Smart business owners know the majority of any business comes from referrals and repeat business. What does this mean to you and your team? Do you have the ability to contact a past customer on a regular basis? Do you have a process in place that requires every coworker to collect contact information from every customer that does business with your company? If you answered yes, we congratulate you! If you answered no, we are here to help you!
The methods for communicating have expanded greatly with the online, social, and traditional marketing channels. Whether you keep this information in a simple spreadsheet or a more robust CRM system, it is vital for the growth of your business and your valued customer base.
Here are a few tips to developing a customer contact list:
Think About What Information You Need To Know For The Best Customer Service.
Determine what information you need to have in your system to stay connected with your customer. The answers can vary based on the business and the diverse needs of an industry. However, the most popular customer contact fields for the majority of companies include the following:
- Full Name
- Home and/or Business Mailing Address
- Personal and/or Email Address
- Mobile, Home and/or Business Phone Number
- Preferred Method of Contact
Now That You Know What You Need To Know…You Have To Ask!
It’s important for your entire team— from the owner to the techs out in the field to be trained in the proper way to ask for this information from a customer. Here are a few ways to ensure that this can happen:
- Tell your team “WHY” you need this information to take care of your customers and stay connected. Provide them with an informative and clear reason that can easily be relayed to the customer that might ask that same question.
- Make the “ASK” an effortless and natural one for the employee. This can be done by including the request into all processes that are a natural fit for such information, i.e. job estimates, contact forms, invoices, and other customer-friendly communications. Review your “from prospect to customer” timeline and determine the touch points early in the process where asking for this information makes sense.
- Show “RESPECT” to your customers right to protect their privacy. In this day of widespread sharing of information, it’s important to assure that this information is for your use only as well as give them the option to give only the information that they feel is necessary for the services or products being provided.
Be Consistent and Watch It Grow …The List and Your Business.
Once you start asking your customers, it won’t take long for the information database to grow. This valuable contact list will allow you to reach out to your customer on a regular basis, and will become one of your most important assets to growing your business.
