Initiate contact before the holidays
In anticipation of a holiday, you can arrange meetings beforehand. This establishes dedicated time slots for significant talks, showing your customers that you're committed to maintaining the relationship into the next year, regardless of seasonal breaks.
Touch base when you return
When you come back from a holiday or vacation, it's essential to reconnect with your clients promptly. Show them that you've considered their needs even during your time off. Respond swiftly to their emails and prioritise proactive communication as soon as you're back in the office.
Review your business relationship
When rekindling a relationship with your clients, you should consider revisiting your past interactions and mutual achievements. This reflection will help your clients perceive how your partnership has propelled their success, fostering their confidence in continuing the collaboration in the upcoming year.
Seek their feedback
Please make a point of asking your customers about their perceptions of the business relationship over time. This feedback will give you valuable insights into their preferences, suggestions for improvement, and prospective changes they'd like to implement, enabling you to maintain a successful and fruitful collaboration.
Understand their priorities
Please familiarise yourself with their marketing strategies, sales initiatives, event schedules, product launches, and business roadmaps. I want you to know that aligning your plans with their key priorities will allow you to cater to their needs and show your proactive approach.
If a customer plans an event or a new initiative, please contact them at least six months in advance. By coordinating your business interactions around their calendar, you'll remain relevant and indispensable to their annual plans.
Familiarise with their plans
You can talk with your contacts to understand your customer's prioritisations and plans for the next two quarters. You must know why particular roles are essential,l and the decision-makers behind these hires will show their key priorities and resource allocation. With this knowledge, you can align your actions accordingly, enhancing your customer's subsequent business interactions.
By discussing innovative strategies for the new year, rather than simply revisiting existing needs, you'll solidify your status as a forward-thinking business partner. Please apply the same principles when dealing with prospective clients, ensuring you remain engaged and proactive.
Re-engaging with prospective customers
Prospective customers' concerns at the year's end or after the summer often dissipate by the previous quarter or the first quarter of the new year. Capitalise on this opportunity by positioning yourself as a potential collaborator and expert in their planning process. Avoid overwhelming prospects during the year-end, but enquire about their challenges as they transition from Q2 to Q3. It'd be important to avoid intruding during their budgeting process; such timing would be ill-advised. Instead, follow up in the first quarter of the new year.
Having demonstrated restraint at the year's end and proactive engagement in the first quarter, you're ideally positioned to provide solutions that could prevent a recurrence of their previous challenges. This approach will make it more difficult for competitors to usurp your offerings since you've already established yourself as a proactive, trustworthy component of the prospective client's decision-making process.
Understanding your potential customer's key initiatives for the year can make sure you are a reliable partner and supplier. These tips come in handy as you get back in touch with contacts and customers who have dropped off your radar.
This is one aspect of customer satisfaction, but there's plenty more to consider when keeping your most active customers happy and measuring their happiness over time. To expand your knowledge in this area, just look at our in-depth guide to customer satisfaction, and get our free ebook on the same topic below.
