What are your suggestions for strengthening existing relationships with customers?

Caty, that's a question that's often addressed on the first day of Sales School, and forever forgotten on the second day, so well-worth addressing here. Thanks for posing it.

The responses thus far appear on target, so I'll try summarize and give examples:

Ultimately, there are two ways to strengthen relationships with clients:

1. Show them that you care.
2. Show them measurable business results.

Showing that you care means engaging with the client regularly, in a way that’s personalized and relevant to THEM. And do it outside of the selling and service cycles.
Call them when you're not selling something, and when they haven't called you.

Send them information that they’ll perceive as useful.
Take them to lunch.
Know their children’s’ names.

This is all basic Account Management 101, but it’s frequently overlooked in our hyper-selling world. Doing these basic things appeals to the human side of every customer. And every customer has a human side.

EXAMPLE: My accountant would frequently send me notes and articles mid-year, and explain in a conversational way how that content applied to my business, and my family. Canned Newsletters don’t count! Highly relevant, personalized content does.

The second way – showing business results - is where the rubber meets the road, and ultimately, must be present for the relationship to continue:

Clients buy from us, because they expect some kind of business results: increased sales, reduced cost, time savings, etc.

Know exactly WHAT RESULTS the client is expecting from your relationship, and agree on HOW those results will be MEASURED.
Meet with the client on an agreed-up basis (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, etc.) as appropriate for your product or service. Produce reporting that shows the business value received.
EXAMPLE: Each year after completing my taxes, my Accountant delivers a report that details how many tax dollars I saved through his services, along with notes on how best to position for the following year. He makes it very easy for me to see that I had a big ROI by working with firm.

TO SUMMARIZE:
Strengthen relationships with clients by engaging with the client with regularity, personality and relevance. And show the client measurable business value.

In other words, show them the love, and show them the money!

Jim Watson
http://bit.ly/efrxOg

Peter Drucker said “the essence of branding is building trust and long term business profitability ultimately depends upon building trust with consumers. Branding is all about building trust with consumers. When consumers can trust you – they’re more likely to buy from you”

The key is to build trust with your customers. If they trust you they will stick with you. if not they go looking for something else. To build trust you must interact with customers and each interaction must be beneficial and provide a value to the customers. The more value you add the more trust is developed. How you interact is less important than the outcome. Remember, companies cannot buy trust, they must earn it with each interaction.

There is no silver bullet and tools will not build trust for you. Look at your customer touch points. Not only the personnel working those points, but also the policies and procedures they must operate under. Look at what type of support your customer facing employees the company provides. Cultivate a culture of value and customer benefits.

Remember, touch points can also be technological, such as on-line order forms and IVRs. These need to be intuitive and easy to use as well as provide value. But, and easy to use IVR transferring a customer to a ill-trained or uncaring call center agent does not provide value.

So in short, start at where your company interacts with customers and work backward

Good Luck.
Michael Barbagallo
President and Principal Analyst
Shenandoah Analytics

To add to Mike's comments, I've found it very effective to have a conversation with high-level stake holders and simply ask how you're doing. Some specific questions that can gain unexpected feedback include:
- What about our product(s) and/or service(s) makes you upset or frustrate you?
- What features/products/services do you wish we offered that would make your life easier?
- What do you want us to stop doing?
- What do you wish we did more of?

A candid, non-sales conversation of this type can produce valuable insight and opportunities to correct mistakes that you may not have known you were making and at the same time increase the effectiveness of what you're doing correctly. The fact that you even cared enough to ask can have a large positive impact on the customer. The information gained can also be incorporated and used to strengthen business development efforts.

Interesting question because this borders on one of my pet peeves. You said a lot of companies concentrate on getting new customers & not their existing ones..............I am totally against when a business will offer a special deal to sway someone to their company & fail to offer the same deals to their long-standing loyal clients. AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner & dozens of other companies are guilty of this.

If it takes a one-time deal to get someone to do business with you, what does it say about their loyalty & how long they'll actually stay with you? Until a better deal comes along? Is that an effective way to grow your business?

I want to build my business with new customers, but it's more important to me to keep my existing ones & repay them for their loyalty. It's all about building relationships, getting to know them & treating them as they were your only customer. Give them what they come to you for, give them the best in quality & customer service, stand behind your product or service........build their trust & you'll build their loyalty.

And yes, I do reward my loyal customers with deals. After all, they're the ones who deserve it. I give them special offers & discount prices.

Lastly, every once in awhile, I'll email a survey asking what they'd like to see me do different, what is most important to them when it comes to promotions & ask for any suggestions they have. I'll read all answers, weigh each one & make necessary changes.

The bottom line is my business is not a train station where people go in & out--I want them to stay so it's all about building trust & loyalty. I wrote an article on my blog http://cre8iveimages.blogspot.com called Building Customer Loyalty, dated 6/9/2010.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

As always, I agree with Jim Watson's comments. I would like to add a few thoughts.

The most important element is your goal.

If your goal is to make your customer as successful as possible, you will look for ways to help them instead of sell them.

Do you have clients, friends and colleagues that would benefit from your customer's products or services? If so, recommend and endorse your client to them.
Have you read or written an article that would help your client or his business, send it to him.
Be a resource to your client. If you are well connected you client will see you as a trusted advisor.

EXAMPLE: I used to buy furniture from Mark. Mark knew EVERYBODY, and when I was looking for someone to refinish my floors, he referred me to someone who was amazing, Clients often called Mark to find the best restaurant, the best stockbroker, etc, etc. And Mark's clients returned the favor and told their friends and family about him.

Make your clients successful and they will make you successful.

Hi Caty,
I think the responses already here are all great. In your question you asked about what tools you can use to help build the bond. I would boil it down to three things:
1. Your ears - to listen to what they want, what they need and what they don't want/need/like etc
2. The rest of yourself (hands, brain, effort etc) - to help them get what they want and keep getting it, on time, when they want it and on budget; and
3. The phone - to keep in touch and show that your are willing to do numbers one and two.

A bit simple (an there could be more) but I like simple :)

Adrian

Get them more involved. Communicate around subjects other than sales or problems. Find ways to let them know they are truly heard. Find ways to let them know they are valued and appreciated. Create a community of customers they can join. If they provide you feedback or critique, let them know what you did with the feedback. Teach them about things important to their lives. Remove all the effort out of getting great service. Never forget that the front line knows more about customers than marketing and management ever will!

I agree with all the above and would add...

Stay in touch with your customers, be consistent in your communication, and be a good listener. We have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Not only isten to your customer but where applicable integrate what they have said and report back to them your gratitude for the comment, suggestions, etc. and to let them know they make a difference. I also agree to keep your current customers, turn them from satisffied to loyal by keeping the relationshi9p alive. After all, it costs more to attain a new customer than to retain a current one.

These are really great answers: relevance and value seem to be at the core.
actionable customer insight, understanding what is relevant and of value to them, communicating what is important and of interest; via which communications medium (or media), etc.
All seemingly easier to do than in practice: for god is in the details

Focus your efforts on creating value for your customer. There are many dimensions of value and yet they can be put into three buckets:

a) Functional value - what 'job' your perform for them;
b) Economic value - the money you make for them, the money you save them, the value you create for the price that the customer pays; and
c) Emotional value - how you make them feel about you, your employees, your products, your services, your brand.

'Relationship' is like 'happiness' you approach it indirectly.