Have you ever been speaking with a customer and everything’s been going really well, but just when you think you’re about to close the deal, they back out? It’s a frustrating scenario, and unfortunately it happens all the time.
By putting a proper CRM strategy in place, however, you can help cut down on the number of times this sort of thing happens.The seven CRM tactics listed below will not only impress your customers, but they will also help grow your business.
1. Find Out If You’re Annoying Your Customers
Sometimes petty and trivial things can build up and cause nasty emotions to explode. For example, checking out and making a purchase could take too long. Another common annoyance is when lead generation forms require too much information.
In both circumstances, your customers could become uncomfortable or (worse) deeply annoyed. Many of these customers won’t share their concerns with you, and will instead complain about them to their friends.
Don’t let this happen. Do your research and learn to identify the little things that have annoyed your customers so you can address those concerns.
2. Go Beyond Social and Start a Conversation
If your business is on Twitter, make sure you’re using it correctly. It’s all well and good to send out your own tweets to your followers, but in order to truly engage your customers, you need to practice some good CRM techniques and start interacting with them.
An effective way to do this is by attending and participating in Twitter chats. You can look for pre-scheduled chat sessions to join in.
You can also search for terms relevant to your business using a free program like HootSuite or Tweetdeck. Once you’ve observed a chat stream for a while, you’ll be able to figure out how to jump into the conversation and provide value for others. The more often you chat in these streams, the more likely other Twitter users will be receptive to your business promotion and discussion.
3. Empower Your Team To Create Loyal Customers
It may sound like a good idea to tell your team to do whatever it takes to please a customer, but that’s so vague it’s meaningless.
Instead of offering vague platitudes, develop and maintain a framework that empowers your team. Rob Markey believes that such a framework is composed of three steps:
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Clearly define success
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Give clear guidelines
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Offer fast and frequent feedback
When you develop this kind of framework, your team will be able to handle just about anything that gets thrown at them.
4. Answer All Of Your Customers’ Questions, Even The Tough Ones
If a customer asked you a question about why you’re more expensive than your competitor, would you try to deflect the question? You shouldn’t. If you can stand your ground and honestly explain why your business is the best and how it brings value, you’re more likely to create loyal customers.
The point of answering your customers’ questions - and answering all of the relevant ones - is to prove that you’re the expert they’re looking for. If you want to smoothly handle your customer’s questions, Steve W. Martin offers seven helpful steps:
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Repeat and clarify the question to make sure you understand it
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Show your expertise
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Make sure people understand what you’re talking about
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Provide the point of view that only you, as an expert, can provide
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Redirect unfair or pointless questions
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Use metaphors, people find them easier to understand
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It’s not only what you say, but how you say it that matters
Following these will help position you as the expert, and will make the hard questions easier to deal with.
5. Don’t Hire @$$holes
Success in sales depends on three things: the right skills, the right personality, and the right innate qualities. Too many businesses hire based only on the first factor, the skills. You can have mad skills and be annoying or troublesome - no one wants that.
Instead of basing your hiring decisions only on skill, look for the person with the right personality or someone who possesses the 3 T's. If you can find the right match for both of those categories, you can train them to ensure they have the necessary skills.
6. Make A Good First Impression
Whether you like it or not, customers will make up their minds about you within a matter of seconds. It’s up to you to learn how to make a good first impression if you hope to retain and create loyal customers.
If you want to make a good first impression, you need to
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Make sure you are full of positive energy
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Offer a pleasant and enthusiastic greeting
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Be practiced while sounding sincere
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Be prepared to change something if you find what you’re doing isn’t working
7. Openly Display Your Money Back Guarantee
There’s no downside to offering a money back guarantee, it’s a time tested customer pleasing practice. People simply love having the security of a money back guarantee or warranty. It shows you’re willing to stand behind your work and that you understand your customers and their possible concerns.
Showing a warranty or guarantee seal also leads to higher conversion rates. For example, KoolDoc increased conversion by 75% when they redesigned their landing page and included security badges and a money back guarantee symbol.
If satisfied customers tell three friends, angry customers tell 3,000. You definitely want to be working on closing those three new leads instead of dealing with 3,000 problems. If you invest time and energy to make sure you get these CRM tactics right, it will ultimately benefit your company.
What are your thoughts on these techniques? Are there any we missed that you’ve seen work even better?