Customer retention is essential to any organization’s desire for growth and even sustainability. As the old saying goes, “People do business with people they know, like, trust, and value.” Rarely are these attributes acquired instantly, however. Every relationship you have ever enjoyed was somehow established, built, and then maintained. These first two steps (establish and build) justifiably receive tremendous attention regarding customer relationships. “Maintaining” customer relationships, beyond merely providing an exceptional product or service, is the phase of the relationship that often becomes a bit nebulous, or worse, neglected altogether.
Whether it is a family relationship, a marriage, or business-related, the moment we take our most precious relationships for granted usually coincides with when we began to abandon the necessity of actively maintaining those relationships. The effort required to maintain relationships actively or intentionally can even be applied to inanimate objects. For example, routinely changing the oil in your car is an act of intentional maintenance. However, if you neglect to change the oil in your car, you begin to whittle away at the quality of your relationship with the vehicle, guaranteeing that it will slowly stop giving back to you. Why? Because you have ceased to maintain your relationship actively, intentionally, and purposely with the car. If you feed it, it will feed you back.
However, regarding your closest friendships, these three steps (establish, build, and maintain) usually occur organically with little conscious work or effort, even the maintenance phase. Would it not be wonderful if all our customer relationships evolved and maintained themselves as easily as great friendships? Yes. Nevertheless, client relationships usually require a bit more intentional effort.
Do Relationships Need to Be Hard Work?
How often have you heard that relationships take “work” or even “hard work?” We frequently hear this sentiment regarding marriage, family, and even business relationships. However, we rarely say this about our close friendships. Friendships do not seem to require much “work” at all. Though it may not feel like it, friendships do require “effort.” Planning that special birthday dinner, texting them a funny meme, or calling to say, “Hey, how are you holding up?” are all examples of “effort” in the maintenance phase of that friendship.
Why does “effort” feel so effortless in friendships or during the early days of a romantic relationship? Mutual desire. Friendships and budding coupledom usually involve both parties working simultaneously to ensure they are known, liked, trusted, and valued. In healthy relationships that make it to the maintenance phase, we subconsciously understand that the benefits we receive from these relationships must not be taken for granted, making the efforts to maintain the relationship’s excellence appear effortless. Perhaps with business relationships, we might take what we know subconsciously and purposely bring it into consciousness. By doing so, we can more easily avoid the relationship trap of assumed unconditional allegiance.
Work Vs. Effort
“Work,” according to the dictionary, is “a task or tasks to be undertaken; something a person or thing has to do.” A “task?” Something a person “has” to do? Ugh. Not fun! I can assure you that if I were to proceed to do this “work,” I would quickly begin to feel less engaged and productive in pursuit of the relationship. When we feel like we have to “work” at something like a relationship, it usually feels like a chore, a task, or, to put it bluntly, a job. This feeling of forced labor takes pleasure out of so many things in life, especially maintaining relationships.
Conversely, “effort” is defined as “a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end.” Now, this sounds like a much more positive approach. If we take “actions to advance toward a particular end,” it feels like we are doing something positive. “Effort” feels like a choice rather than a task thrust upon us. When we put effort into something, we are likely doing it because we want to, rather than because we must. In other words, if we change our language, i.e., from “working” on our relationships to putting “effort” into our relationships, it can directly impact how we perceive an action. See more on this idea in #1 of the tips section below.
5 Tips for Maintaining Your Customer Relationships
There is a litany of articles and podcasts on retaining customers from loyalty programs to automated email campaigns. I encourage you to investigate them as most of them offer an excellent nugget or two. However, the following are a few of the steps you can take from a more interpersonal perspective. And yes, with a little creative thinking, you can scale the following tips to meet the needs of more extensive networks.
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE — If you find your daily vernacular at work is filled with beginning phrases such as, “I have to,” “I need to,” “I ought to,” or “I should,” there is a likely chance that whatever completes the phrase feels like work. Sometimes it is a simple matter of changing our language. Example: Instead of “I have to go to the gym,” try, “I get to go to the gym.” It may seem too simple to be useful, but it has a hugely positive impact on the brain’s interpretation of a task. Try it!
