The Importance of Customer Follow Up

Well now you have a product or service, you have customers, now what about your “follow up”.

There are many suggestions out there as to how often or when you should follow up with customers. But they all mention the same thing: “make it personal”. It would be great if you could call 1/3 of your customers every month, but if you have a thousand or even hundreds of customers, that isn’t real likely.

I would suggest cutting your customer list into thirds or quarters. Then each month you send some type of “personal message”, NOT a solicitation, but a message that lets them know you were thinking of them (you could make it seasonal, or around a national holiday or any other creative reason). Sign it and make sure they have a way to contact you. Rotate this message to a different third or quarter of your customers each month. This does NOT take the place of a “thank you” card after a sale.

Secondly, take your top customers in each group and give them a call. Let them know if you are running a “special” or have a “new product”. NEVER pressure them to buy, just let them know they are one of your top customers and you wanted them to find out personally about this great “special” or “new product”.

Then track all your repeat and referral business. I can almost guarantee that you will see it increase. In these struggling economic times, people are going to be very choosy as to what and with whom they spend their money with, let that person be “YOU”!

So do you have a “follow up” system for your clients and if so, what is it and how do you track its success?