BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE CUSTOMER
Jason St.Clair

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of building up relationships with other businesses to create partnerships. On that same note of building relationships, I’m going to touch on how to actually build up your relationships with your customer base and why this is vitally important as a small business owner.

First off is why we should put so much effort into building an actual relationship with our customers. Building a real relationship with customers gives them and us a sense of belonging. Everyone loves being part of something, being on a team. Why not have the customer be on your team.  Relationships with customers builds familiarity with both you and the customer. You’re more apt to understand how to communicate with them and understand their mindset if you have a strong relationship with your customer. This relationship will lead to loyalty from both the customer and you to the customer. They want to make you happy and you want to make them happy; be mutually beneficial.

Now that we have touched on why we should build a relationship, I’m going to go into the “How”. First and foremost, ask plenty of questions, small talk, business talk, what they are looking for from you. Actually, care and have empathy to what they are telling you. You’d be amazed by the amount of information people are willing to tell you. This goes both ways. It is also extremely important, when you can, to take notes from the conversation. Details like how many kids they have, what they do for a living, what’s their favorite past time. By taking notes, the next time you have an appointment with this customer, it will let them know you remembered them. To have a business that actually remember who you are is huge and it builds loyalty.

When the transaction with the customer is completed, always make sure to ask if everything went well, also it is critical to ask if they have any questions. Most likely the response will be no. However, if there is something truly on their mind, or if they have a question they will ask. Give them your email also, many times customers may be too shy to offer their opinion when another customer may be close. Also, make sure that you have their contact information.

By getting their contact information you will be able to reach out, whether it is one or two weeks from when you met and once again ask if everything went well with the transaction. If there was indeed something on their mind that took time to think about they will let you know. The information that they will give you will lead to what is called, “Process Improvement.” This is what my next post will be on.

Thanks for your time and I do hope that this was helpful.

Regards,

Jason