Track Your Best Customers
For
VIP Treatment |
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.
The airline
industry does a good job
of coding. From
reservation clerks to baggage handlers, everyone knows who the
preferred travelers are based on their frequent flyer
numbers. |
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.
Depending
on your business, that could mean that your company answers their
phone calls first or puts their complaints and suggestions ahead of
other patrons. Or perhaps you’ll begin sending thank you notes and
gifts on a regular basis to let the cream of the crop know that you
appreciate their business.
Here's how it
works
Customers are
assigned a code based on predetermined
criteria — how much business they do, how long they've
patronized your company or how promptly they pay, for
example. Make sure the code is easy for employees to recognize.
You can use numbers, colors or even precious metals such as gold,
silver and bronze.
Use technology to add information to
your computer system that can affect ratings. Each time employees
do business with a customer, they plug in pertinent information
like an increase in a monthly order or an account closing. At the
end of a certain period — for example, each month or
quarter — the codes can be
updated.
All
employees then receive a list identifying the
very best customers. And when employees call up a top customer's
computer files, they should be immediately alerted to their status.
By tracking your very best customers, you can provide the kind of
service that makes them feel important to your company and keeps
them coming back again and
again.