long as it's with some good
content. This is not about spamming customers with rubbish or bland, generic
emails or adverts - the focus should be on adding value to not on short term
sales.

If you don't
know where to start, try these approaches:

• Remember
  your main objective is to keep in their mind - not to sell something all
  the time. Be seen as a business contact not a salesperson. Be prepared to
  call someone to see how things are or send people an email with some
  interesting news in.
• Make the
  contact relevant and personal - everyone hates standard letters and cards,
  and it doesn't take long to put a personal message on each one.
• Offer the
  latest thinking in your industry or niche, or give good ideas to help
  solve your customers' problems - for example hints, tips or how-to guides.
• Become
  known for your expertise - if you've won an award, been recognised in some
  way as a business, or been seen on the TV or radio make sure you let
  people know. Otherwise just be known for offering a great source of
  knowledge in whatever your field.
• Use
  everyone in your business to do this not just sales people - that way it's
  more likely to be about relationships and long term communication, not
  just short term sales
• Kill two
  birds with one stone and send a customer survey out - it reminds people
  about your business and gives you the chance to get some good testimonials
  or some learnings for your business.
• Use a
  variety of methods - email, direct mail, social media, events and special
  offers, rather than doing the same thing all the time - customers respond
  to different things at different times and will get bored if they only
  hear from you in one way.

If you do this,
you will always find some customers out there who find it all a bit too much.
But they are generally the minority - the majority will be happy with the
approach and view you as more of a partner than a sales channel. And from those
people, next time they are thinking about who to buy from, guess who will be
top of their mind?

Take action NOW
- this week build a communication plan for the next quarter to make sure you
are always in peoples' minds AND click here for more tips to boost your profits.

Want help
improving your business results? Visit our website to get our free report -
"52 Ways to Boost Your Profits". Kate Marsden is founder of Ignition
Key Ltd and has 20 years business experience working at Director level for a
number for well-known organisations. Kate provides businesses with advisory,
support, coaching and mentoring services to enable them to step change their
performance and results. For more information visit http://www.ignitionkey.co.uk


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6815547

Customer Lists

Do you realize that your customer list is your pot of gold? Keep in contact with your customers on a regular basis.

What's the Best Customer Service During a Recession

Have you read the articles in the papers about the status of our economy? I am not sure that we are really in a recession or even in a depression, as some pessimists seem to indicate. May that be decided by the historians in a few years when all the data is available and analyzed.

Have you heard about the relatively low confidence readings by the public? You yourself might have asked yourself how to continue to pay for $4/gallon gas at the pump, ever increasing prices for food, and many other daily necessities.

Officially we have an inflation rate of about 1.5 - 2 % but when I look at most of what we consume, it has increased easily by 20% or 30%, and in some cases even 40%, not to speak of the 100% increase when filling up the tank of my car.

Do you feel the same pain? If so, you might ask yourself what you can do. You might also ask yourself what your organization can do, as your place of work is probably the one resource you can't afford to loose in these challenging times.

With unemployment racing towards 6% nationwide, there is an increasing fear among the workforce about job security. The overall mood of the population is suppressed by the jump in prices, the war that doesn't seem to end, the negative economic news, the unending stream of reports about foreclosures. It almost looks like everything is on a negative downslide right now.

Individually we can't change the fundamentals of the economy and the associated political decisions. What we can do is get back to the very basics of doing business. One of these very basic things is customer service.

I strongly believe that the trend we currently see in many organization is going to be regretted when the dust of all the turmoil settles. When companies want to reduce cost, they typically look at those parts of the organization that don't deliver obvious returns on investment. These include, almost on equal levels, expenses for training, and expenses and salaries for customer service.

One of the additional fallacies is the believe that a reduced number of customers coming into stores or visiting your website means you don't need as many people providing services. The opposite is actually true.

When you want to maintain reasonable sales figures and thereby secure the jobs in your organization, you need to be better in customer service than most everybody else.

Many people who would have been customers a year ago are prospects right now. That means they might be interested in what you have to offer in products and services, but they have a generally negative state of mind. You know the reasons from reading all the bad things above.

To convert a prospect with a negative frame of mind into a buying customer, you will have to find out what they need, and show them all the benefits of what you have to offer. In these times, customer service becomes a needs satisfaction task, not a pure sale.

If you can satisfy the needs of a prospect by clearly showing how he or she will benefit from spending the little money they currently have with you, you have a much better chance to actually make a sale.

The second and almost more important task for your customer service providers is the transformation of a customer into a client. When the economy is restarting and the general mood will turn more optimistic, those organizations able to convert lots of prospects into customers and ultimately into clients, will be in a prime position to accelerate even more.

Never forget that a customer buys once (maybe because you just happened to have what they were desperately looking for). A client buys over and over again and builds a relationship with you that is often stronger than the lure of a lower price your competitor might offer.

To have a lot of clients, you want to determine what the needs of your prospects are, what the benefits of your solutions are, and then bring the two together in a smooth, caring, supportive way. If you can trigger the urge of a prospect to fill a need by buying what you offer, you will have a seamless sale.

If you keep serving your customer well after the sale, he or she will turn into a long term client and no recession in the world can change that.

Make sure that everybody in your organization understands that customer service is even more important in these challenging times than it is during a boom. You might even want to change the term from customer service to client service.

If that becomes the frame of mind of everyone working with and for you, your chances of flying through this demanding economy are way better than any of your competitors.

Make sure you don't save at the wrong end of your business and invest in the skills of those among you who deliver the all important client services. That will secure the longevity and prosperity of your organization automatically.

Axel Meierhoefer is an experienced performance coach, author, and the founder of Axel Meierhoefer Consulting LLC (AMC LLC). His motto is" Helping others help themselves achieve success". If you'd like to get on his VIP E-mail list to receive more articles, or like to find more insights like this article, goto http://www.myperformanceiq.com/secretstruthperformance.html or email AM@Meierhoefer.net Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Axel_Meierhoefer

5 Ways To Get More Customers and Keep Them Loyal-Tip #1 By Allan Katz

1.  Contests.

 

Everyone loves a contest. There are two strategies that will bring in floods of new customers into your store.

 

First, contact your regular customers and tell them about this contest.

You might call it the 'Ugliest (or Prettiest (your product)  in (your city) Contest.

 

Invite them to bring in their ugliest or Prettiest (pick one, not both) product on a specific day and your team of experts will decide who wins the contest.

 

Then you'll provide them with a before and after photo.  Get their permission to use this photo in your future ads.

 

Second, when you invite them, encourage them to bring a friend to enter the contest.  When they do, you'll provide them and their friend a gift certificate for future products or services, plus the chance to win the contest.

 

Third, Send out a direct mail postcard to residents in your area, promoting the Contest.  Give them the rules and also add a gift certificate just for entering the contest, to encourage them to begin shopping at your store or using your services.  You can use the 'Get the Friend' idea here also.

 

Besides the direct mail campaign, send a press release to your local newspaper announcing the contest.  You may want to take a picture of a really ugly or pretty (product) and send it with the press release to make it real and dramatic. Contact some of the radio stations, send the DJ an ugly product and see if they'll give it a mention.

 

I want your success stories on this contest promotion.  Email me with questions but I want to hear how you used this successfully.  I'll share your success stories with other readers of this newsletter and in future editions of the Complete Guide to Retail Loyalty Marketing.