One customer at a time

Relationships by their nature are individual and personal, so if you want to improve your customer relationships then you have to listen to what each has to say. And don’t be too surprised if they all tell you they want something different from your relationship. Sure you can segment your customer base, but at best that will only group customers into large clusters of similar thinking/behaving/reacting types of people.

Every time you come into contact with one of your customers or prospects, you have the opportunity to improve that relationship. And, when you improve the relationship with one customer, it’s one less customer that is likely to consider abandoning you for your competitor.

This also reminds me a great saying “listen with your mouth shut”. All too often we use the opportunity of a customer interaction to try to sell them something. So rather than calling up your favorite customer to tell them about a great new product or service they just can’t be without, try just asking them what’s on their mind and how can you help them instead.