Improving Customer Relationships for Repeat Sales

Perhaps you've heard that KEEPING customers is easier than FINDING new ones? If you haven't, it's true!

That's why improving customer relationships is SO important - especially if you’re wanting NEW customers from referrals.

(Nurturing and securing healthy client relationships can also skyrocket your sales if you have been in business for a while...)

Remember, people don’t want to do business with a business. They want to do business with PEOPLE.

So improving your customer relationships will improve your business in ways that you wouldn’t have achieved otherwise.

Today, I'm sharing 5 KEY STEPS you can implement TODAY that are KEY to improving your customer relationships!

Here’s the easy 5-step process on how to improve your customer relationships:

5 Steps To Improve Customer Relationships for Repeat Sales TODAY:

Step #1: Know your brand and be authentic in it.

Why is this important? 

Because as we said before, PEOPLE want to do business with PEOPLE.

They don’t want to purchase something from a "business".

A BRAND is the exact way you showcase these 3 things:

• what it is you have to offer
• what makes you unique from everybody else
• and what they can get from you professionally.

A brand allows people to understand who you are, what you are offering and why you offer it.

What's in it for THEM?

They don’t want to hear about your sales or whatever your bragging rights are at the moment...

What they want is what YOU can provide for them and that’s what your branding should tell them.

Your brand is what you put out there. It’s what you show on your social media, your blogs, emails or videos, your documents...everything.

It is what they see. And it’s important to make them all match up with each other and be consistent so that they know that they can trust you.

TRUST BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS.

RELATIONSHIPS LEAD TO SALES.

A good way to test your brand and its effectiveness is by pulling up your social media right now and looking at your accounts (or your website).

Look at it from the perspective of someone else who doesn't know your brand.

Scroll through your posts and what the content "feels like".

• Are you consistent?
• How do you look when you are doing videos?
• Do you present yourself professional enough to make your videos trustworthy?
• Does your language reflect your brand?

Think about these questions and give yourself an honest answer because THIS is the message that you want to be sending your customers.

Consistent messaging is KEY to building trust and trust will build relationships...and that’s what business is all about.

Step #2: Make it all about THEM.

If you own any type of business, service-related OR product-related, you need to continuously interact with your customer and give them valuable information without expecting anything in return.

This consistency shows them that you actually care about THEM as people, not just dollar bills.

The easiest way to do this is to set up automated email funnels. These automated funnels give them valuable information on a set schedule to continuously build your credibility, trust and to nurture the relationship.

Step #3: Contact them WITHOUT a sale in mind.

Let the customer know you are thinking of them at "planned out random  times" to stay top of mind and again, show interest in THEM.

For my travel business, I set a date to contact them via email to just let them know I miss chatting with them. I send them articles related to their past trip or their "bucket list" dream and let them know I was thinking of them. I send birthday, anniversary, baby shower & wedding cards, just as if they were family.

By dong that, it doesn't feel like I’m trying to "sell" them anything, but that I am reaching out to them from a personal interest instead of sending them something from my "business".

Be proactive.

Grow your business by valuing the customer and recognizing the little details that they appreciate.

That’s the kind of business that people want to come back to and stay loyal to!

Step #4: Follow up is crucial.

This is a huge one.

Again, in the travel business when my clients return from vacation, what do I do?

I personally don't try to sell them anything right away but that approach does work for some people.

Instead, I follow-up with the client and make sure that they enjoyed their vacation and ask if they felt it was right for them.

I also ask them what I can do to serve them better the next time as I am always wanting to improve with each booking.

Let's say you’re in the restaurant business. When the customer exits after their meal, have the hostess ask the customer about their dinner or have them greet the customer once more and say something like “See you again soon!”

Find a polite way of saying "how did we do" and "is there something we could’ve done better?".  Maybe an anonymous survey or a comment card would work for your business.

By following up, you are giving your customers a way to give their feedback to your business. And customers love to be heard.

Step #5: Video, Video, VIDEO.

This is KEY when you’re improving customer relationship.

Why video?

Because videos are the easiest and fastest way to build relationships.

People learn so much more about you when they are watching you speak and interact with them.

