Persistence Marketing:

I am as guilty as anyone that may be reading this. Guilty of what you may be asking yourself? Reading any number of my articles/blog posts and you will see that I put a lot of focus on business, business growth, marketing and ultimately generating new leads and prospects. All of those things are very important and key to gaining new customers.

Let me put this another way: Website Design, Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Facebook, Twitter, Social Media as a whole and having a Marketing Strategy are all VERY important. However, if you forget the very simply and undeniable fact that your customers are people first, you will never have the success you deserve. I am willing to bet that I could ask any number of you reading this article: How much you care about your customers and I would get a resounding series of positive responses.

If that is truly the case, when was the last time that you really listened to your customers?

Every business owner in the world will actually listen to their customers to some extent and least the ones that are still in business. However, the point that I want to drive home today is that really listening to your customers is not as easy as you may think. The reasoning behind that last statement is that if you are really listening to your customers you are going to hear what is being said and what’s not being said. That’s right as business owners we need to hear what they don’t say, which ultimately is more important than what they actually say.

As I stated earlier I am as guilty as the next business owner, because let’s face it good listening skills are hard to come by. One of the biggest challenges with taking time to hear what our customers are saying is that there are times that we are going to hear the things that we don’t want to hear. Human nature is such that we all naturally gravitate toward the pleasant, complementary feedback that we receive, but that negative feedback is a little harder to swallow. Let me ask you this:

If you never receive any negative feedback, how are you ever going to improve on the things that you aren’t doing so well?

The truth of the matter is that while hearing the good things is nice, from the simple fact that you now know what you are doing well. Negative feedback will help us correct the things that we aren’t doing so well. And, ultimately if our customers don’t like the way things are going we need to correct them.

Let’s put this in terms that are more central to my typical writing. If you have a marketing campaign that you are spending good money on that is not generating the results you expected are you going to make a change? Let’s say that you have decided to use Google Pay-per-Click ads to drive more traffic to your site. You have your ads setup and you are getting new traffic to your site on a daily basis, but very little of that traffic is being converted into new business. Do you keep your ads the way they are or do you start making adjustments? Every one of us would be quick to make the required changes to improve the conversion rate associated with our Pay-per-Click ads.

Why would we not take into account what our current customers are thinking?

Monitoring our Analytics for our website and the results we are seeing as related to our Pay-per-Click Google ads is much easier to deal with, because we are dealing with lot of data and statistics. Ah, now switch gears and start thinking about taking the time to truly care about what our current customers, what, need and expect from us. Not so easy, is it?

That little thing called human interaction when it comes to relationships is something that many of us struggle with in all areas of our lives. I have a high level of confidence that there are few business owners that have not heard the cost comparisons of obtaining new customers verses keeping the existing customers, yet way too many of us spend a large portion of our efforts on obtaining new customers. All the while, we are barely if at all taking the time to listen to our current customers to find out what they need.

Ultimately, our customers are people first. They have needs, wants, desires, pains, and that ugly word “expectations”. Take the time to learn the skills required, to improve your relationships, both in business and your personal life and you will go further than you have ever dreamed. Be bold enough to care about what your customers need, what is causing them pain and how you can improve the products and services that you provide. If you are willing to be vulnerable and open yourself and your business to their feedback and criticisms, along with the praise, I can promise that you will not be disappointed.

Find your customers pain and provide the solution that best fits their needs and you will have a customer for life. Take care of your customers as people first and they will be loyal to you, provided you with referrals, more business and ultimately drive down your marketing costs.

In conclusion here are a few ideas that you may want to implement:

*Take the time to thank your customers for their business
*Send them a card to say thanks, wish them a happy birthday, or anniversary
*Take them to lunch and let them know you are trying to improve your business and that you value their input
*Feature some of your best customers in your newsletter, website, etc.
*Give them referrals for their business

These are just a few ideas. Be creative and think of different ways to show your appreciation for your customers. Do you have strategies that have worked for you? If you have other ideas for showing customer appreciation I would love to hear them.

To Your Success!

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