Make Your Customers Love You
While web hosting might seem like the most impersonal service business any individual or organization can undertake, the truth is customers don’t pay just to get their web site hosted on your server. They pay for much more than that. As a web host starting out in the business, there are a few ideas you can use to spark your relationships with customers, get them to talk about you, and accomplishing all of this while earning more and growing your company. Interested? Let’s get it on!
Idea #1: Pick up the phone and call your customers.
In a time where just about every business process is automated, it seems that we have forgotten the importance of something as simple as sending a personal greeting to those we do business with. How much is a customer worth to your business? What can you do to instantly build a stronger relationship with them? How much does a phone call cost?
The next time you receive a web hosting order from a customer, give them a call and personally thank them for choosing your service. Provide them with a brief synopsis of what support tools are available, and what they can do to better enjoy their web hosting service. And lastly, instil a certain level of confidence in them by the time you hang up the phone by professing your commitment to customer service, and reminding them that they can contact you for support whenever they need to.
And what do you get out of this special gesture? For one thing, it is totally unexpected and comes off as a unique and personal approach, communicating just how much you care for your customers. Now how much value does that add to the relationship?
Idea #2: Remember the most important day of all.
We all celebrate special occasions in our lives including birthdays, anniversaries, and special holidays. Are you taking the time to get in touch with your customers and showing them you care about them whenever these special occasions occur? Do you send out cards and letters regularly?
Try this – remember the date they ordered from you, and celebrate it as an anniversary of your business relationship together. Similar to a wedding anniversary, the day your customer chooses you as their web host and gives you the opportunity to earn their business is a day that should be remembered. After one year, send your customer a special gift, a one year anniversary present, and profess your absolute appreciation for their business. Remember, they’ve given you one year of web hosting revenue. If you want that relationship to remain strong, and if you want to earn more revenue, don’t ever forget their anniversary!
But remember, that’s just one day of the year. If you really want to impress your customers and keep them thinking, and talking, about you, you’ve got to do a lot more than that. Send them special cards and letters for celebrated holidays and occasions! If you consider the cost, it is a very small investment to make to completely earn and build a much stronger relationship with your customers. Show them you care so much about their business, and who knows, perhaps they’ll start talking about you to their friends.
Idea #3: Give your customers special offers and discounts.
And this isn’t about your own special offers and discounts, but offers from your partner companies. Use the relationship you have with your customers as a way of introducing them to other products and services they might find useful. If you do this, keep the offers relevant, customize it to suit your customers, and don’t make it come off as SPAM! Offer them solutions to problems, and make it somehow connected to your own web hosting service.
Do your customers need mailing list management software? How about adware/spyware removal? Could they benefit from a newly designed web site, or special shopping cart software? How about a discount on merchant account services? Tailor special offers to your customers and use it as a way to keep in regular contact with them. Not only does it keep you in their minds, but it also shows that you genuinely understand their needs. Doing this positions you as their solutions provider, and it will allow you to build strong alliances with companies that will provide you with the solutions to offer your customers.
Idea #4: Write an amazing newsletter. Deliver it regularly.
Newsletters have always been used as a tool for businesses to keep in close contact with their customers. The problem is that many are failing to use it for its true potential. Writing boring articles, giving regurgitated advice and offering a bland collection of material to read does not count. Make a newsletter that is engaging, something your customers will look forward to every week or every month, and add a touch of your company’s personality in it!
Why should you spend time to write a newsletter? Well, considering the fact that you want to build a stronger relationship with your customers, it is yet another way for you to keep in touch with them. (Hint: combine idea #3 with your newsletter and you’ve already got a much more valuable newsletter.) There are so many issues that are relevant and addressable that capitalizing on it can reap a lot of profit.
If you’re not an avid writer, hire a freelance writer who will produce amazing material for you. Remember, newsletters aren’t boring articles slapped together and mass e-mailed just as a way of telling your customers you still exist. It should be something they will actually take the time to read, and hopefully forward to the rest of their friends. This creates a lot of exposure for you, and it keeps you in their mind which is the most important thing of all.
Idea #5: Give away promotional stuff!
Who are the best advocates of your brand and your business? Your customers, of course! So once you’ve shown them your love and appreciation, get them to promote your business. How? Invest in promotional items. Find a company that specializes in promotional items such as customized hats, t-shirts, coffee mugs, magnets, calendars, etc., and start branding! Give them away to your customers and let them promote your business. If your customers really love you, and if they love your brand, they will proudly wear the promotional items you give them.
How much is it worth to your company to have one of your customers walking around in a branded t-shirt, bearing your company’s name? Or perhaps taking a branded coffee mug to the office? Giving away promotional items to customers who love you is one of the best ways to generate attention and to create interest in your company. Remember, your prospective customers can come from many places, but a word-of-mouth referral from an existing customer usually spurs the most loyalty and confidence in new customers. So invest some of your hard earned money in promotional stuff!
Remember, love should be genuine!
There is no better feeling than hearing firsthand from a customer just how happy they are that they chose your company to do business with. It’s an amazing rush. This is one of the rewards of being an amazing web host and genuinely appreciating the business that your customers bring to you. With this in mind, love should be genuine, and everything you do to build stronger relationships with your customers should have nothing but their best interests in mind. Only when you truly want to see your customers happy will you be able to deliver unparalleled service, and reap much deserved success with your web hosting business!
Copyright © 2004 Johnder Perez
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