Communicating with Your Customers

Everyone knows that customers are the life blood of your business. Without customers you really don't have a business, just a great product or service that nobody buys. Keeping in touch with your customers on a consistent basis is one way to better understand their needs and create a relationship that will build loyalty and trust.

You need to know what is going on in the market, and your customers remain the best source of information.Is your product or service meeting their needs? Does your delivery meet their expectations? Is there a competitor that is poised to steal them away? All these questions need to be answered on a regular basis. You need to know what they are thinking and how they view you as a supplier. If there is a problem you need to know about it. The only thing worse than a customer that complains all the time, is the customer that you never hear from. They are the ones that will take their business somewhere else once a problem occurs.

Another main reason you need constant communication is to build a relationship. Don't just call on your customers when you need an order or it is time to renew a contract. Reach out to them on an ongoing basis to let them know you value their business and you want to understand how to better serve their needs. Be genuine in your approach and be consistent in you actions. They will come to value you more than just for what you provide. They will reward you with their loyalty and trust.

Customers voice their dissatisfaction by taking their business elsewhere. Use all forms of communication available to ensure they remain satisfied with you and your company. By all means, don't be a pest, but do be vigilante in your efforts.

Where did the Time Go?

You often hear people complain that there are not enough hours in the day to get things done. As you struggle to finish everything you set out to accomplish in any given day, you find yourself succumbing to the pressures and stress this mindset will bring.

You have to realize that you will never be caught up no matter how long and hard you work. Even when you retire there will always be something on your plate that you feel has to get done. This has been ingrained in our psyche from day one. It all started when you were a kid in school. It wasn’t enough to go to class all day, the teachers felt compelled to give you homework.

I realized this awhile back and decided that I was not going let the burden of unfinished work drag me down. I would create a list, prioritize it, and work to complete my tasks following the order of importance. If something came up that had to be immediately addressed, I just put it at the top of the list and continued on my way. While this didn’t always work to perfection, it did create a mindset that reduced the stress of everyday life. As long as I completed what absolutely had to be completed, I would call it a day and save the rest for another time.

Unfortunately in today’s “get it done yesterday” world of deadlines too many people are swallowed up in jobs that consume them. Bosses forget their employees have an outside life and if you work for yourself your job becomes your life. Just remember, until the day you die, you will always have something to do. If you don't slow down that day may be coming sooner than you think.

The Sad State of Good Customer Service

When I like to think about customer service, I like to think about GOOD customer service.Good customer service is when someone greets you with a smiling face or a happy voice. They genuinely are interested in you and what can they do to help you. If there is a problem, they take the time to listen and work to find a solution. If it is just a general transaction, they are attentive and make sure everthing goes smoothly. Their main goal is have you walk away or hang-up with a sense of satisfaction and a good feeling about the company they represent.

It is right about now when I awake from this dream and am faced with the current state of customer service we as consumers face on a daily basis. Not that it's all bad, but I have experienced such poor service it makes me question how certain companies are still in business.

Good customer service begins and ends with a company's attitude toward providing it. Senior management must develop a company wide culture that embraces excellent service as a cornerstone of doing business. It does not begin at the ground floor, rather it starts at the top and must trickle down through the entire company.

If your front-line employees, who happen to have the most contact with your customers, don't understand how important it is to treat people in a proper fashion, you will never develop a consistant, quality approach to customer service.

As a high level manager or business owner, take the time to evaluate your company's current track record in relation to proving good customer service. If what you find isn't good,take whatever steps you can to correct it. Most customers do not voice their displeasure, rather they just stop calling or showing up.

The Ever Changing Marketing Plan

The beginning of every year I would work on a comprehensive market plan for our company. This thirty page document covered every aspect of our past year's results and our plans for the coming year. It would take two to three weeks to complete and occupy most of my time for the month of January. The main reason I hated this project was that I knew once it was done, we would never look at it again until the following January.

When I started my own company, I developed a one page marketing plan that basically followed an outline clearly stating my goals and objectives and defining the proper strategies to achieve them. I have redesigned that plan three times already this year and will probably revise it one more time before the end of the year. It is a living, breathing document that holds me accountable for my actions. I change things that aren't working, expand things that are, and have no fear completely changing directions if conditions warrant it.

Fight the temptation to get locked into a plan. Give yourself the freedom and flexibility to change and adapt. Once I got myself out of my old box of sticking to the same tactics whether they moved the dial or not, I became much more effective in my approach to growing my business.

Be Patient but Persistent

When I started my own consulting company a little over a year ago, one of the first things I did was develop a Mission and Vision statement as well as my Core Values for my company. Two of my core values are patience and persistence. At the time I never realized how hard it would be to keep these core values front and center in my approach to growing my business. While at face value they seem to oppose each other, in reality they compliment one another. You can not successfully be persistent without being patient. You have to know when to apply the pressure and when to hold back and let nature take its course.

In a past life as a sales and marketing director for a beverage distribution company I would have never been described as being patient. I certainly was persistent, almost to the point of being unbearable.I rarely took the time to let things develop and often made rash decisions without having all the necessary information. I didn't have patience to evaluate alternative courses of action. Most of the time this approach actually worked, but the times it didn't proved disastrous.

I practice patience everyday of my life as I have come to realize the world doesn't always move at my pace. I continue to be persistent because it is the only way I know how to keep moving forward. These two core values are vital in creating a balanced approach to both business and life.