Clients and Customers relationships!
No clients no business.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
It goes without saying for most businesses regardless of shape size business or otherwise without clients or customers you don’t have a business. It’s commonly a source of constant frustration and joy, dealing with and engaging or clients. They exist as the goal of our businesses, to reach out get them to buy, your products, services, or goods. How we find them is the study of marketing, how we engage with them is the business of customer service, and the impact of their purchases and desires the core of our survival. It’s this fundamental pillar of our business, that is the arguable only measure of success. A product with no customers, a service with not clients, struggles to find meaning and survival.
With their central importance to any and every business being well understood by all, why is it that we often, seem to ignore them or forget them, in our daily business. Think of your own purchases and buying, when was the last time you had a positive interaction with any sort of vendor. You’ve probably been ignored or poorly supported by a company you were buying something from. Contractors, not communicating well or being late. Products not being well displayed or bad website. Staff and workers being disengaged, rude or even unhelpful. We see this every day in all kinds of environments, and for many reasons. However, they all leave a bad taste in our mouths as consumers, and customers.
Are we doing enough for our own small business customers, to ensure they want to keep coming back and paying us the money that makes our businesses go? Let’s explore some reasons why we as small businesses should specifically focus on customer relationships and what ideas we can do that in a cost-efficient manner work to give the client or customer the best experience.
Why build relationships?
When a client or a customer has decided to engage with you either face to face in a store, or online, or part of a service exchange the hardest part of the job has already happened. After this you’re now in contact and you’ve got influence on the relationship that you will have with this client. Many things have already brought the client to your service or good and that all will be factors that you can indirectly influence through advertising and marketing, a strong product or brand, however the client engagement is directly in your hands. If you’re online, and never see the customer, or if you’re face to face, the next moments, will determine, if this customer is coming back, or not. Reoccurring customers are for many businesses some of the best customers, you can imagine, the cost of customer, which Is a measurement of how much work and money needs to be put into getting customers, and retaining them, is between 5 and 25 times higher for new customer vs, reoccurring customers. This means it is a hell of a lot cheaper to keep the customers you have coming back vs. finding new ones. While we always should be pushing out and further to show new customers and clients, our wares, we should never neglect those that already decided to support us.
For many clients and their engagement with us, also have impacts after you’ve completed the transaction, in the review. Many clients are leaving reviews on your site and business, in dozens of different places. These can be googling reviews, seen by anyone using google maps, or on business review sites, like Yelp or trip advisor, and these you cannot control. How the client left your engagement can impact your rating or standing on these sites. This reflects in many customers, who now due to the sheer size of the internet are using reviews from third parties to help them make that decision to buy or shop via reviews from customers. This means that the relationship you build with clients and customers, not only impacts if they will comeback but also if the next customer even enters the door. For many shoppers and customers use reviews as more reliable and honest information about your business, then anything you can publish simply because the perception of bias is less on a review.
Building relationships and engaging with the clients, is critical for small businesses both by hoping they will come back in the future as well as hoping to guide the review they leave.
Building relationships!
We’ve looked at the importance of having clients, and why we want them to leave happy and to come back as often as is reasonable. We understand that loyal customers, generate more revenue and can make new customers select us from positive reviews based on our engagement. More and more we are seeing that the large online platforms, amazons, Temu and Shein, remove us more and more from the actual purchase and with small businesses we represent the exact opposite of this. We are hands on, in your face, and available to answer questions, react to customer questions and give feedback based on the individual. These things are what will separate us from the black hole that big corporate websites. Even small business online sales, and services can benefit from a client relationship experience. Let’s take at some ideas and tangible actions that we can take to build these relationships regardless of you being face to face.
Polite, and personal Messaging
If your business is physical face to face, or if you are online, one of the most common repeated sales tactics is the personal engagement, speaking to the person, saying hello, asking their name, remember their name and asking how they are. Introducing yourself, asking what they are interested in and what you can help with. Embracing the client’s interest and making them feel welcome. This has always been one of the first repeated tactics for sales training, and it still rings true. It’s important to gauge what approach works best with the client and to match their vibe with your own. Speaking directly to customers and offering information and details about your services and products, can give you a great ability to help the client make decisions and explore your products, and services. In an online environment, this can be done in a similar way by providing a personalized thank you message in the order, thanking them for the order. It can be built up by paying attention to those clients that order repeatedly by looking for repeat business and providing an acknowledgement of that order history. Paying attention to your clients, and their engagement of you will always be remembered.
