Previously in Part I of this post, we discussed how important it is for salespeople to participate in the customer service arena. We shared the first five suggestions for touching customers in order to maintain their loyalty and happiness. Here in Part II, we will continue with the second five.
- Secure referrals with introductions and testimonials – In selling, referrals are the gift that keeps on giving, but will only be furnished by happy, satisfied customers. Why would they recommend a schlub that can’t find his butt with both hands? I did a 3-part post about referrals back in April that can be accessed in my archive vault here. Don’t forget that you will achieve even better results when you continually report the outcome of each referral contact to the customer who gave it, whether positive or negative. This simply provides you with one more touch, which never hurts.
Testimonials are priceless, whether they are written, or in audio or video format. I have been fortunate enough to receive some great, less than 60 second, video testimonials that are posted on my website (with permission). You can view them here. In my opinion this format is the most believable, and you can’t acquire too many of them.
- Occasionally mail cards (birthday, holiday, anniversary, special circumstances) – For years I’ve preached that everybody on the planet is walking around with an invisible flashing sign on their chest that says, “Make me feel special.” What better way to do that than dropping 2-3 cards per year in the mail to each customer? Your responsibility is to gather relevant information about your customers, and then maintain that data on an electronic calendar with a “come-up” format to trigger you to send the cards. The births of a grandchild, a wedding anniversary, or an acknowledgement of the soccer team he coaches, winning the city-wide championship, are great examples of opportunities to touch your customers. It requires a little work but will pay huge dividends for your business.
- Send articles of personal interest, based on your client knowledge – As part of customer profiling and reconnaissance, you will no doubt be tipped off to several interests your customers have. I assure you that your stock will go up when you email or snail mail copies of articles that are interesting to your customers.
As an example, a few months ago one of my customers made me aware of his interest in learning how to invest successfully in stocks. Recently I read a good article that very simply and understandably outlined how to properly value a company’s stock for potential investing. I forwarded that article to my customer with a note and about a week later received a very encouraging response thanking me for thinking of him and telling me that my value to him was worth more than what I charge for my services. All things being equal, a customer like that will probably stay with me even if times get tough.
- Introduce new offerings and re-present those recommended but not purchased – Remember that every customer travels at a different rate of speed, meaning that just because they didn’t buy something you recommended six months ago, doesn’t mean they won’t buy it now; especially if you are touching the customer via some or all of these 10 suggestions. As you do these things the needle on your trust meter goes up and your customer will begin to give you the benefit of the doubt. Therefore clients like these will be more likely to be open to new offerings your company introduces and to the previously recommended items they didn’t buy back then.
Inform all customers of any special promotions your company or location offers – Nobody wants to be pushed, but everyone wants to be led. Your customers deserve to hear about every special promotion your company makes available. As with the other touch methods previously mentioned, this one gives you another avenue and reason to contact them. Share what’s on sale with them and let them make up their own mind.
By employing the ten suggestions in these last two posts, salespeople will do their part to keep customers happy and engaged, as well as sell more new business to this group of goodwill ambassadors.
Would you tell us one of your customer service techniques that helps keep your clients happy and satisfied, in the Speak Your Mind area below?
If I were back in the field as a sales manager I would trade my dry erase board and all my colored pens for a copy of Sell is NOT a Four Letter Word and the accompanying Study Guide that was just released. Watch me explain below is this short video how valuable this combo could be to you and your company.
