25 Ways You Can Build Relationships with Your Customers

Customer relationships are what make your business important. Your customers are fabulous. Your business would not be as profitable without them. When you develop a strong relationship with customers, they return for more business, and refer others to you as well. Although it is not difficult, many business owners don't know how to establish trust and loyalty. The most successful companies place great value on developing lifetime relationships with their customers. In today's competitive marketplace, they' are aware that their customers are aggressively prospected and their loyalty cannot be taken for granted. Customer focused companies recognize that relationship building and follow up on service are critical components for promoting both customer retention and revenue growth. So you can make big profits and have great success because you have loved your clients and been loyal to them. These are twenty five ways to build closer customer relationships.

Provide quality products and/or quality service: You cannot build any sort of a customer relationship until you have a product or service to be proud of. Because customer won't visit your office because you are nice, they will give you business because they think you have quality product or service.
Offer warranties/guaranties and cash back for returns: Stand by that policy. If customers see that you are working hard to make sure they are happy with their product, they will give you more business. The quality of the customer relationship grows.
Send clients and customers thank you notes for significant purchases: For example, any sale over Rs.1000 should get a hand written thank you note put in the mail that week.
Reward loyal customers, and they will reward you: According to global management consulting firm Bain and Co., a 5 percent increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent. And on average, repeat customers spend 67 percent more than new customers. So your most profitable customers are repeat customers.
Make a point to keep in touch with all of your customers and clients: If you typically are only contacting your customers on an annual basis, then you may find that you are not receiving the customer loyalty that you were hoping for. Find new and innovative ways to stay in touch with your customers as often as you can. The ones that you enjoy working with should hear from you often, or at least every month or so. You do not have to go out of your way to meet up with your customers, as it usually only takes a brief e-mail, a quick telephone call or a postcard in the mail to let your customers know that you have been thinking about them. All of your customers should hear from you on a fairly regular basis. You may even go so far as to figure out automated ways to reach out to your customers, such as auto responder e-mail software, or even an e-mail newsletter. These tasks can make your life a great deal easier, while still reminding your customers that you are thinking about them regularly.
Make a point to remember any events that are significant: For example, if a client of yours is having a birthday, is getting married, or is celebrating some other significant event, then you have an extra opportunity to get a hold of him or her to let them know that you are thinking about them. Keep a file for each month where you keep track of special events like these. You can buy greeting cards in advance, then spend an afternoon once a month sending cards out to all clients who are celebrating something significant like a birthday, holiday or wedding in that month. This is a simple gesture that can go a long way when it comes to building a strong and loyal relationship with your clients.
Smile, and strive to be friendly with your customers at all times: When a business owner genuinely cares about his or her customers, then these pleasant thoughts will shine through. Skills can easily be taught to most, but attitude cannot be taught as easily. You should always look for happy employee candidates who appear to genuinely care about your customers and their individual needs. These are the employees who will become the greatest of all assets for your company. Your customer will pick up on these good energies, and it will help to build healthy relationships with them over time. If you consistently project an attitude that leads your customers to feel like they are burdening you, they will likely look elsewhere for a business to build a strong working relationship with.
Offer a customer appreciation day once a year: Any client and customer who spend over a certain amount during that calendar year get invited to a special sale. This sale is not open to the public, only those special customer relationships that have earned significant savings. Some stores open early, and some stay late. It is up to you to decide timing.
Offer a free gift with purchase. Clients love free things: So give your customers a promotional gift. Consider sending them a letter opener, coffee mug or a calendar with your picture and contact information. You would be amazed at how much your customer relationship can grow by simply giving out a free pad of paper or key chain.
Offer Incentives to your regular Customers: Another way to build a strong relationship with your customers is to offer free incentives from time to time. For example, if you run a restaurant try to offer your regular clients a free dessert or beverage once in a while. Doing so will show them that you acknowledge their constant patronage and appreciate them choosing your establishment over others. Offering incentives can be as small or as great as you would like them to be. However, it is a good idea to not offer these incentives too often as the customers may come to expect them after a while. Just do so on an occasional basis.
Establish Feedback system: Establish a feedback system to monitor how your customers perceive the quality and quantity of the product or service you provide. Service is not defined by what you think it is, but rather how your customers perceive its value. When it comes to customer service, perception is reality.
Personal Touches: Personal touches show your clients that they mean more than an income source to you. Since you have expertise and knowledge in your business, giving advice is an easy way for you to build up credit that will eventually become sales.
Use friendly, warm words: When you use simple language instead of formal "business speak," people respond better and trust you more. So limit your words to three syllables max. And don't try to impress prospects with your extensive vocabulary, or you may end up just sounding fake.
