Business Building Creates Customers

For effective business building you need to invest in your clientele.  Building relationships with people and investing in them is what gives a good business great customer service.

SCORE has made available 5 top tips for building customer relationships.

1.    Approach your customers with courtesy, but remember they need efficiency and an effective product or service as well; that’s why they’ve come to you.  Being friendly alone will not get you repeat customers.

2.    When at all possible, meet with your customers face to face. Putting a face with a name can help the customer connect a human being with a business deal.

3.    Thank customers for referrals. A thank you is a great incentive for more referrals and repeat business.

4.    Go the extra mile. If you’ve misplaced something, left out a detail or inconvenienced a customer in some way, it pays to make the extra effort by offering a discount or freebie.

5.    Don’t lose the human touch. If a majority of your business is done on the web or over the phone, you will have to go out of your way to make sure the customer feels valued.

Building relationships with customers is a major investment in the future of your business.  It doesn’t necessarily take a lot of extra time or money, but the return on that investment is priceless.