Build Better Customer Relationships to Drive More Revenue

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Have you ever thought about ways you can build better customer relationships? Either with either your current customers or your prospects in your print business?

There are a number of ways to do this beyond the five ways in this blog post.

However, I have found that these five have had a profound impact on my personal ability to build print customer relationships.

Create the Top 20 Club

Too often I find myself majoring in the minors and spending time on opportunities that will not generate a return for the time spent on them. Instead, identify the 20 customers that will be the most responsible for driving revenue for you or your company over the next 90 days. Focus most of your time on these customers and watch the results.

Create the Farm Club

Identify the 20 customers and prospects you believe have the greatest growth potential for you beyond 90 days. Begin building those relationships now so  the customer is thinking of you as a valid supplier the next time they need a print order or to develop a print management contract.

How Can I Serve Them?

This is the most important question you can ask yourself because service leads to the best ways we can be of value to our customers. This could be related to a challenge or issue they are facing or it could be a chance to help them an opportunity they are trying to capture. Our efforts at providing excellent service will be readily seen and appreciated by our customer.

Generate Recap Notes

There is nothing that makes a customer feel more listened to than a recap note. In this situation, you listen to what’s important to our customer, take notes, and then send them a recap note about what you heard. Within the note, be sure to ask for confirmation that you got it right. They will either confirm that you did or provide more information. Now you have a dialogue going and are beginning to build that relationship.

Write Thank You Notes

This is a lost art. Almost no one writes thank you notes anymore, especially in the business world. It is rare to receive one. If you take the time each week during your weekly review go over last week’s interactions to write thank you notes to your customers, it will help build a relationship. You will most certainly be remembered. You will also be recognized as someone who has a grateful heart. I always try to do business with those people who are grateful for my business, as I know they will work hard to keep it.

There are many ways to build customer relationships. Identifying your Top 20 Club and Farm Club and focusing on how you will serve them is crucial to customer growth.

In addition, if you send recap notes and thank you notes, you will set yourself apart from your competition—they are simple to execute, and no one else will do it.

What do you do to build better customer relationships to drive revenue?

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4 replies
  1. Richard Stienstra
    Richard Stienstra says:

    Long time believer in writing “paper letters” to welcome new accounts and prospects. We encourage everyone in the office to write a thank note to anyone who helps them. We keep a supply of $5.00 Starbucks cards and encourage those in accounting, customer service or sales to include the gift card with their “Thank You” note. Vendors and customers alike appreciate the words of thanks and appreciation and we build good will with or vendor partners and clients. Besides, it is fun to do!

    • Bill Prettyman
      Bill Prettyman says:

      Richard, I love handwritten notes. They show that the writer cares and took the time to handwrite a note. It is also memorable because no one does it anymore. Thanks for the input and the Starbucks cards idea.

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