When you watch a TV series or follow an actor on social media platforms, don't you feel like you almost truly know them?

That's because you’ve most likely watched them in some type of video format instead of just reading about them and seeing images of them.

That’s the connection that videos can create with your target audience and customers.

If you have a business right now and you’re trying to grow WITHOUT  video, I want you to know that in 2019, 80% of the things that you see on the internet will be video.

And in 2021, it's predicted that virtually 100% off communication online will be through video.

So you need to start NOW.

And that's how you retain your customers, by improving and nurturing your relationships!

So go ahead and implement those 5 steps to your business so that you can skyrocket your business, get new leads and keep customers coming back to YOU.

--> Want 180 days of "POST & GO" social media content to improve relationships with your social media audience?

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Improving customer relationships, why is that important? Well if you’re a new business and you want new customers, you gotta listen up. If you’re a business that wants to skyrocket their sales you gotta listen up. If you’re a business that wants to repeat loyalty, you want those customers to keep coming back to you you need to listen up because business is all about relationships. Right? People don’t want to do business with a business. They want a business with a person and that person’s you and I want you to improve your customer relationships so today if that sounds like you, I want you to stay tuned. I’m gonna be sharing with you the 5 things that you can easily implement today, the 5 steps to improving customer relationships right now so that you can do all these new things, find customers, keep your customers and skyrocket your sales. So stay tuned, and if you’re new to my channel I want you to go ahead and subscribe here. We do these trainings every week, my name is Erin Cook. I’m the creator of Video Smart Start series that will help people revamp their online marketing strategy and it’s availale to you at the end of this video and also a freebie so stay tuned till the end but for now I’m gonna share my 5 things you need to implement today in order to improve your customer relationships. So stay tuned.

So the very first thing that you want to do before you even start marketing and promoting your business right from the get-go and even if you’re already in business and you’re marketing and promoting you’re gonna wanna take a step back and make sure of this very first thing. Now before you start doing anything, I want you to TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR BRAND. Now why is a brand important to customer relationships? How does that even correlate? Well if you think about it people wanna do business with people. They don’t wanna purchase something from a business. Okay, so what you’re brand is a way to tell people what it is you have to offer that makes you unique from everybody else and what they can expect from you professionally. So that they understand who you are, what you’re offering and not really the company. You know they don’t want to hear, such and such a company did so much in sales last year. You know they wanna know what it is that you can provide them and that’s through your branding. See, your brand is what you put out there on social media, what’s on your website, what value you provide people, maybe if you’re sending out cards, or letters or emails, your branding is what they see. Your logos things like that. All of that has to match so that no matter where you are to them whether they find you online, in person, in store, wherever, it all has to match and all has to make sense and has to be consistent each time and that way they begin to trust you cause they know you’re consistent. And trust builds relationships. Alright so you have to take a look at your brand and right now the best way to test that is to go ahead and pull up your website or better yet your social media platform basically Facebook or YouTube is a great way to do this and look at it as if you were somebody that didn’t know your brand. Now when you’re scrolling through your posts, what does it look like? Does it look consistent? If you’re somebody that is offering a professional service, are you sitting in your jeans or your you know torn up t-shirt with baby puke on your shoulder and doing videos that way or your post? Is that really reflective of your brand? So you have to take a look at that because you want to be sending your customers messages that are consistent. Consistent messaging is key to build trust and trust will build relationships and that again is what business is all about. Okay so take a good look at your brand.

What I do wanna mention as well, I see people doing this all the time and it’s very difficult for me to call them out on it. People are not always genuine with their brand. Okay if you are somebody that maybe sells maybe luxury travel and I say that just because I’m in the travel business and you get in front of the camera and maybe get your hair done your make up done and you have high heels on and clothes that you don’t normally wear or that you’re not comfortable in, yes that screams luxury but you’re not yourself. You can still be professional looking for that image that you have to uphold with your brand but you need to be comfortable as well. So make sure that everything you do is authentic and you have to be yourself because people can smell inauthenticity, is that a word? They could tell if you’re not authentic very easily. So go ahead and make sure you’re doing that as well when you’re working on your branding. Okay, so that’s step number one is KNOWING YOUR BRAND AND BEING AUTHENTIC. That is the very first thing to building relationships.

