Not following up with your client is a bad practice.
If I’ve to rate these reasons on a scale of zero to lame, this one would be the latest. We have zero-tolerance for such bad practices and anyone not looking after the client. The client is the very reason why your business development rate is positive, the client is behind the successful venture of yours, the client drives your profit and the client makes you a successful business owner.
Don’t get me wrong, but it is quite often that people drop the ball, and when they do so they don’t even follow up. Well, it’s alright to commit mistakes but what you need to understand – is that you’ve to make your client realize that they are really important to you and you’d do anything to fix up the mistake. Because if you’re not looking after the people who are paying for products and services then, my friend you’ve got a major problem. Often people think of customer service as a buzzword, if you ask me, it is an integral part of my business and I think it should be taken seriously by everyone. When you sell a product to your client and he is in dire need of your assistance and you assure him a great experience, just know that it is one of the best business strategies.
And above all, always keep 3 basic matrix records- (a) daily prospects you are getting, (b) daily customers you are converting, and (c) daily sales amount. If you keep these records then you’ll tempt to convert every prospect into a customer, and the most effective way to have a higher conversion rate is a follow-up.
Present client drives potential client
If you’re taking care of your present clients and if you’re treating them like a king – they deserve to be treated respectfully they will help you grow your business too. Suppose a client with a great fortune in the market is utterly satisfied with your services, he’ll bring his friends too; he’ll refer them to you. That seems a pretty good indicator of prosperity to me.
It will cost you 7 times more money to find a new client then make him a regular consumer of your products and services then retaining your present client will do.
In some businesses, especially those of business-to-business nature (B2B), have opportunities to increase the volume of each other i.e. happy customers could buy more over time. And this is the most important thing for any business. It is so blissful for any business if its customers become demanding and keep on increasing their order value. This can take any business to a new level in a short time. And what it requires…some really good service and take care.
The famous author Nepolean Hills said, there are 3 key ingredients of high success in a business– (a) Quality – the quality of product or service has to be good and quite satisfactory, (b) Quantity – provide higher quantity than competitors are providing, and (c) Spirited treatment – serve your customers with good spirit. Generally, management students miss to spot the third ingredient i.e. the spirited treatment, but the fact is that this ingredient is the key to the success of any business. A business cannot service long if a spirited service is missing.
Maintain your goodwill
Protecting your reputation should top your priority list because many times people give you work or they approach you based on your market reputation. If something goes south with one of your clients, explain to him that you don’t operate him this way. And take quick action rather than pondering, make amendments, and be accountable.
Never ignore your clients
“Ignorance is bliss,” whosoever said that can never be an entrepreneur. Ignoring your people, your clients, and your employees are the worst thing you can do to yourself and your business. Say sorry, seek an apology or come with an alternative plan to fix the situation but ignoring someone, especially when something didn’t go quite as planned is highly condemned by me.
“Ignoring a client” is the worst thing one can do for his business. We can see the ignorance of clients or customers in business at levels. Ignorance could occur at any step, any stage with the clients. When you didn’t set up a proper, dedicated sales team with pre-decided guidelines to handle prospects and clients then ignore could be seen every single day. When you didn’t put the work in a proper predecided line of production then ignorance can be seen every minute. When you didn’t set up a proper and dedicated team to handle clients while their work in production then ignorance is there every hour. When you didn’t provide a dedicated channel for customer service after delivery then ignorance is there. And if the quality of service is lacking anywhere then ignorance is there. Hence, keeping very close and very prompt customer support is the utmost important thing in any business. And keeping such a team can be easily overlooked and can seem to be not that damn seriously needed which can easily result in ignorance.
Your actions reflect your business style
Problems, hardships, and hurdles are just part of our lives, they can’t be eliminated one hundred percent and we’ve to face them, facing them, however, is also a business strategy. Your temperament and attitude during tough times will carry out a message and if you act aggressively, I am afraid the message will be a negative one.
I advise you to be calm and composed. Deal with the situation and clients rationally and respectfully. And always remember you’re not doing any favors to your client, they are paying for your products and services, and they are buying it. They deserve to be looked after and they deserve to be respected like a king.
These days, I outsource a lot of work to other companies. I can clearly see a huge difference between companies based on how they treat their clients. Some of the companies are doing so good that they never deliver without doing extra work (going the extra mile), always respond within a couple of hours (even in nights; not sure if they have customer support, guys, on night shifts as well), address the problem as soon as possible and do things perfectly in first or in the worst case in the second attempt. They clarify everything and put their feet in my shoes. As a result, my production has been increased and now, I bought more than 10 times of first order. This is the way to teat your customers. The most important thing is that… I feel very much confident that I’ll get delivery with good quality and greater quality and within the decided time deadline. What else a client seek?