We all know that building relationships in life is important for personal growth, but not many people translate their relationship building skills to the workplace.
Below are some general ‘ideas’ for building better relationships with your customers, both internal i.e. your colleagues and external i.e. the people paying for your product or service:
- Get to know your customers, make a note of their birthdays and send them a card, make a note of other bits of information your customers may impart like moving house or going on holiday and ask how everything went when you next speak or see them.
- Invite your customers to call you by your first name and ask them if you can call them by theirs, but don’t be offended if they prefer to me addressed more formally.
- Send your customers freebies, free samples that might interest them, newsletters and discount vouchers will all be appreciated and will foster good relationships with regular customers.
- Develop offers and promotions for your regular customers and give them a call to let them know the offer is being made only to a select few.
- Send your customers Christmas cards, if your budget can’t stretch to a card send them a ‘Happy Christmas’ message in the form of a personal email.
- Give your customers a call every so often, or drop them an email, to ask how everything’s going and to see if there’s anything you can do for them.