Okay, so step number two. This is a huge one. This is where a lot of people drop the ball. Alright, so if you own any type of business, service-related, product-related, whatever you have to interact with the customer and give them beneficial information without expecting anything in return. Okay so I’m gonna say it one more time. So you have to be able and willing to provide your customer with information that they’re seeking and the problem-solving, you know, way to do that without expecting anything in return. Why? Because that shows them that even though you’re not gonna get something in return you actually care about them. The way that we do that nowadays in today’s marketing world is with our email funnels, we’re providing constant information to them. Again it’s not the newsletters of the olden days where we say, hey look what we did last year. Here’s where we’ve been here’s our awards. It’s okay to include that but that shouldn’t be the basis for your newsletter or here’s the sale this month you know things like that. It should be something that people are going to get value from, does that make sense? We have to change our way of thinking. Instead of it all about us as a business we have to make it all about the customer. And that’s what we need to do even though we may not get their business. Okay so that’s one way to tell them that we care about them and that’s who people wanna do business with. They don’t want the sales pieces to come through. Here’s a sale, buy them today, I’m on live Facebook today selling these earrings, please buy right now cause I gotta pay the bills. Now that’s not about the customer right? That’s about us. So make everything you do about the customer. Offer them information that’s valuable when you’re not expecting anything in return. So that’s step number two and that’s very hard for some people to do but it is very important today especially if you are stuck in the olden days of marketing and promotion, you’re gonna miss out. Okay we’re gonna talk about that at the end as well as the changes going on, making it all about the customer.

Okay, say you have a small business that’s a service-based industry and maybe you have an email address or maybe you are in a place where you can get their regular mailing address, my advice would be depending when you’re able to depending on the sides of your company really try to touch-base with your customers in a way that’s not promoting a sale at all. Maybe you’re thinking about them this is what I do a lot of the times, people would be booking vacations with me and they will you know be a few months into it, we don’t really we have everything booked but we’re just waiting on their vacation. If I see an article come across my screen that deals with where they’re going I’ll say hey I was thinking about you, check out this article, just to let them know that I’m still thinking about them. I’m not trying to sell anything, I’m trying to let them know that I care. Okay so the same with birthdays, anniversaries, you have to get to know your customer. Now I know a waitress who used to have a notepad in her apron and she used to have you know her regular customers and whenever something new would change in their life, she said she didn’t have a very good memory but she wanted to remember that for the next time they came in. So she would go to the back of the diner and write down the new information. So that when that customer came back in, she could just look in her notebook and she could say what it was. She could say hey remember your granddaughter Alexander was born, how’s she doing? He’s gotta be what, 3 months now? How cool would that be to know that somebody remembered something important in your life? Okay maybe she could even send them a card. So everybody in business needs to be on board with this cause if you think about the restaurant scenario, you go in and you have slow service and bad food, that can spoil it just like one person’s mood can spoil it, one person’s bad day can spoil it for the rest of your business and they may not return. So you have to be proactive. You have to think about training them to be all about the customer and recognizing the little details. That’s really what makes a business something that people wanna come back to and something that people will stay loyal to. Alright, so that’s tip number three is MAKE CONTACT EVEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT SELLING.

