Regardless how well we plan, sometimes our workload just takes over and, before we know it, we’ve missed a communication deadline (again).
If you don’t have a communication plan in place at all then you’re even less likely to connect with your customers regularly and that spells danger for loss of business. I recently met with a leading edge Australian manufacturer and the Managing Director bemoaned the fact that they grossly under-communicated with customers during a period of major growth for them in 2010; their bank balance is proving the theory. The positive thing is: he’s owning the issue and now making a concerted effort to reconnect and rebuild those rewarding relationships with their customers. Moral of the story? It happens to even the biggest and best of them!
So, when the going gets busy, the Busy get going! Here are 5 tips for delivering consistent communications to your customers, which fosters ongoing relationship and income.
1. Plan to communicate. Every business needs to connect with customers frequently. When you establish a communication plan, it makes it easy for your team to follow the schedule. A communication plan should be generated at the same time as your business and marketing plan; it’s just as crucial to your business success.
2. Communicate the plan. Share the plan with your team. Ideally, engage them during the planning phase so that they feel a sense of ownership over this activity. Customer communication should be a whole-of-organisation duty if it’s to be truly effective.
3. Share the load. Allocate duties to each team member and set KPIs so that there is a purpose for each activity; people need to know that their work will count for something. This also demonstrates the value of your communication efforts at an organisational level and fosters personal ownership of the customer relationship-building role.
4. Use automation. Online communication systems now allow you to draft your e-newsletters or emails and queue them up ahead of time. You don’t have to be there to hit the send button. Block out some time periodically to create your communications then queue them up to roll out regardless how busy you are at the time. You can also track results such as open rates, click-throughs, bounces and unsubscribes. You can see how many times someone visited a linked page on your website, who they forwarded the e-newsletter or email onto and what they wrote to that person when they did! All of this is invaluable data that can help you plan future promotions and give you a reason to connect with your customers.
If delivering customer communication on a frequent basis appears arduous, it needn’t be: plan ahead, share the load and automate as much as possible. Finally, monitor results and use that information to improve and streamline your future communication efforts.
Clarity Press provides writing, editing, proofreading and publishing services to all sized businesses in most industries. Enquiries to Managing Director Gina Gray on 0431 850 754. www.claritypress.com.au
© Gina Gray, Managing Director, Clarity Press
