Building Better Business Relationships

Building lasting relationships with your customers, clients or members is an ongoing challenge for any business or organization. Email and the web are tempting ways to keep in touch with your public because of their immediacy and efficiency, but successful electronic relationship building requires year-round attention. We suggest some basic guides for success, and share some examples of how CorpNote members are building better business relationships!

Keep in touch Before, During and After the Sale

Before the Sale — First, let's define sale. If you are a vendor, then your sale is that of your product or service. If you are an organization or non-profit, then you might be selling membership renewal, an appeal for contributions, or tickets to an event. In other words, for the sake of this article, the 'sale' is the main reason you maintain a relationship with your public.

Keeping in touch with your public before the sale serves a number of purposes. It keeps your company current in their minds, so you will be remembered when it comes time to purchase. And, in the case of organizations or non-profits, it softens the impression that you are 'always asking them for something,' but not offering anything in return.

Some great ways to 'keep in touch' are to send an email newsletter, e-card online coupons or special offers, or an e-card with information that will enhance the use of your product or service.

During the Sale — E-cards are a great way to confirm the receipt of an order or payment, and to provide additional resources that will enhance the experience of 'doing business' with your company. A thank you e-card should be short and contain your contact information to make it easy for people to get in touch with you in the future. One of the great things about using the web for business relationship management is that you can easily send links to resources that are specific to the needs of your customers. This tailored approach adds value (that extra 'feel good' benefit), which distinguishes you from the competition.

After the Sale — If you sell a product, set a reminder in your electronic calendar to send an electronic follow-up to customers. Your customers will appreciate the thoughtfulness of your follow-up e-card and recommend you to others. If there is a problem, then you'll appreciate finding out about it, and having the chance to resolve it and save the relationship. Another great 'after-the-sale' method is to send an online survey, which should be carefully constructed to blend ease-of-use for the recipient while it provides you with the valuable information you need.

Another Idea — Consider asking your clients for their birth date when you build your contact files. The year doesn't matter, but it is a nice gesture to send a birthday greeting on or before the day. Holiday cards are also a great way to share good will, and can be used for lots of 'non-December' occasions! If you can think up good 'non-sales' reasons to keep in touch, you'll see a big 'plus' in repeat business and client loyalty. Recognizing your customer's pain and showing them how a product or service can alleviate that pain is the sales process in a nutshell. Sales people need to be effective at tracking sales leads, and they need to have the tools to efficiently follow up on those sales leads to be successful. Here are some ways that sales companies have been using CorpNote:

• Client relationship management (CRM). Busy sales reps may not have enough time to quickly perform follow up communication for sales calls or thank clients in person and over the phone. Send Follow-Up e-cards and Thank You e-cards to your clients to quickly and efficiently stay in contact with potential and current customers. Steady contact with them means they will think of you next time they need your product or service.
  
  
• Send information to your own company's sales reps. Managers can use CorpNote to send important information to employees, such as new product or service information, invitations to training seminars and company events, reminders, employee-of-the-month notification and other important announcements. This is especially useful for on-the-go employees who may often be on the road and stay in touch with the office mostly by email. Keeping your employees well informed in a unique way is a step in the right direction to improved productivity and efficiency.
  
  
• Invite prospects and clients to Seminars. Send an online invitation to prospects and current clients to encourage them to attend seminars that can help them make important decisions about your product(s) and/or service(s). Use our Invitation RSVP feature to keep track of event attendance. At any time, you will be able to see who opens and responds to your online invitations. If people respond by phone you can add people to your guest list and even modify existing guest registration information.