Remembering to keep your customers

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Today I sent an invoice to one of my best customers. Yesterday she called in a product complaint I was never told about. So when she gets the bill tomorrow, she’ll be twice as angry.

I also had a customer tell me I promised him something three months ago when I’m fairly sure I didn’t. I accommodated his request because I couldn’t prove what we discussed and worried about the repercussions.

These two fictitious examples illustrate how human limitations in managing the customer conversation can result in lost or less profitable business. To help reduce this embarrassment, there are plenty of automated tools available to assist remembering and communicating these interactions.

If you’re still using a paper rolodex, converting to contact managers like Microsoft Outlook and ACT! is a great first step toward improving customer retention. A tool that allows you to document customer activities and provides a view of billing is ideal. ACT! can link to some accounting packages like QuickBooks and prevent the first scenario from occurring.

More sophisticated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.com and SugarCRM have enhanced forecasting and marketing campaign management capabilities. Solutions targeted toward a specific industry, such as Top Producer for real estate, can alleviate additional headaches unique to your business.

If you’d like to improve customer relationships and retention, just a few months invested in these tools can result in being able to manage the scenarios like this:

“Cindy, I want you to know you’ll be getting an invoice tomorrow. We apologize about the missing part and will have it overnighted to you. We’ll give you a call tomorrow to make sure everything’s working okay.”

“Jim, my notes from our conversation say that I’d match the sale price of our competitor through the remainder of June only. Additionally, their promotion ended in July. So there are a few reasons why I can’t give it to you for that price any longer. But I’d be glad to give you 20% off through the end of this month.”

Both conversations will help keep your customers “king” without sacrificing good business. Both are nearly impossible without service-oriented people and some automated help. Don’t wait to be embarrassed. Take advantage of these great retention tools and delight your customers with referral worthy service. Your memory may require digital assistance, but your service will keep customers like Cindy and Jim coming back for more.

Jeremy Klages is currently a northwest regional vice president for a healthcare software company.  His expertise includes previous executive marketing positions with several software companies and consulting experience from engaging Fortune 500, Nasdaq 100, and high-tech start-up companies through his own consultancy. He is a graduate of West Point and holds an MBA in Marketing from Arizona State University. He can be reached at klages@gmail.com.