Author: Gwen Tamayo

All great relationships require nurturing. And while we don’t usually think of customer relationships the same way we think about love… when it comes to the best expert advice on the subject, we couldn’t help but notice a lot of similarities.

For Valentine’s Day, enjoy this timeless advice from the experts about customer relationships – or any other relationships on your mind today!

1. Challenge your limiting beliefs

Cultivating great relationships with customers even as your company grows is every businesses’ top priority. If you want to scale, you’ll need the right tools, like a great CRM. But you’ll also need the right mindset.

In The Psychology of Selling, Brian Tracy talks about “self-concept.” A person with a good self-concept believes that every day presents a myriad of opportunities – sales opportunities! – no matter what the pipeline looks like, because they believe in their own mission and they believe in themselves to achieve it. They know – and project – that they’re providing immense value. When you’re confident in your own value, customers will believe in your value too. It’s contagious!

2. Be of service

In To Sell is Human, by Daniel Pink, a man is looking to buy a vacuum. But instead of just selling him a vacuum, he suggested being a “problem finder” instead of only a “problem solver.” How can we become more attuned to the hidden problems, rather than the stated problem?

The problem in this case is: He has too much dust in his house. There are many solutions to this – new windows, a housecleaner, or perhaps a new vacuum. Which is the best for him though?

As Pink says,

“This is what it means to serve: improving another’s life and, in turn, improving the world.”

3. Sell benefits, not products

Zig Zeigler, one of the original motivational speakers, and author of many books on sales, says in Selling 101,

“Prospects do not buy products. Prospects buy products of the products — known as benefits… Prospects buy what the product will do for us.”

We can only know how our customers will benefit from our solution when we truly understand their problems. When we really listen.

A benefits-first approach helps your customers get to the heart of your business much faster. After that, be honest about what problems you can solve, and which ones you can’t. We must be authentic in order to foster brand trust and of course, our product must actually benefit our customers in order for them to keep coming back.

(As an aside, Zig also wrote Courtship after Marriage: Romance Can Last a Lifetime. It seems there are crossover qualities in sales and love!)

4. Face your fears

In Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling, he says,

“You will not get rid of the butterflies, but you can get them flying in formation.”

We all fear rejection, or failure. Avoiding risk, though, is no path to success. Edison tried a thousand times before he successfully built the first light bulb; Michael Jordan missed over 9,000 shots; and Babe Ruth was known as The King of Strikeouts. What these greats have in common is that they were not afraid of failure.

You won’t always be able to help every customer, and you might even get some tough feedback from time to time – or maybe even your whole first year of business. Those companies willing to face challenges – and fix their mistakes – are long-term business material.

FreeAgent CRM is a platform that helps small businesses nurture quality customer relationships. Get set up in less than 20 minutes and start working with a company that believes that CRM means Customer Relationships Matter. Check us out.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, let’s talk customer love with Gwen (our resident Free Agent Ambassador!)

Check out the blog below (and vlog!) – and in the spirit of spreading love, feel free to share with a business who might need a reminder. 😉

If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business – and it doesn’t take much to lose a customer in 2019. Feeling unappreciated is the number one reason customers switch away from a business.

No matter what your role is on your small business team, customer love is your top priority! And while loyalty programs and fun gifts can work in spurts, it’s way more important to get the basics right and be consistent and reliable in their execution. Don’t wait for a special occasion, like Valentine’s Day or a birthday to let your customers know you care. Build it into your business’ DNA.

Here are five ways to let your customers know you care.
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1. Respond right now

When an inquiry is made, acknowledge the receipt of the question right away. 90% of customers today expect an immediate response – and they tell us that “immediate” means within the first 10 minutes! To ensure consistency here, you need automation – with marketing, customer service, or CRM tools, you can personalize auto-responses that let customers know you’re on the case and taking action, and that their inquiry didn’t go into a black hole. Making customers wait, even a little bit, is no longer acceptable.

2. Respond to the actual inquiry

Customers want to know they’ve been heard, and that their question/concern is actually being addressed. Automation is not the right tool here – don’t just send back suggested knowledgebase articles based on keywords in the inquiry. Instead, consider how historical customer data available at your fingertips can provide instant context into the customer – tracked emails and notes can even show you if they’re tech-saavy or usually require more explanation.

3. Tell them what to expect…

Whether it’s a follow-up to a question, timing for delivering a product or letting someone know that you’re running late, be specific in telling your customer what to expect. Even when you’re responding right away (See #1!), let customers know when a live human will be back to them.

4. … And then follow through

One of the best ways to lose business is to say one thing and do another. Customer relationship quality and the reputation of your brand are based in trust. You might want to throw the cliché “under-promise and over-deliver” out the window, but not doing that is a sure-fire way for your customers to feel very unimportant.

5. Check in after the sale

A customer that has made a purchase is the best kind of customer to have. These are your loyal fans and making sure that things went smoothly after the deal is done will ensure your success through referrals, brand trust, and high-value social proof. Engaged customers who feel connected to your business are not only 50% more likely to make more purchases themselves, they’re also 10x more likely to recommend you to friends.