After you know the competition, you simply have to do better for your customer than the competition would. Inc.com compiled video clips of tips on how to build customer loyalty from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, JetBlue founder David Neeleman, and other successful CEOs."We're not waiting for them to call us This is hand-to-hand combat out there, folks: you have to do a better job," said Jay Myers of Interactive Solutions Inc. Watch the video.
7. Don't fear the online tools.
Your website is usually the customer's first exposure to your company, so your homepage should be personal and user-friendly. Include staff bios or embed a Twitter feed to build an intimate relationship with your customer, and consider other social media. Think of Facebook and Twitter as listening posts. People love to chat about their recent purchases and experiences, so why not tune in? But, she cautions, be mindful that those conversations may not represent the majority and should be put into context. "If you have a large group of people on Twitter talking about their problem with pairing their headset to their phones, you want to be able to grab those Tweets and route them to the appropriate person in your company so the customer can get the answer they need directly from the source," says Sean Whiteley, vice president of product marketing for Salesforce.com, a San Francisco, California-based CRM provider. Read more.
8. Nurture your relationships.
When companies build relationships with their clients and suppliers, "it's a huge competitive edge," said Kathy Homeyer, the director of supplier diversity for UPS. A lot of large corporations offer mentoring programs, which many entrepreneurs don't realize are available. At UPS, we do outreach programs and external mentoring. We go to a lot of workshops, expos, and networking events. When a manager here comes to me and says certain commodities are going to be put up for bid in the coming months, I go through my files of people I have run across over the course of the past couple of years. We'll also reach out to the other large corporations, like Time Warner, and ask, 'Who are you guys using? Do you have someone that we don't know?' It's almost a small family." Read more.
9. Add value to your relationship.
Even if you planned for the possibility, no one wants to lose big clients. So, how do you make sure they hang around for as long as possible? Big companies are looking for value, says Constance Bagley, a professor at Yale School of Management. Figure out your client's immediate concerns. "Make sure the information is flowing both ways," she says. "What info can you bring them about their costs and competitors? Have your account manager talk to their counterpart; have your salespeople talk to their R&D." Erin Enriquez, who manages a Red Bull account for Terralever, says with Red Bull the company focused on the client's desire to be perceived as technologically forward in its online marketing. "The No. 1 thing is to be aware of the competition and what they're doing, and what new types of technologies are out there," says Enriquez. "Red Bull appreciates us coming to them and pitching them and usually agrees to let us do a portion of that work." Plus, once you have that competitive insight, you can use it to attract new clients – especially if your contract isn't exclusive. "It's a lot like high school dating," says Bagley. "Nothing makes you more desirable than the fact that someone else wants you." Read more.
10. When in doubt, ask what your customers want.
When Norm Brodsky looks back to his first year of doing business, one instance of impromptu customer satisfaction stands out. As a transit strike appeared eminent in New York City in 1980, Brodsky wrote: "I realized I was facing a potential disaster. Perfect Courier was barely seven months old. We were doing about $30,000 or $40,000 a month in sales." Then he went to a person he respected in the office of a client and was handed an idea: use the existing company vehicles to not just deliver packages during the strike, but also help Perfect Courier's clients get their people where they needed to be. And it helped Perfect Courier grow much closer to its best clients. Brodsky writes: "During the strike, we saw them every day, and they became our friends, as did the executives at other accounts. They came to our office for coffee and doughnuts." Also: "Aside from the additional cash and the new sales, I took away from the episode one of the most important lessons I've learned in business: When in doubt, go to your customers. They will tell you what they want and lead you to solutions you'd never come up with on your own. Indeed, just about every successful new initiative I've taken in business since then has come from listening to customers." Read more.
