Business owners think that retaining clients is all about the reminders they send out about pending services due.\u00a0 They also think its about fancy fliers and post cards, incentive marketing, and maybe expensive websites.\u00a0 Those are all good, but they don\u2019t do the full job !<\/p>\n
Clients want to know that you care about them and you are available when they have a need.\u00a0\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t come in the mail, or by email, or a discount coupon.\u00a0 Showing a client they matter happens when you are receptive to contacts they initiate.<\/p>\n
If you go on a website, fill out a form, and don\u2019t hear back, what is your impression of the company you wish to contact.\u00a0 If you call and spend 10 minutes on hold or wading through a complicated phone tree, are you impressed that the company cares about you ?\u00a0 If you send an email request for help, how valuable do you feel when you get no response?<\/p>\n
Sending out the reminder cards and letter really helps.\u00a0 However, how do you expect the client to respond ?\u00a0 Is that channel open ?\u00a0 Will they find getting your help is prompt, easy, and friendly ?<\/p>\n
Consider the person who receives an email from you about a service due.\u00a0 They \u201cReply\u201d to the email and ask when it would be convenient to come in.\u00a0 You don\u2019t reply.\u00a0 They know the service is due, and you had your chance.\u00a0 Now they call someone else, then when you finally respond, you\u2019ve already lost them.<\/p>\n
I always encourage shop owners to be sure their email is checked throughout the day.\u00a0 I hear way too often \u201cI just don\u2019t have time.\u201d\u00a0 I encourage them to make sure anyone answering the phone takes a message, double checks the name and number, gets it to them immediately, and the call back is performed in minutes, not hours.\u00a0 Again, \u201cbut I\u2019m so busy\u201d.\u00a0 If that\u2019s the case, you\u2019re understaffed and in trouble already.<\/p>\n
If you are going to send out any communications, make sure you respond to the reply you receive, and do it quickly.\u00a0 As for those annoying phone trees, don\u2019t use them.\u00a0 The time you think you save may equal the number of clients who are offended and take their business elsewhere.<\/p>\n
jf you hire a company to do your follow-up, make sure they also have great incoming communication capability.\u00a0 It does make a difference.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the money you invest in your original communications be wasted because you have failed to open a dialog quickly and easily.\u00a0 The business you save will make a difference in your bottom line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Business owners think that retaining clients is all about the reminders they send out about pending services due.\u00a0 They also think its about fancy fliers and post cards, incentive marketing, and maybe expensive websites.\u00a0 Those are all good, but they don\u2019t do the full job ! Clients want to know that you care about them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,22],"tags":[29,28,30,31],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clientrelationmanagement","category-main","tag-communication","tag-customer-follow-up","tag-reminders","tag-retain-clients"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoshopwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}