Creating Client Connections
According to Gallup, fully engaged customers bring in 51% higher revenue and sales than actively disengaged customers. The numbers say it all— businesses must commit to building strong and meaningful relationships with their customers if they want to see greater success.
This means prioritizing people over mere transactions; you have to make it a point to reach out to your audience, listen to them intently, and follow through with due action.
When you connect with customers on a real level, you unlock an unmatched era of success for your business. Through relationship marketing, you can demonstrate to your customers just how much you care for them, and they will not disappoint in their return.
We’ve invited expert panelists Marsha Collier @MarshaCollier, Jessika Phillips @jessikaphillips, and Jen Cole @jencoleICT to give their professional insight on relationship marketing and how to make it worth your while.
Missed the Tweet Chat? Here’s a recap:
Q1. Let’s start at the beginning. What is relationship marketing and how does it work? What is the purpose of relationship marketing? How would you describe the ROI?
Marsha Collier: Relationship marketing does more than build business! It's the key to long term, blossoming relationships that build sales over time. It's the human touch.
Jessika Phillips: Relationship marketing is the art of growing repeat and referral business that builds organic, sustainable and profitable results. We do this via focusing on core/ideal connections with clients, community, fans and team members. Showing up like a Magnet vs Bullhorn.
I like to say #RelationshipMarketing is the art of:
• Turning your followers into true fans online
• Clients into your word of mouth advocates
• Community-members into your collaborators
• And your team members into evangelists
#RelationshipMarketing is all about showing that you C.A.R.E. C-apture attention - A-rticulate what makes you different - focus on R-elationships for repeat and referral business - and at all times provide E-xceptional Experiences.
Jen Cole: Relationship Marketing puts the needs, ideas, and strengths of clients first. And it's a 2-way, give and take situation for everyone involved! When we create trusting working relationships, we ensure a lasting experience. What's the lifetime value of YOUR customer??
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Q2. Where does relationship marketing happen? Is relationship marketing only executed on social media? How can you use relationship marketing across all of your channels/mediums and how do they differ depending on where the interactions take place?
Marsha Collier: Relationship marketing begins when the customer learns that you exist. From that point building emotion based trust bridges on all channels solidifies the relationship.
Jessika Phillips: #RelationshipMarketing is about showing you CARE and that can be done on + off social media! By sending voice memos to your teammates, video replies to your followers, gifts to clients and/or hand-written cards via @SendOutCards, you make people feel cared about! #SocialMedia is a place for us to connect with each other, so yes of course it happens there but not just online! #RelationshipMarketing is all about serving our audience, so it happens everywhere.
Jen Cole: Relationship Marketing happens everywhere... It happens IRL, on social [media], when we're alone working on client work, when we're brainstorming, and when we're sharing ideas.
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Q3. Most people know how to build 1 on 1 relationships, but how do you do this with a larger group at once? How do you find / identify commonalities in your client base to know what information would be best suited for them to appeal to their interests and better their lives? How do you encourage them to tell you what is important to them?
Marsha Collier: A customer journey starts things out right. You need to know your categories of customers and understand their needs. Once you know that you can fulfill them. Engage with customers on an open field. Don't silo or prejudge. You never know who will be the next person/business to be your number one!
Jessika Phillips: Regardless of the size of the group, #RelationshipMarketing is all about focusing on creating connections, and that starts with our core message and #BrandManifesto. That is all about defining WHO we are so we truly know the right people to connect to. Relationship Marketing is used to create a flywheel effect in your business to organically grow momentum in your business. It turns Word of Mouth into World of Mouth business...because clients and team members stay longer with you and want to refer us on. By asking questions to your audience and truly listening to their answers, we have the ability to best understand what matters to them and how to best show up for them!
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Q4. Where does relationship marketing begin? How do you think your core work culture and team affect your relationship marketing? How do you create a supportive work environment as a prerequisite to successful relationship marketing strategies with your clients? What message(s) needs to come through loud and clear across all interactions?
Marsha Collier: Honesty. Truth. Open engagement. In your office and to the public. There can't be two faces to your business. Constant sales pounding only alienates all.
Jessika Phillips: The first step is going back to the basics. Focusing on the inside out- meaning it starts with who we are at our core. If our culture isn’t right, our marketing won't be either. That’s why we believe in starting with a #BrandManifesto. You must know who you can truly help and who you can’t in business. We call this identifying your #BuyerPersonas. Then focus on #buildingrelationships through content, conversations and experiences. It’s about getting real. The only way to build true relationships is to get beyond surface-level communication and to do that you have to relate to others #authentically by adding in your true personality. More importantly, you have to get to know others. Focusing more on your technique vs. the tool you’re using. Create marketing/content/conversations that your ideal audience will find value in. Make it educational, entertaining or engaging.