USE THE CAMERA — Gone, for now, are the days of in-person meetings. Historically, these in-person meetings were an opportunity to build and maintain trust as humans. In these meetings, you could see their eyes, hands, and overall body and facial language, which helped us interpret their voice’s subtext. We were able to maintain trust more quickly because an array of natural communicators was available. On the phone, most of these are invisible, making it less effective. As awkward as it can be at first, the camera is truly the best tool we have at our ready to connect on a very human level. Set the expectations with your clients that you would like to use the camera for future meetings, and then explain to them why it is such a helpful tool for the sake of your ongoing relationship. Your customers will thank you, in one way or another, soon enough.
ASK, "HOW DO YOU WANT YOUR CUSTOMERS TO FEEL?" — Too often, we get on calls with customers knowing our desired outcome. Perhaps you want them to sign a new contract or purchase new features, for example. Unfortunately, fighting hard to achieve these wants can come across as desperate or pushy. However, if we remind ourselves that human emotions play a big part in our relationships, we might ask ourselves a different question before the call begins. As yourself, “How do I want them to feel?” Knowing how you want your customer to feel and then fighting to get them to feel this desired emotion changes your communication qualities, physically and vocally. Making this slight adjustment can completely change how your customer thinks about you – they may go from feeling like they are being “sold to,” to the feeling of being “cared for.” Note: Joy for your products and services is just as contagious as apathy.
PERSONLIZE THE PREVIOUS CALL — During the inevitable “small talk” that occurs on calls with customers, you are likely to learn something about your customer’s life. Perhaps, on a previous call, you discovered that Tammy, a significant client of yours, was about to go on a camping trip with their family, her son was about to graduate college, or, perhaps, she talked with you a bit about a book she was reading. When you learn personal information like this, write it down in your CRM, meeting notes, or the proverbial “little black book” because this intel is gold. For example, you might say, “Hey, Tammy, the last time we talked, you were about to head out on a camping trip with your family. How was it? Tell me about your experience!” By referencing these personal talking points, you can help your customer feel heard and noticed; you help your customer feel like a human being rather than just a conduit to your sales goals. This personal touch will make you look human, too.
CELEBRATE THE ROCK STARS! — Your primary contact, the person you talk to the most at the company you call “customer,” may not be the top decision-maker. However, they may be your greatest ally in the quest to maintaining the relationship. If your primary contact is a pleasure to work with, has opened metaphorical doors for you, or is generally an all-around rock star, acknowledge their greatness to them directly. Even better, when you get to talk to others in the company, especially the decision-makers, be sure to share your praise of the rock star with them, as well. Extending compliments about people on their team will, in turn, make you appear more humanistic and likable. It is a win/win, for sure. In other words, spread praise and appreciation by intentionally making others feel good.
In Closing
The challenges of establishing and building relationships are tangible. However, when a customer becomes locked-in, as it were, it is, unfortunately, too easy to abandon them, falsely relying on the terms of a contract or the assumption that they will be around forever. Instead, if we make an effort to maintain our relationships, we will likely find them to be far more fruitful. In other words, to retain customers, we must actively and intentionally maintain our customer relationships. If we think of our customer relationships as being as precious to us as our personal relationships, we can then begin to maintain them from a human perspective. The more personal efforts you can bring into your customer relationships, the more likely they will be doing business with YOU, rather than just your product or service. This simple twist from business to personal can extend the lifeline of your relationships with your customers. This extra “effort” has an ROI far beyond money – you get to experience genuine pride for helping your customer thrive.
David Marcotte, Head Coach of Marcotte Coaching, is a communication skills development specialist for corporate professionals. For nearly 20 years, through various topics such as presentation skills, storytelling, emotional intelligence, leadership, and team building, David has developed online and in-person learning to help professionals of all levels bridge the gap between oneself and others.
To book live, online soft skills classes with David Marcotte – visit the Complete Professional page of the Marcotte Coaching website. To read David’s other blogs and learn more ways Marcotte Coaching can help your organization thrive, visit us at www.marcottecoaching.com.
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