Repeat your business with customers – 2

Keeping existing customers – and winning repeat business – is much cheaper than finding new clients. But how can we build up relationships with existing customers, and can technology help?

With day-to-day pressures on the small to micro-sized company, time restraints and lack of resources can often mean we don’t spend as much time as we would ideally like with each customer. Expedient as it may be to cope with a heavy workload, there remains that nagging feeling about going that extra mile. For time spent getting a fuller understanding of what customers are planning to do with the product they have just bought, can bring dividends.

Getting caught up in the thrill of the chase and closing the deal, though, can obscure the fact that there are other things that we are planning to do strategically. Often companies selling a range of products deliberately use one product to get an account and then use this as a peg upon which to hang their other products and services. 

Developing and maintaining customer relations, then, is important, especially if our company operates in a marketplace where there is a lot of competition. Today, technology is - one way or another - the foundation of customer relationship management. How we use technology, and which forms of it, are dependent on a number of factors including our customer profile and products or services we provide.

Underlying this debate is the cost of the technology and the business benefits it will bring. Taking little steps rather than giant strides is frequently seen as the safest way to avoid costly mistakes. Getting the right tools and the right mix of technology is something on which we usually need advice. But do get independent advice, there are too many salespeople around with targets to meet who won’t think twice about lumbering us with an expensive and inappropriate solution.

Looking from scratch at this issue of technology over business benefit, what would most small to micro-sized companies be interested to help generate repeat business?

Among the key components these days are:

• some level of web presence
• online trading and/or e-business
• integrated and computerised customer files
• and the ability to communicate with, and access remotely information from, the office while out in the field.

These today are vital planks in supporting customers, providing customer service and helping to generate repeat business. They should be regarded as tools, not a solution in themselves. For, when all is said and done, the clincher for small to micro-sized companies is normally not the gee-whiz technology, but the saying and doing; the personal touch they can provide so much better than larger and relatively faceless rivals can.

By pulling a sharper focus on renewals, we are doing two things: establishing customer rapport, fostering good account management and taking the opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell to the customer. We may also be affecting, however, our balance between new and old business. This is a crucial issue and one that needs to be addressed by a constantly evolving business plan and strategy that ensures bread and butter renewals are neither neglected, nor secured at the expense of winning new business.