What is a relationship based on?
Trust. Think of
your personal relationships for a moment. Is it possible to have a
relationship with someone you don't trust? Is it true that your best
relationships are with those people you trust the most? The same principle
applies with a business selling products and services. People will buy from
those businesses whom they trust the most.
So how do you build trust in a customer
relationship?
In the same way as you build trust in any
relationship –by going out of your way to give, and to continue giving
consistently until that client or prospect builds up a trust in you, and what
you are offering.
Customers, once they have bought from you –
also have the power to grow your business exponentially. And we all know the
success of Word of Mouth Marketing!
It can work for you or against you - depending on what the customer's current
relationship is with your organization.
Promising and delivering spam free
permission only email marketing is another
way to build trust. Your current and prospective customers will
appreciate your efforts to ask for (and keep asking for) their permission to
send email communications. Sinclair Services will help you deliver this
type of top-notch customer service in your email marketing campaigns.
Loyalty. Building
loyalty is the most effective way to achieve enduring profitable growth.
Business must evolve from a transaction mentality to a relationship mentality,
from focusing on customer acquisition and conquests to focusing on customer
retention and loyalty. The loyal customer is our best customer. We
must know how to identify, attract, defend, and strengthen loyalty.
It is not enough to only attract buyers.
The goal is to convert buyers into loyalists and loyalists into
enthusiasts/evangelists for your business.
Research has shown time and again that loyal
customers will be less likely to switch away to your competitor based on price
appeal of your competitor. Loyal customers are willing to pay more for
your brand. The more loyal the customer, the higher the average price
they will pay for your brand.
The Leo Burnett Company has
studied the profitability of brand loyalty. They concluded the more
loyal groups pay higher relative prices while the less loyal groups "are more
influenced by relative price and short-term deals."
Creating brand loyal customers and finding ways
to make them more and more loyal is a key element in business success.
The sale is not the goal. Enduring, profitable growth is the goal.
The job of marketing does not end with the sale. The sale is the
beginning of the opportunity to turn a purchaser into a loyalist.
Call Sally
Sinclair today to talk
about your building more trust and loyalty into your customer relationships.