Jen Cole: The way we feel about the company that we work for truly rolls into the energy that we exude professionally (and personally, too!) When you EMPOWER and support your staff, they WANT to be the best they can be for you. And that shows in their client relationships.
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Q5. With most growth strategies, businesses focus on short-term goals such as new customer acquisitions and sales. How do you develop strong emotional connections between customers and your brand? How do you prioritize quality client satisfactions and sparkling interactions over a quantity of new transactions?
Marsha Collier: I personally have invited readers to email me and have communication. My email address is in every book. Comments on my website are always answered to help anyone (reader or not) with challenges in their business. I give away more knowledge than I sell.
Jessika Phillips: To truly build those connections, we have to show up in an #Unfiltered way and show that we care. It’s about out-caring the competition and always coming from a place of wanting to. Go the extra mile for them! Do MORE than they expect from you. Test new ideas, and share the exciting results with them. Be honest with them about things that may not be working. Send them gifts!! (for real). I’m BIG on taking the time to create exceptional experiences for my team, clients and community, and the best part is you don’t have to break the bank to do so! Our @nowmg blog has a bunch of ideas for how you can get started! We must focus on our existing audience and customers in delighting them, getting to know them and building a relationship with them vs. just searching for new business. It’s less about the TOOL we use, and more about our technique.
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Q6. We’re all human, and mistakes are part of the human experience. How do you win back lost business due to an error? How do you correct a mistake with a client or repair a client relationship? What tools do you have available to your team to make your clients extra happy?
Marsha Collier: We are all human and responding to mistakes like a human (golden rule) builds trust and confidence from your customers. It's all about TRANSPARENCY and engagement!
Jessika Phillips: When you make a mistake, apologize and be honest! I think that we can often repair relationships just by showing up with our heart and showing that we care to make the situation right. When we have strong relationships - built over time by consistently showing that we care - we earn that trust and can easily apologize and work to make the situation right. When you focus on them vs. making it all about you- they will see that you care!
Jen Cole: I think the best thing we can do is to admit our mistakes, come to them with well-thought-out solutions to making it better, and then stay on top of the follow-thru. We use tools like Google Analytics and @Agorapulse to share results with clients.
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Q7. Turn your community into collaborators. Turn your clients into advocates...but how? What are the most effective ways to engage your clients? How do you inspire them to communicate what they want to see from you?
Marsha Collier: Asking may not be getting, but it never hurts. When you help a customer and make their day. They become a stakeholder and want to spread the word! I open doors to all forms of communication. Be where your customer is -- find them there and be there to solve problems.
Jessika Phillips: To engage your clients, ask them meaningful questions and listen to their answers! This is how we get to know them better and truly start to build deeper relationships with them. By building relationships with our customers, we create a more open dialogue which translates to more honest feedback. That is how we learn what our customers want and then we can take action to show that we care and deliver on that!
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Q8. What are some relationship marketing examples or success stories? What are some relationship marketing best practices?
Marsha Collier: On your website, answer questions. Make an FAQ of the most asked so you have the answers for customers. State your prices so there's no mystery about doing business with you. Post your contact information. Most of all? BE THERE when you're needed.
Jessika Phillips: If we make sure we have a great culture, great service and focus on our current clients, community and team-first - treat them like the VIPs they are- the rest will take care of itself. Truly that is one of the best #RelationshipMarketing best practices. We shouldn’t stop trying to earn our clients' biz. Many times I feel brands take their clients for granted and think they’ll stay there forever so they become complacent on growth/innovation. We should listen to our clients and always be thinking [about] how we can CARE more. Personalizing and creating a community of belonging for your clients is a best practice. We just launched a community portal to help our clients find everything in one place. Our goal at @NOWMG is to be the most transparent agency in the world. We recently published a Pillar #blog post to our @nowmg blog all about how to get started with #RelationshipMarketing and what 8 steps we think are critical to the process. We also offer a free guide on how to get started with #relationshipmarketing at http://LearnRelationshipMarketing.com. @Mike_gingerich and I had @alliebloyd on our #MagnetMarketers live show to discuss the benefits of adopting a #RelationshipMarketing mindset and we recapped all of the value bombs in our #blog!
Jen Cole: I think my greatest #relationshipmarketing success story so far was loving, posting and tagging my standing desk brand so much that when the owners of the company decided they were done, they asked if I wanted their company. I said YES! Now I own @getxstand!
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Now that you know just how integral relationship marketing is to your business, we hope you will apply some of these handy tips to deepen your connection with your customers. While it may be a process that takes a great deal of time and commitment, your relationships will undoubtedly propel your business toward a bigger and much more lucrative future. So there’s no better time to start than now!
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