A Living, Breathing Customer Database
Each week, I talk to business owners who dream of having a mature customer base that provides them with lots of repeat business. But when I ask them what they’re doing to make that dream a reality, too often they answer with something like:
“Well, the longer I’m in the industry, the more customers I work with and the more I’ll get repeat business and referrals.” When I hear that, I think to myself, “uh-oh!!!” Why? Because that is a very passive mindset that can cost you millions of dollars over the course of a business!
You see, as the months go by, your past customers just aren’t thinking about you anymore. That’s the cold, hard truth. And no matter how great your service was, your customers are busy living their lives – odds are, they won’t remember you. And they definitely won’t mention your name at the next family picnic when uncle Jack starts talking about the pains your product or service fixes.
Am I saying that good service won’t help you get a referral here and there? Of course not!
What I am saying is that if you want a strong customer base that is the backbone of your business, you must actively, systematically and methodically BUILD YOUR CUSTOMER BASE. To build your customer base, you must start with a Living, Breathing Customer Database.
Your customer database should be much more than the prospect and customer records in your spreadsheets or file cabinet. It should be more than your Outlook files or your contact management program. Your customer database should be all of this and more, combined into one, easy to-use computer program that stores all meaningful information about every contact, every prospect and every customer who can help you build your business.
So, what do I mean when I say you need a “living, breathing customer database?”
Well, you need to actively build your customer database – every day, every week, every month! All of your contact, prospect and customer data, order & billing info… everything needs to be entered and stored in the database. You need these people organized into meaningful groups. And you need the flexibility to sort through the database so that on a moment’s notice you can pull up prospects or customers that might bring you more business.
For example, you might want to pull up a list of all customers who did business with you where the sale was above $10,000. Or, you may want to look at all prospects you worked with over the last year who didn’t do business with you because of a specific reason. Your data can be sliced and diced in thousands of different ways to give you the names of prospects and customers who are likely to respond to a particular product or service you offer.
And when you combine a solid customer database with a keep-in-touch marketing campaign, you have the ability to land lots of new business in a short period of time. You can effortlessly run a customer loyalty campaign that keeps your name in front of customers… and keeps repeat business and referrals coming your way.
In short, you can cultivate a relationship with your customers and prospects that will cause them to bring you business when they (or their friends) are looking for your product or service.
If you put into practice this important marketing secret, your customer database will become your #1 asset, bringing you added business for weeks, months and years into the future.
