When Customers Leave
Sunday, January 18th, 2009Do you know when you’ve lost a customer? How many do you let slip away every year? If you’re like most decorators, you only find out indirectly when you call to find out why they haven’t ordered recently. It doesn’t have to be that way. Some simple automation can go along way to solving this problem.
One thing I’ve discovered over the years is that we are all way too busy with our own day-to-day work schedules to really pay attention to our customers. We pretty much leave it up to them to call us when they’re ready to buy. By the time we’re aware that they haven’t ordered recently it is usually about twice as long as it should have been. Often we’re simply not at the right place at the right time and someone else is. It is a sale of opportunity and we miss out.
One of the great things about marketing on the Internet is the autoresponder. This is either software you own or a service you subscribe to. The beauty of it is you can preload emails at specific time intervals and have them sent automatically to your customers. They can be follow up messages, reminders of critical dates, or special offers. You can use them to simply keep in touch or be more direct with them.
The content of your email is genuine, just as if you were talking to your client. They can reply directly to your email address, so it is as natural and you would normally be. Except you are being much more proactive and your customers will genuinely appreciate your efforts.
There are many services available. I’ve had great success with AWeber.com and GetResponse.com