External Relationships
Applying the same principle in another way, it costs a quarter of the amount to retain an existing client than it does to win a new one. If you can keep your clients happy, you will make business development easier and more successful.
One of the most effective ways of harnessing the power of personal connections in an external way is to use it to develop your business. You can extend the relationship-building process for the specific purpose of increasing turnover by simply enquiring and listening.
A Customer Satisfaction Survey
In essence, I am talking about a customer satisfaction survey. Why is it important to find out customer feedback? Because it is an essential piece of
management information. For professional service firms, customer feedback can be a remarkably inexpensive source of market research.
You can find out:
- if they are likely to be your customers
- why they are your customers and not someone else’s
- what your customers think
- how you can make your customers feel valued
- what sort of initiatives your customers would appreciate
- what you can do to keep your customers loyal
- how you can give yourself a competitive edge over others.
There is a huge amount of information here and it should be available for use by the management structure to increase turnover and improve the bottom line. Many successful companies use this method to enhance corporate connections and reinforce existing business relationships. You may not need to answer all these questions but you should take the trouble to find out as much as you can about the psychology of your customers. If you don’t know what’s happening, you won’t know how to deal with situations when they occur.
If you take the time to talk to people who already do business with you, who have paid money for your services, you will be asking their advice, and that is flattering. In turn they will feel that their opinions matter. They are less likely to desert you in times of difficulty if you have made them feel important.
Monitoring customer satisfaction is a pointless activity unless management have a sense of ownership for the process and are prepared to act on the results.
The objective of the survey has to be defined before the programme begins, together with a budget and a timetable.
Before embarking on such a survey, it is useful to review existing information or research data concerning customers and customer satisfaction. You could ask:
- what you know about your existing customers
- what you know about their expectations
- how well you are meeting those expectations
- what will happen to customer requirements in the future
- how you compare to your competitors
- how the market is likely to change in the next three years.
Existing Clients
- Reasons and motivations for choosing X in the first place.
- Satisfaction levels in the relationship.
- Satisfaction with final results.
- How X’s character is perceived: innovative, conservative, in tune with needs, prestigious, dependable, friendly, formal, etc.
- Relative strengths compared to others in the marketplace.
- Relative weaknesses compared to others in the marketplace.
- Extent to which they (the client) would refer business and for what specific product/service/application.
- Awareness and effect of the new branding.
- Relative strengths of different market-facing divisions.