Develop a plan to connect your business with customers

Published 7:00 pm Sunday, April 15, 2012

Within almost every successful business is a well-developed plan for connecting to the customer. This relationship helps build trust between your company and your customers. More often than not, with trust comes more revenue. So how do you establish trust?

Create a product or service that both you and your customers love, market that product and make sure your customer service is second-to-none. These are the key factors in developing a compatible relationship on a monetary and emotional level.

You might not know how to effectively market a product until after you have created it. It’s necessary to develop a marketing plan when you come up with the product, but sometimes that great marketing idea doesn’t hit until after your product has been created. A concrete, yet transparent, marketing plan for both online and store initiatives can generate ideas needed to help customers understand your product and its uniqueness.

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If your company operates storefronts, brochures are your best friend. Creating brochures has a subtly artistic quality to it. You can’t overload brochures with information, but you don’t want them to be devoid of content, either. The perfect custom brochure should have a fair balance of text, imagery and white space. Both text and images should relate to educating the customer about your company.

Whether you’re strictly an online company, or you also have a bricks-and-mortar store, a well-developed website can be the place where your customer decides to use your services. Using a free website builder with plenty of custom templates to choose from will give you a sharp-looking website. Make sure to choose a website builder that allows you to expand as your company grows, with the ability to add photos, video and a blog to connect with your customers. The main website rule: Keep it informative, yet enticing.

Belief in your product turns to confidence, and confidence (if harnessed the right way), can morph into business growth. When you understand why you’re the best, it makes marketing that much easier. If you’re stuck at a juncture with a winning product, but no idea how to discuss it, invest some time in breaking down the attributes that set your product apart from the competition, and how it can improve your customers’ lives. Those attributes can serve as the centerpiece of your marketing message.

The last connection is a thoughtful customer service portal, which will assure your customers that you are always working hard to improve your products and services.

Having a dedicated customer service team that can be reached via email, chat, social media and phone can greatly improve customer relationships and show your transparency. Keep your doors open for customer input and feedback to show that you care about each customer. Give them individual attention, and trust will grow.

Whether your company is big or small, new or old, establishing a customer connection should always be a top priority. In the end, it comes down to making money. When you generate revenue through a terrific product, a stable marketing plan and a deep understanding of your customers, everyone wins.