Customer Relationships
What Do Your Customers Really Think?
By Bill Brooks
May 23, 2005, 16:14

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Do you have formal and significant ways to recognize your best customers? Do you appreciate their loyalty? Do they know you appreciate them? Do you sometimes forget that they are your most valuable assets?

It’s not unusual for salespeople and their organizations to take customers for granted. In fact, I was recently consulting with a very well known company whose salespeople told me that they regularly hear comments like, “We helped to make you and now you don’t even talk to us,” or “We got you where you are today and now you’re even forgetting who we are.”

This all-too-common problem can be the first sign of an on-setting decline for your business. Taking customers for granted can be a function of a lot of things – a tremendous desire to grow market-share while hoping your base doesn’t erode, constantly seeking more profitable business, arrogance, a failure to appreciate existing customers, short term thinking, indifference or just plain laziness.

The bottom-line? You work very hard to get customers. You need to work just as hard to keep them. There is little doubt that constantly winning new accounts at the expense of losing existing ones is bad business. It should also be clear that failing to grow new business while over-servicing existing accounts can be just as dangerous. The secret is to strike the elusive balance between prospecting and servicing, between selling and maintaining.

So… what is the answer? It is like the answer to lots of things. It depends. If your business is transactional and depends on lots of turns and very little repeat or referral business perhaps you can short-change your customers and still survive. However, if you rely on customers returning, sending others, referring others and continuing to do business with you, then perhaps you need to rethink your philosophy. Quite frankly, that’s where most businesses are – they need a constant flow of new business and a healthy continuation of existing customers to stay healthy.

Given those facts, let’s take a look at six specific ways you can recognize, reward, reinforce and constantly reinvent your relationships with your customers.

Send a free newsletter, e-mail or blast-fax update with notice of upcoming specials, events or activities on relevant, useful information.

Run special, customers only events, user’s conferences, meetings, seminars or product updates.

Send “customers only” special gifts, cards or holiday greetings.

Consider starting a customer hall of fame designed to recognize levels of purchase, commitment to a profession, business successes, etc.

Offer discounts or reduced price increases to customers who have been loyal and long-term customers of your organization.

Give some thought to developing a customer “board of advisors” made up of selected, high profile, high volume customers who can play an active role in advising you on key issues.



All of these activities clearly communicate that you recognize, appreciate and value your customers. Remove this valuing and your customers will quickly lose any sense of connection or reciprocal commitment to you.

This concept of reciprocity is a very interesting one. There is an all-too-often overlooked principle that says people treat you the way you treat them. Pretty simple, don’t you agree?

It works like this. If you don’t pay attention to me, I won’t pay attention to you. If you take me for granted, I’ll take you for granted. If you, on the other hand, go out of your way to value me, I will value you. If you let me know how important I am to you, I will then feel that way and make you an important part of my life.

And this is true whether you’re talking about a sales relationship, a marriage, a family or a long-term business arrangement. The reason for that? All of these relationships are between people. Your business is people. It is human interaction and is based on one person dealing with another person. It may involve thousands, hundreds, or dozens of people – but it is always people.

And people want to feel valued, appreciated, important and significant. And this includes customers. Yours mine and everyone else’s. You feel that way too, don’t you? Do you ever feel taken advantage of, under appreciated or even abused? You’d find another supplier if you felt like that. Why wouldn’t your customers do the same thing?

About The Author: Bill Brooks, CSP, CPAE, CMC, CPCM former CEO of a $300,000,000 corporation and two-time sales award winner from an international sales force of 8,000, Bill has real-world expertise. Bill has spoken or consulted in over 300 different industries while being engaged by at least 150 clients an astonishing six times each. Bill is the author of nine books, including the
best-seller, “High Impact Selling.”

Contact Information:
The Brooks Group
3810 N. Elm Street - Suite 202
Greensboro NC 27455
800-633-7762
www.brooksgroup.com
e-mail: sales@thebrooksgroup.com

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