Keeping tabs on your best customers is a chore. Most companies are so busy servicing their best customers, they forget that it takes more than just great service to "keep them close."

We might review your current communications programs.
How many times do you contact your customer (excluding invoicing)?

Does your sales force or customer service personnel spend any quantity time with the top performing customers?

Do you send them a turkey at Thanksgiving and hope for the best?

Is there an occasional lunch, or a corporate golf outing?

Well, they may love the turkey (I love mine), but something else has to happen to get their attention when it's needed most.

For the Associates Commercial Corporation it was a double task. Their best customers were growing, but they were not turning follow-up calls fast enough at the sales office level to get to them before they went to the competition. They were actually losing business...from their very best customers.

We designed a communications program which we called ACCESS800 (it was back in the days when 800 numbers were a pretty popular way to say "we'll pay for the call."

Each "top rated" customer received a deluxe package that contained a "member card" that displayed the 800 number, a rolodex card to put in their rolodex (this was long before e-mail, kids), a newsletter that introduced the program and a letter of commitment from the chairman himself.

The letter contained a promise direct from the man himself. "If you call our office using the ACCESS800 number, we will return your call within ten minutes" or the chairman will follow-up on the call himself."

We answered all the calls at our call center. Calls were first routed to the branch office in search of the Branch Manager. If he was not in, our operators disconnected and searched for his Regional Supervisor. If he was not available, we searched for the Division VP. If he didn't rise to the occasion, we made the call to the President, and ultimately the Chairman's desk.

Needless to say, we never had to reach beyond the Regional VP.

The program also produced a detailed reporting system that tracked every call, and the follow-up that took place.
It was a bit "big brother" but it got the job done.

Keeping your customers closer can be as easy as developing a newsletter. It may be as complex as annual conferences that invite the top performers to join with your top executives in a discussion of the industry.

If you feel the need to draw your best customers a little closer to your side of the decision making process, it's time to start looking at the possibilities.

If you haven't thought of it. You probably should!
Take us up on our FREE One-on-One coaching session. We may be just what you need to make things happen.

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