Gathering information about your clients and customers is the key to effective customer retention. If you can find out what your customers want, how they want it and when, that information can be the route through to their hearts as well as their wallets.
I have a very small client list. Mainly, because I am a 1-woman show. While I see other virtual businesses grow and grow, (and, seriously, good for you!) I prefer to remain small and bespoke so that I can take care of my clients in the way that I would like to be taken care of; personally, effectively, efficiently and at a moments notice. (As an aside, I’m also small as a 60 hour week would not fit my lifestyle!!)
Of course, you can spend time in front of spreadsheets adding data; make call after call speaking to clients about their preferences. But I would not consider that a good use of time. Tracking and using the information provided by your clients or network is an ongoing job and there are some things that you can do to make your life a little easier.
Get yourself a CRM System – CRM – Customer Relationship Management. A really useful tool to help you manage your customers. I like Mail Chimp and I’m using this a lot for clients. They have a free to-use-package, too. I would rate Constant Contact as 5 stars and they have a great customer service team behind them that will answer any question you may have. Then there are sites such as infusionsoft, icontact and getresponse which all do the same sort of thing to one degree or another. All worth looking into and playing with to find your ideal fit.
Track Click Throughs – If you’re sending regular updates to an email database, make sure you have the ‘click through’ button ticked in your management system. Who’s clicking on what can be a good source of information as to what people are interested in throughout the year.
Ask Questions – Gender, age, chocoholic, hobbies, shoe lover or business type can all be relevant details you use to create targeted communications and offers that get you interacting with your customers. If you don’t already have this information, you can gather it though questionnaires set up with someone like surveymonkey or formspring.
Survey Your Clients – the above also goes for asking specific questions of your clients relating to your business. Do they like what you do, would they like to see additional services offered, is the pricing right, would they recommend you? Send a survey out after a couple of months working with a client and see what feedback you get.
Listen to the replies – Any information gathered shouldn’t sit gathering dust, or get lost in your computer. Listening to what your clients have to say about your products and services and then acting on this information is an easy and inexpensive way of developing your customer relationships.
Interact – Keeping in regular contact with clients and would-be customers is a good way to build relationships that last. An email once in a blue moon just doesn’t cut it any more, (when did it?) Instead, remember clients’ birthdays, an anniversary, that their soccer team just lost… When they know that you know them, that’s when your clients will respond with their loyalty and at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?
About the Author:
Emma Crabtree is the owner and sole-operator of Red Box Virtual Office, a off-site business support service. Red Box Virtual Office can enable you to free yourself from the day to day admin of your business so that you can focus on what you enjoy and what makes you money. Find out more
