From the Desk of The President…
In order to be successful and maintain that level of confidence in business, we must go back to basics. Here are eight techniques that will keep our clients coming back again and again.
1. Provide personalized service: Technology has replaced and automated many of the things we do. Assistants and virtual assistants do extra tasks for us. It is awful easy to lose the personal interaction with our clients – we must not allow it to happen. Personal service always has been and always will be the heart and soul of our business.
2. We get by giving: How much demand are we placing on our clients? We must not expect a client to be loyal to us and our brand if we are always demanding from them and giving nothing. We must give to them first and set the stage for a great relationship. When we give enough, we ensure we get back what we need in our business and life.
3. We must make our client’s number one goal our number one goal: Ask them, What’s your number one goal in closing the deal? I ask because I want to make that my most important goal. Our show of concern for what our clients want will knock out the competition who are often focused on what they believe to be most important and don’t care enough to ask.
4. We must deliver more than we promise: Go beyond the call of duty. Today most people and businesses deliver less than they promise and we often accept that as standard practice. We must choose to be different. At the minimum, do everything we promise to do — then think of one thing more and do that as well. In doing so, we will stand head and shoulders above our competition.
5. We must prepare our clients for the worst, not the best: When we prepare them for the best our reputation has no where to go but down. At best, they see us just delivering on our promise — at worst they view us as incompetent. When things take less time or less money than they were prepared for, our clients will be pleasantly surprised and our reputation will grow positively.
6. Call often: Ring, ring. “Hello, Mr. Client? This is _____. I was just calling to thank you for being such a great client. Any new activity or changes in your lifestyle that I don’t know about? Any questions I can answer for you? No? Well okay, let’s stay in touch and thanks once again.” Two minutes out of our day and our clients will remember us as an agent who cares.
7. Listen often: When God created us, he gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Clients have complaints and they want to be heard. Who? What? When? Where? How? (you fill in the blank as it relates to your business) AND “What are you doing to help?” Answer: I know how you feel….. Quite often the ones complaining just want to be heard. If it stays bottled up inside them one day they will explode and we end up losing a client. We must let them vent and don’t defend what we do. Just ensure them that we are on their side.
8. After the sale, never lose touch: Statistically 89% of clients would use their same Agency for repeat business but only 11% actually do. Why? Because clients have short memories and lose touch with their agent. We must make it easy for them to call us by mailing a post card once a month, calling them twice a year, and seeing them once a year. This is where an automated system can save us time AND show our clients that we care enough to stay in touch.
If we implement each of these eight techniques, we’ll find success at our door every time.
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