Step number four, this is a huge one. Now let’s say I’m in the travel business, my clients go on vacation when they come back, what do I do? I’m not trying to sell them anything right away right? Some people will. Some people will have a postcard in their mailbox waiting for them and they’ll say hey next year at this time there’s a sale going on for this date, let’s go on vacation again and that’s okay. Me personally I’d rather follow up with the client first and say hey I wanna touch base with you I wanna make sure that you enjoyed your vacation, and that it was right for you. I wanna know what I could’ve done better to serve you. Okay so that’s one way I follow up. Now say you’re selling a physical product or you’re in the restaurant business for something like that where people come to you purchasing something, on the way out of the restaurant you could hear the hostess say, how was your dinner, whatever and we’ll see you again soon. That’s a polite way of saying how did we do is there something we could’ve done better? You know people say well maybe, and when they say maybe, you could follow that up with what can we do to turn that into a yes? Okay, so you constantly wanna follow up with people and see what it is that you can do better to serve them. Again it’s all about the customer because taking that one little step, say that person who had a bad day, say that waitress who had a bad day made the customer complain and the customer comes to the counter and you say hey how was everything? Will we see you soon? And they will say no I don’t think so because so and so was so rude to us and then say what would it take to make that better? Maybe you could have the waitress come and apologize and maybe she could you know say I’m sorry, my brother passed away yesterday and this is why I’m rude but I certainly didn’t mean to be rude and that could fix everything. Okay, so just take that one minute to follow up and correct the things that could’ve possibly gone wrong. But many times we walk out the door we have a service and then we never hear from those people again. We buy something and it’s like they leave you hanging, Expedia, I’m just gonna throw that in there but really the places where you buy things but you know Amazon’s really good at following up on people a lot of times at least in my inbox it is. But a lot of places they’ll say you know here’s your checkout page, here’s your receipt and that’s it. It’s like they don’t follow up with you or anything like that so you need to have a system to make your communication and your relationship better for your customers.

Okay, now I need to drumroll for this. VIDEO this is key when you’re improving your customer relationship. Why is that? What does video have to do with relationships? Well, let me tell you. Since you’ve been watching this video, you either hate me, you like me or you’re here because you’re still interested in what I have to say. Right? You’ve had a connection with me or you haven’t. And what are relationships? They’re all about making connections. Now you may choose to just send emails and that’s fine people can read or you may have a blog and that’s okay people can read that. But video makes so much things faster because people learn so much more about you when they’re watching you speak. Have you watched TV and you’re like, man you know, I watch this series I know everything about this person or I follow this actor and I watch everything that they make and then you see that actor maybe in public and you’re like I know blah blah blah and they’re like woah woah who are you? I’ve never seen you in my life, like we don’t have a relationship but because you’ve watched them on TV you feel like you know them and connect with them. And that’s the power of video. So if you think back to when blogs were just started we were reading them and we were getting glimpses into their private life you know depending on the way they wrote and we’d like that. And hence when 2004 rolls around and Facebook comes in then YouTube in 2005, we’re able to see them, we’re able to hear their voice, we’re able to see their emotions, their personality you know what I mean? You can make such a better connection with people when you have interaction as far as video and someday I think we can be able to connect like this kinda like a Skype situation and social media which is kinda not but kinda cool, and that’s just kinda gonna increase things as well. So think about that if you have a business right now and you’re trying to grow that without a video, I want you to know that in 2019, 80% of the things you see on the internet will be video. And by 2021, it’s been predicted, that all on the internet and how we communicate with each other will be through video. Kinda scary to think about especially if you’re not doing video yet. Alright?

So you can see how video can improve the customer relationship ten fold in a much faster way. Alright so if you’re a business that’s looking for new clients get on Facebook, do live videos or on YouTube or Instagram. Do video if you are maybe somebody who has an existing business and you wanna keep customers keep doing video, keep top of mind, keep getting them to trust you and come back to you. Alright, keep doing the information that we talked about, keep getting genuine. Match your brand. Provide what they need when they need it. And that’s a customer journey as well so if you have an email funnel you’re gonna wanna insert a video in there as well. There’s so many things that you can do with video to make that relationship grow stronger in a faster time. Alright? I want you to implement those 5 steps. I want you to start improving your customer relationship today, I want you to skyrocket your business, I want you to get new leads and I want you to keep customers coming back to you. So again, grab my freebie in the link below in this description and remember also you can go to VideoSmartStart.com to go dive right into the video training. If you got your sales funnels and lead magnets and all that setup head over to VideoSmartStart.com that’s where I tell you how to start doing video, what equipment you need, what script you need to write, who you need to talk to, how you need to talk to them, when you need to talk to them and how to get people to listen to you. Okay that’s a lot of stuff.  But I promise I wallk you step by step by step. So it’s really easy. Just watch those vidoes at VideoSmartStart.com otherwise grab the freebie down below and I will see you next time. God bless!