Product Suggestions
You know your products, what they do, what options you have, what the products can do, how your products interact. The client that visits your page or your store, is new to your world. This is an opportunity to bring the client the personal experience to help them explore your business. By understanding their needs by speaking to them you can help them explore what products are the right ones for them. You can suggest new or additional products that compliment or are better suited, in this conversation. By giving suggestions and listening to client feedback you’re building the relationship directly and give them more reason to come back to you the next time. Clients are most of the time looking to solve problems, desires and needs and if you do that for them, they will be grateful and will come back.
This makes sense in the physical space were having a good dialogue is easy and straightforward, however it’s not impossible online. Having a website that clearly describes the product and usage, with good photos, is a starting point. Having good links to additional products that might matter or relate to a product clearly listed together does the same online.
Additionally having chat options to allow for questions from clients, and being responsive to that chat will also build report. As online clients are doing the same search for solutions, and support. Solving problems online does the same thing as a physical store and will be one of the biggest reasons customers come back.
Bundle ordering suggestions.
When you have products in a physical space or online, it’s common to have products that relate to each other, if you’re selling sewing patterns and fabric, or stationary notebooks and pens, or Ceramics in sets. Building bundle deals can be a great way to give a good relationship with the client, by looking to suggest when a customer orders one item that they can complement it with the purchase of a complimentary item at a discount, shows you’re paying attention to the client, and their habits. Looking at your products, and understanding what they are commonly purchased together, so you can suggest these ideas, can build relationships. If you have a product that are sold individually and have sets, then suggest the client to buy the set, these responsive engagement with the client when purchasing either face to face or online, shows a care for the client’s time and business.
Discounts and Loyalty programs
Many of us will be members of and use discounts, and loyalty programs, these are almost default in many first shopping events on new sites if we sign up for a newsletter and similar. While desirable and this can provoke an order, we here suggest a curated discount and loyalty program. Do you have a client that consistently orders some products, then reward that with a discount on that product or one new product that might be interesting. Look at your clients and work to foster loyalty by responding to their habits, and behaviors. Do you see them stop ordering for a period, then reach out, with a discount. Using the information, you have in your order history can be a way to find a good and beneficial conversation starter with a client, and discounts on commonly ordered products is a great way to represent this.
Email communication and newsletters.
Email isn’t dead. Despite the common groan we have when getting emails and the increasingly impressive volume of spam emails, the email consistently remains a great way to engage with customers and communicate directly with those clients that have given you the right to do so. Studies show that email marketing is consistently one with best return on investment. Ensuring you customers that are interested in you are seeing your product developments, discounts and. Hearing your story is a great way to keep the engagement from the client. Key to this is ensuring that your email content is relevant, interesting, and managed. That means avoid the trap of over sending, or irrelevant content. Ensure the client maintains control of their subscription ensures control is in their hands. This email can also be a place to offer specific discounts mentioned above. Use your knowledge of your client’s order history to highlight products that might be relevant to previous purchases and will give them new ideas and value.
Physical product messaging
This last suggestion is something of a personal one, but I have heard this mentioned before. With more and more of our engagement happening digitally and online, having a reaction to that, and sharing a physical product message can be a differentiating factor that shows the client and customer something different. With the ease and simplicity of all digital communication having a personalized postcard, or letter, sent to a client can make a real impact. Likewise physical catalogues or promotional material for clients that have consented to this can be a real game changer from the next online vendor. It makes a memorable impact to see and hold, and for some clients and customers, these things matter a great deal. Staying in the client’s memory for something new or unusual is a great way to cement that relationship.
Summary
Clients and customers fuel your business and keep us going. To that end we have a great opportunity to nurture them, as you would plants, by engaging with our customers, and being interested in them, we do our best to get that reoccurring customer. With a range of ideas above we see where understanding and having meaningful communication we can get to a stage where we are mutually helping each other.
If you’re struggling to engage your client’s or need help in developing your next big idea from the thought to a fully fleshed out project, why not get in touch with us on by email, timh@department45.eu , or on our Instagram DMs. If you have any ideas or thought on additional business ideas that can engage clients, add them below to our comments.
Thank you for your time,
Tim H.
Lead consultant.
