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How about what your customers think of you? Have they told you lately that they love you? Have you asked them? Many times business owners think that the customer they are serving, and have been serving for the past two years, is going to be the same one they will serve this year. As my uncle G.R. used to say with tobacco juice dripping down his chin, “That ain’t gonna happen”, (Thank me later for the visual). The wolves are knocking on your customer’s door and one day your customers are going to let them in.

I know. The whole scenario sounds hokey and will work fine for you if you had all the time in the world. But, striving for CRM (Customer Relationship Management), not perfection, is the key here. In your busy world, there is barely time to just take care of the basics of running a business. The luxury of finding out about a client and his or her needs is just too complex and time consuming. Well, hopefully we can cut to the heart of the matter and simplify the process in just a few steps.

The following is just an outline of some basic steps to begin taking to create a more manageable CRM program. Incorporate these slowly over time and watch your customer loyalty grow.

Step One:

Create a plan outlining how you will go about communicating with each and every customer that walks through your door or contacts you by any other means. This plan should include an instrument to allow the customer to evaluate you and your company. The two-way communication need not consume your productivity time. The time allotted for CRM should be no more than 3% or your day. (15 minutes more or less for most people). Your tools should include:

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• Customer feedback forms
• Contact information so customers can reach you personally located somewhere on your invoice and/or Website
• Follow-up schedule to respond to feedback
• Schedule to notify customers of specials such as inventory overruns, customer loyalty day (some companies serve hamburgers and hotdogs and free drinks on that day), and even birthday and holiday celebrations.

Step Two:

Look at each customer as a customer for life. Regardless of the order or the size of the customer’s business, treat them like they are your best and biggest. This takes some time, but once you formulate a plan and your own process in developing these customers, it will get easier.