Communication is a contact sport, so do it early and often: Relationships have a short shelf life. No matter how charming, enthusiastic or persuasive you are, no one will likely remember you from a business card or a one-time meeting. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they come home from networking events and fail to follow up. Make the connection immediately. Send a "nice to meet you" e-mail or let these new contacts know you've added them to your newsletter list and then send them the latest copy. Immediately reinforce who you are, what you do and the connection you've made. You rarely meet people at the exact moment when they need what you offer. When they're ready, will they think of you? Only if you stay on their minds. It's easier to keep a connection warm than to warm it up again once the trail goes cold. So take the time to turn your network of connections into educated customers.
Promise very little, and deliver a great deal more than what was expected: Quite a few businesses get caught up promising customers too much, or attracting a customer without being able to deliver on whatever promises were initially made. Under promising and over delivering can turn this all around. Instead of leaving your customers feeling far less than thrilled with your services, you can give a little bit of extra service by being realistic about your deadlines, then meeting or beating them to please your clients.
Know your clients by name: One of the best ways for business owners to build a strong relationship with their clients is to know them by name and address them as such whenever they contact them. A business owner who knows their client by name will make the customer feel appreciated and give them their due recognition. This will show the client that they matter to the owner and are good customers overall. It is also a good idea for the employees of the business to familiarize themselves with the clients and acknowledge them by name as well since employees are an extension of the business owner and the business itself.
Use people's names: When it comes to using names, there are just two rules to follow: first, be aware of whether they're more comfortable with first name only or title + last name; second, never overuse their name, this only sounds corny and false. Dale Carnegie once said, "Nothing is so beautiful to a person as the sound of their own name." Just use your discretion.
Create a website: A simple website is relatively inexpensive and can work wonders in terms of drawing people to your business or telling them more about who you are and what you do. Be sure to create a professional look and feel, one that suits your business, and take care to optimize your site for search engines.
E-mail marketing keeps relationships strong on a shoestring budget: Build your reputation as an expert by giving away some free insight. You have interesting things to say! An easy way to communicate is with a brief e-mail newsletter that shows prospects why they should buy from you. For just pennies per customer, you can distribute an e-mail newsletter that includes tips, advice and short items that entice consumers and leave them wanting more. E-mail marketing is a cost-effective and easy way to stay on customers' minds, build their confidence in your expertise, and retain them. And it's viral: Contacts and customers who find what you do interesting or valuable will forward your e-mail message or newsletter to other people, just like word of mouth marketing.
Use the press: It always helps to get a little PR and you don't need to hire an expensive firm to do it. If you can come up with a newsworthy angle on your business (for instance, your grand opening, your "story," what you offer that's different), you can write a simple press release and send it to local publications.
List creatively and widely: Unlike advertising, listing your business is usually low-cost or free, and it's a great way to draw people to your business. Make sure to list in the obvious places, such as the Yellow Pages and Chamber of Commerce, and find some not-so-obvious places to list as well. For example, does your city have a website where parents make referrals about services for their children? Does a nonprofit organization in your area have a listing of businesses with good environmental and social practices? Get on as many lists as you can.
Create straightforward, easy-to-understand pricing: You will be surprised to know that how many businesses use a complicated pricing structure and try to hide their prices from their customers. Streamline your pricing and make it clear, especially if you run a service business. Exactly how much can your customers expect to pay for which services? A pricing menu is often a good idea.
Always Offer Top Service: No matter how nice of a business owner you are or how many incentives you offer your clients, if you fail to offer top services it can be the downfall to your business relationship. Therefore, another way to build a strong relationship is to ensure that the business offerings are always first rate.
Nothing beats doing a good job: There are different excellent ways to build strong relationship with your clients but the best way is to always insist on delivering your promises and provide consistently good products and services. Remember that customers like to buy dependable and valuable goods and you will find your sales will keep rising.
Encourage personal recommendations: The single best way to get new customers is through personal recommendations. You should inquire with your customers from time to time with regard to how your business is doing overall. Ask your clients if there is anything you should consider changing to make your business more favorable to their needs. This is another way to really build a strong relationship with your clients and keep them coming back for more time and time again.

Building strong, healthy customer relationships is not a difficult task by any means. If you care about your customers and want to continue working with them, those energies will be felt and more than likely shared by your clients. Make a point to communicate with your customers and they will put effort into returning that communication. Communication, good listening and resolution skills, and friendly attitude is really all it takes to build a great relationship with each and every customer that you deal with on a daily basis.

References

Boe John, “Customers for Life, May 28, 2006” “www.expertmagazine.com”
Pepper Adrian, “Marketing Relationships Customer Service: 8 Ways you can Build Deeper Customer Relationships” “http://ezinearticles.com”.
Kendra Writes, “How to Build a Strong Customer Relationship” “www.ehow.com”.
Gail Goodman, “5 Key ways to Build Customer Relationship, May 01, 2005.” “www.entrepreneur.com”.
Article, “Your Customers: Treat Them Well; Build Strong Relationships” “www.dotnetspider.com”.
Business Article, “Ways to Build Good Customer Relationships”, ”www.businessroute.co.uk”.
Article, “Ten ways to Build and Market Your Business Image”, http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com”.
Francis Colleen, “How to Build Profitable Customer Relationships” Jun 05, 2008”, “http://eyesonsales.com”.