It’s a great idea to occasionally take stock of what it is that your customers are really coming to you for. Contact customers, not to sell them anything, but to see what their pain points are and what they like and don’t like about dealing with you. With that in mind, here are the Who, What, When, Where & Why of getting to know your customers:
Who – is your customer?
Finding out who your customer is, who uses your services or buys your product as a general demographic can help in a myriad of ways including helping you to:
- Hone your offerings
- Target your marketing
- Focus your niche
- Brand your company in the most effective way
What – do they want?
There are plenty of ways to get to know your customer and depending on your relationships with your customers you can work on a personal basis, a corporate basis or preferably a mixture of both. For example you can:
- Do a survey of your customers about:
- your current services,
- their experience dealing with your company,
- services they’d like to see you provide
- customer satisfaction
- Drop them a line just to say hello and see how they’re doing – can be done via post, email or with a quick call
- Send a card to say Thank you for being my customer
- Make a diary note to send them a birthday card for themselves or their company or any other significant date
When – Do you contact them to ask questions or just touch base
The “official” Get To Know Your Customers Day is the third Thursday in January, April, July and October but there is no reason that it HAS to be the third Thursday. Just make sure it’s a day where you don’t have other priorities that will overrun the day. So make a note your diary to make an effort every quarter on whatever day. It’s up to you whether you contact all of your customer each quarter, or if you contact a couple each quarter, or if you mix it up a bit.
Where – Online, in person, in writing, coffee, lunch
Where you contact your customer will have a lot to do with how your relationship with them works. If they’re a local, or you’ll be travelling to their area inviting them to a nearby coffee shop for a quick catch up is great. If they’re not local, then consider your relationship with them so far to set the tone – a teleconference maybe? Or just dropping them a quick note via email? Alternatively, sending them a card or a handwritten note via the post can be seen as considerate and as having taken a little extra effort.
Why – Should you bother?
Simply because the more you know about your customer, the better service you can give. You can focus on the things that are important to your customer and stop wasting time trying to promote products or services that they don’t want. You can better target your advertising to the customers who are most likely to want what you’re selling. And most importantly, being genuinely interested in your customer will foster a better relationship where they are happy to come to you with any suggestions or problems.
So that’s it. You can make it as big or as small a job as you want. I’d suggest once per year do a big contact all clients effort of some sort, then every quarter do a little more with one or two clients. Of course, there’s no need to use the “designated” days to check up with your customers, but it’s definitely something you should schedule regularly.
