Why Good Customer Relationships Are Vital for Your Business

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

While this quote certainly applies to our personal lives, this lesson can also guide our thinking as business leaders when crafting our customer service strategy. Reflecting as a consumer for a moment, we can easily recognize the truth in this statement, whether our experience with a company has been negative or positive. If a firm consistently provides you with a high-quality product or service at a fair price, and also goes above and beyond to help you feel valued and appreciated, then you’re probably their customer for life.

Indeed, your team’s ability to nurture strong relationships with customers can make or break your business. Here’s a look at why every interaction with your clients matters and what to consider as you refine your approach to effectively managing customer relationships.

Why Relationships Matter

Poor Customer Service Can Cost You Forbes reports businesses lose more than $60 billion a year due to bad customer service. One study showed nearly half of Americans have switched to another company because of a bad experience. If you’ve ever taken a look at your investment to acquire a new customer, you already know it’s more cost-effective to keep an existing customer than to churn and burn.

Great Customer Service Leads to Loyalty On the other hand, when you provide stellar service, you are more likely to retain customers and earn their future business. Your happiest customers may become ambassadors for you by writing positive reviews online or sending new client referrals your way. Peer-to-peer marketing is incredibly powerful. A Nielsen survey showed 84 percent of consumers feel word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends are the “most trustworthy.”

Strong Customer Relationships Can Differentiate You When you invest in building strong relationships with your customers at every step of their journey, you distinguish yourself by creating a client experience and culture that sets your company apart and gives you a competitive advantage.

10 Ways to Foster Strong Customer Relationships

Map your customer’s journey end-to-end and identify all the opportunities you have to enhance the customer experience at every touchpoint.

Consider investing in a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software package to help you organize customer information, or look into the functionality of your current system to make sure you’re leveraging all it can offer you, including automation tools and reports.

Stay in touch with your prospects and customers without being too invasive, focus on providing high-quality, relevant content and meaningful interactions. Ensure you’re providing the right message at the right time in the way your client prefers to receive information.

Listen to your customers. Develop a survey to gather feedback, and be open and ready to respond to their suggestions for ways you can improve.

Simplify processes to demonstrate that you value your customer’s time. For example, reduce the number of steps required for online orders or find ways to gain efficiencies with service delivery.

Hire carefully. Look beyond basic competencies and choose genuinely caring people to represent you and your brand. Provide ongoing training, coaching, and feedback with learning loops to ensure continuous improvement.

Consider your corporate culture. Treat your team right, and create a workplace that’s based on courtesy and respect for everyone. It’s so true that when you take care of your team, they will take care of your customer

Communicate with clients about your corporate values. Align your company’s interests with your customer’s and share stories about your work for social good.

Find creative ways to let your customers know just how much you value and appreciate them. Every year, our company hosts an event to show our gratitude to our Patient Family. Known as our “Biggest Celebration of the Year,” the party gives our team a chance to spend time with customers in a fun, relaxed setting.

Once you have found ways to strengthen your relationship with your customers, build in processes that help you deliver on your value proposition consistently. While no company does this perfectly, this goal is worth striving for.

Relationships with customers are similar to any other relationship in life: they’re built on a foundation of trust that grows with every meaningful, memorable positive interaction. Focus on nurturing your relationships with your clients, and they will never forget how special and valued you make them feel.

Teresa Beard is the Marketing Director at Clevens Face and Body Specialists, Brevard’s award-winning plastic surgery group and medispa founded by Harvard-trained Facial Plastic Surgeon Ross A. Clevens, MD, FACS. Teresa earned her MBA at the University of Florida and has more than 20 years of experience with marketing strategy, communications, and event management. Her volunteer roles include serving as an active mentor with weVENTURE’s Ignite 360 program.

Columnist series sponsored by weVENTURE at the Florida Institute of Technology College of Business. weVENTURE has locations in Melbourne and Rockledge. The Center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. For more information, visit weventure.org or call 321-674- 7007.