I think we can all agree that our clients all want to feel special, whether they are new or they have been working with us for months or even years. They will also continue to go to where they feel they are wanted and appreciated.
Think about it from your own personal experience. Would you continue to go to a restaurant or service provider that didn’t make you feel invited or special? If they didn’t recognize you or provide you with an exceptional customer service experience would you return, mention them to others or would you simply move on?
Have you ever given thought to whether "new" clients are more important than "existing" clients? I think they are both important and each of them needs to feel that way. Surely we all want to grow our businesses and working with new prospects is an essential part of growing our business but just as essential is in how we treat our “existing” clients.
It comes down to having a system in place to stay in contact with both existing and new clients to ensure everyone's needs are being met.
In a previous blog I wrote about how you can categorize your clients in your database to ensure you’re providing them with information that is relevant to them. Feel free to review that information and at the end I will give you a few simple ways to go about establishing ways to stay in touch with both new and existing clients.
Here are 3 Rules to follow to help you stay on the mind of your existing clients. (this will become important for your “new” prospects and clients as you start working with them and establish a good practice for staying in touch with them.)
Rule #1
Call Them. Yes, in this day of technology – emails, social networking and text messages – we often use our phone less to reach out to clients. It could be that we’re busy and multi tasking, possibly we’ve been out of touch with a former client and we’re afraid to pick up the phone and call them or we’re not sure what we should be calling them about. Whatever the reason, we need to let those existing clients know they are “still” important to us. Try it, you may be surprised to hear a happy tone in their voice that they’re hearing from you or what if they know someone that is possibly in the market to buy or sell a home?
Rule #2
Recognize them. There are numerous ways to go about this. A few off the top of my head – invite them to a client event, seminar you know they will find interesting, local events that you are blogging about, blog about their business, refer people you know to their business. The important thing to remember with this one is you have be listening to know your clients and prospects to know what’s important to them – what they are interested in otherwise you are sending them info they don’t have an interest in and that can be a turn off. You want to engage with them and be seen as a valuable resource.
Rule #3
Stay in Contact. This does not mean only when you have work with them, but especially when you don’t! No one likes to be forgotten. Send a personal note, forward an email that you know they will find helpful, follow Rule #1 – the point is just stay in contact.
So how do you go about staying in touch? While it may seem simple – it’s often the simple things that get overlooked.
- Create a schedule of contact in your database or email – once a month (your newsletter – be sure to get their permission), once a quarter (an email, or a call.) Once you put a plan together you won’t have to think when did I last contact that client or you won’t let too much time pass without letting them know they’re important to you.
- While it’s important to contact them, it’s also important to make a note about why you contacted them. Perhaps you sent them a note to remind them of an upcoming event or you forwarded an email and they loved receiving it. This way you will be able to note something that is important to THIS client. Don’t rely on your memory – jot a note in their file or your database.
- Invite them to your social networking – invite them to participate and engage with you and your contacts – connections can be made and enhanced.
- Invite them to your blog. Often they will discover you’re writing something of interest to them that you might not know is a “hot” button for them – it could initiate a call or email from this client and you’ve got contact. Especially do this if you’re going to blog about their business or a recent interaction you’ve had with them.
- The possibilities are endless so feel free to share other ways you have for staying in touch with your clients?
My final point is this: Put a system in place, whatever works for you and your clients, to make this happen regularly and consistently.
Establishing a good system for contact with existing clients and prospects is a good practice to follow if you’re interested in growing your business. A trust already exists with your existing clients and that has the potential for growth of your business by way of referrals. If you establish this practice your new prospects and clients will also benefit because you will have an established method of contact from them beginning and won’t have to be focused on playing catch up with them to reestablish that trust.
Don’t let so much time pass that your clients and prospects feel forgotten and then ultimately YOU are the one that becomes forgotten.
What Rules do you follow when it comes to maintaining your “existing” client relationships vs. only being focused on the "new"? Are they different or the same?
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