It’s common knowledge that staying in touch with customers is essential to a thriving business.
Yet, too often savvy business people invest a tremendous amount of time, money and effort trying to find new customers, but zero time staying in touch with the customers they already have.
The consequence: No repeat business or referral marketing done on your behalf.
When you consider that it costs 10 times more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing customer happy, that strategy doesn’t make a lot of sense. Yet, it’s the standard and it’s causing 
professionals to lose a lot of business.
After sharing this in a recent presentation, an audience member chimed in, “Oh, do I know that well!” then proceeded to tell this story.
A painter by profession, he was in the local hardware store when he ran into a customer whose house he had painted 3 years prior.
Their conversation went like this:
Customer: “So, what are you up to these days?”
Painter: “I’m still painting houses.”
Customer: “Oh Man! I wish I had known that! We just had the whole inside of our house painted. I thought you moved to Florida.”
Painter: “Florida? I painted a customer’s condo there two years ago.
Customer: “Oh, sorry, man. I thought you moved.”
The lesson is simple: Stay in touch with your customers before, during and after the sale – and not just with more marketing. Consider the words of Kody Bateman, CEO and Founder of Send Out Cards: “Appreciation wins over self promotion every time.”
Need inspiration? Keep the acronym TRACE in plain sight. It stands for Thank, Recognize, Appreciate, Congratulate and Encourage. Make it a goal to send a greeting card with good tidings to two customers a day and watch what happens!
– Colleen
| About Colleen Kilpatrick Related Resources More Posts by Colleen Kilpatrick To discover the easy and inexpensive ways anyone can attract more clients and maximize their profits, sign up for your FREE Profit Now Report. |
