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Marketing and Sales Ideas
"A spoonful of
honey
Will catch more
flies
Than a gallon of
vinegar."
— Benjamin
Franklin
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Good manners are vital to winning
customers and keeping their loyalty. No matter how good your
product is, rude or indifferent service hurts your company.
A survey by a consultant firm, Eticon, found that 58
percent of customers will take their business elsewhere
because of bad manners — even if they must go out of their way
or pay more. Even worse, 80 percent of those surveyed feel
that rudeness is increasing in the business world.
If you make even basic etiquette lessons a part of job
training, the results will speak volumes about your staff and
your company. Customers will respond positively when they hear
someone answer the phone politely, respond calmly to their
frustration and know which fork to use during a business
lunch.
Here's how to institute some etiquette lessons at your
company:
Be
discreet. When you
approach your staff with the idea, tell them you are trying to
help them brush up on their skills. As long as you
don't give them the impression you think they're a
bunch of ill-mannered oafs, most staff members will welcome
the opportunity.
Hire
some pros. Professional trainers or etiquette
consultants can cover the basics at a brown bag lunch. For
more complicated needs, they can hold sessions lasting from a
few hours to a full-day or longer. If bringing in experts
sounds like a budget buster, send your human resources manager
for training and let him or her teach the rest of the
staff.
Reinforce
the lessons. Even
model employees can have a lapse of memory about where the
fish fork goes or how to introduce people when a name is
forgotten. Prepare a short handbook or set up a page on your
Intranet that covers the basics.
By making sure your staff has the right skills, you'll
encounter fewer misunderstandings and happier customers, all
adding up to increased
profits. |
Internet Marketing The Internet is one of the best devices your company has
to target new customers and keep your existing clientele happy. But
before you begin reaping the benefits of e-marketing, you must
collect and manage a database of e-mail addresses.
This might seem easy at first glance, but the task can be
overwhelming if it's not handled correctly.
Track Your Best
Customers One way to ensure that you’re
delivering the highest level of service to your trophy customers is
to give them each a code. It helps your staff identify them and give
them the kind of service you want to provide. Of
course, you want to maintain a certain level of service for all of
your clientele. However, your best customers should receive the red
carpet treatment.
Marketing to
Existing Customers Here's a simple way
to check and see if your company is fulfilling its promises. Print
out the following questionnaire and ask all employees except
your sales staff to fill it out. When completed, analyze the
results and — if needed — implement a plan to
revise your sales process.
Thank
You In today's electronic age when
businesses look for new ways to improve profit, we sometimes forget
that simple, time-honored gestures often work best. And it takes
only two words: Thank You! Writing thank you notes may sound like an
obvious tactic, but surprisingly, few companies do it. That's
precisely why it will set you apart from the competition.
Quality
Service Keeps Customers Quality is
undeniably the single most important facet involved in retaining
your clientele. Improving satisfaction is critical to boosting
profits and quality is the key to keeping customers happy. But how
do you define quality and inject it into your relationships with
customers?
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