How to Double Your Customer Base Through Old-Fashioned Common Courtesy

By Susan Williams. http://www.makingithomewebzine.com

Our family has owned and operated a home-based business service for more than 12 years. From the start, we wanted to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. The tendency for most companies is to focus on the competition and build a sales and marketing strategy based on what the competition is doing. The problem with this is that it becomes a game of "price limbo" - seeing how low you can go with your prices and still squeak by with a profit in order to outbid your opponent. Another problem is that you're allowing another company to set the standard for how your company should operate and perform.

The first thing to do is to change your focus. Stop looking at the competition and start looking at your existing customers. Here is where the future success of your business lies!

(1) Start listening to what your customers want. Listen to their needs. To do this, you have to ask questions and truly listen to the answers. What changes can you make in your business to accommodate some of these wants and needs?

(2) Don't preach. TEACH. Don't sell. EDUCATE.

(3) The best sales tool is EDUCATION. What is something your company can teach people that other companies are not taking the time to do? What can you teach people about your company that makes your company the better choice?

(4) Create a customer database and keep it current. Set up the computer to print out mailing labels from this database.

Advertising with a Personal Touch: Dollar for dollar, the best return we have ever had on money that was spent for advertising was by investing in a printer and a basic desktop publishing program. Instead of purchasing a display ad in our local newspaper or buying a full-page ad in the yellow pages directory, we began sending out quarterly newsletters directly to our customers. With the cost of postage, ink cartridges and paper, we would spend an average of $250-$350 per quarter to produce an average of 300-400 newsletters. Each quarter, we would receive a return of not less than 1000% in immediate sales generated from that small investment and at least 5-10 new customers. (By comparison, we would spend $120 on a weekly newspaper display ad and receive NO responses after several weeks - yellow pages ads yielded about 1% of our yearly business.) We used the newsletter to EDUCATE our customers about new trends in our business, tax credits, rebate programs, financing programs, new equipment, new laws, etc. We offered discount coupons, prize drawings and general news about our family to add a more personal touch to the newsletters. These newsletters kept us in contact with our customers in a much more personal way than a display advertisement could, and many customers began to look forward to these newsletters.

(1) Using your customer database, go through your local newspaper each week and take note of obituaries, birth announcements, anniversaries, graduation announcements, and special news items that contain the names of any of your customers. Send hand-signed letters of condolence, birthday cards, congratulations or any appropriate type of card or note to let your customer know that you are acknowledging the news you have heard about them.

(2) If a customer calls for business and tells you that they have had a sickness in the family, be sure to send a "get well" card. Pay attention to small comments and follow-up with appropriate personal contact such as a follow-up phone call or a card or note. You may have a customer or two who are a real pleasure to know, and it's a good idea to take the time to send them a note to tell them so.

(3) Sometimes customers send gifts of food or garden vegetables home with employees - be sure to acknowledge this gift with a "thank you."

(4) Use your customer database to create a Christmas mailing list. Invest in some good quality, professional Christmas cards and mail these out each year. Be sure to hand-sign each one even if you have the company logo printed on the cards. Write a personal note to customers who have provided a lot of business during the year or who have stood out to you in some personal way. All through the year, we receive comments on the Christmas cards that were sent - many customers making a point to thank us well into June or July.

(5) Every time a new customer calls, we immediately enter his information in our database. After the first service call, we follow-up with a personal thank-you card and send some type of keepsake such as a refrigerator magnet or personalized pen.

These personal touches come from our hearts - they are not sales gimmicks or advertising tricks - they are a means of keeping a personal connection between ourselves and our customers and help us to remember that we are performing a service to real-live human beings and not just trying to make a dollar. These personal connections have made the difference between enjoying what we do and feeling like slaves to what we do. These practices have allowed customers to become friends - and we often refer to them as family. This has also led to some of the best advertising you can get - word of mouth. We are not forgotten by our customers once we leave a job - through courtesy, kindness and consideration, we are kept in the forefront of their memories the next time a need arises. We have something that our competitors can't buy, and we are truly in a league of our own. Our customers aren't worried about what it's going to cost to do business with us and competition is no longer a worry because of the valuable trust that has been established. We are no longer caught in the pricing wars with our competitor because our customers know they are consistently receiving the better value.

A good, solid customer foundation that continues to grow over the years is what keeps a company financially healthy and successful. Old-fashioned common courtesy is the way to get there.

Susan Williams is the owner of a family operated home-based service business and is the editor/publisher of "Making It Home" Magazine as well as the author of the book, "Making It Home: How to Run Your Household Like a Business… And Find Your Heart Along the Way." For more related articles, visit http://www.makingithomewebzine.com