Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
The Importance of Continuing to Build Relationships With Your Existing Customers with Tasha White
Welcome to small business talk today. My guest is Tasha White who has been in business for over 12 years, and worked her way up to be a manager.
The Importance of Continuing to Build Relationships With Your Existing Customers To Strengthen Your Business.
Today’s topic is the importance of continuing to build relationships with your current customers to strengthen your business.
“I think in business, it's something that we are so driven to finding new customers that we mustn't forget about the customers that we have and how important they are and how we can keep them loyal, in our businesses, as well.”
Show Notes
Background
Tasha White is a Nutrimetics Independent Business Owner who has been in a direct selling business for over 12 years. Tasha started doing it on the side, on the weekends while she had a full-time job to get a bit of pocket money to pay off her first mortgage. After a couple of months of doing it, Tasha fell in love with what she was doing, meeting new people and within 6 six months had qualified into the managers program. Within 12 months she was able to leave her job and concentrate solely on her business. Fast forward 12 years Tasha is still an Executive Sales Manager with Nutrimetics and is still loving running her own business and meeting so many beautiful new people and looking after those she has met along the way.
Nutrimetics has been in Australia for over 50 years, it’s a very reputable household brand with beautiful products that Tasha loves and is able to go into people’s homes to share the products with women and men; and make them feel better about themselves.
Direct Selling Businesses
The advantage of a direct selling business is you can start slowly where you’ve got that backup of your current income while you work your business and then once you’ve got a good income coming in, then you are able to transition out of that part-time or full-time work that you were doing before you started your business.
With Nutrimetics direct selling business model, you have a choice; you can choose the amount of hours you work. You can choose to work minimal hours to earn a little bit of extra pocket money, or you can put in extra hours and chose to build a business. Having that flexibility of choice is what attracted Tasha to the business model and that’s what she loves sharing with other people.
Treat Your Existing Customers the Right Way
Having been in business for over 12 years Tasha knows how to treat her customers the right way and here are some of her tips.
- Treat Your Customers With Respect
- Provide an Obligation Free Service
- Build Relationships
“It is important that we treat our customers with respect and also provide an obligation-free service. That we actually provide service to people, but don't expect anything return. I find even though I work in sales, I don't think of myself as being a salesperson, I think it's about building a relationship.”
By showing people your products and offering them a service and expecting nothing in return you will find that people will want to buy from you. You will get more long term customers and when you give them really great service that they’ll keep coming back, time and time again, that’s so invaluable.
Build Customer Relationships
People love a bargain and there are so many great offers out there these days; we are competing with online and big department stores that are offering really amazing prices. However, at the end of the day, they’ll come back where they know they are loved and where they know they’ll get great service and it’s an experience. They are not just a customer in and out the door, they know that you’ve got a personal relationship with them and that you’re going to give them trustworthy advice and that you are not there just to sell to them.
Adding value and demonstrating your products to your customers can add value and really create that experience they are looking for. For example Nutrimetics Pampers Parties where we are actually showing people how to apply makeup, and show them techniques and colours that suit their skin.
“It’s such an amazing rewarding thing. You may meet a lady who has never looked after her skin because she just doesn’t know how. To educate and empower her on how to do that, and for her to go home feeling better about herself is just a really invaluable service that we can offer.” Tasha said
It really is just about offering that service, educating, empowering people while expecting nothing in return, but what you will getting returned from that is sales.
Ways to Strengthen Customer Relationships
Other things we can do to strengthen customer relationships to keep your customers are using Facebook and social media. Social media is such a powerful tool in maintaining customer relationships.
You meet a customer, it’s making sure that when you do that sale with them, that’s not the end of the relationship.
How can you keep building that relationship?
- Do you have a Facebook page that they can become a friend of? This is where you can keep them updated with tips or offers.
- Depending what business, you are in, do you have a loyalty program that they can join
- A brochure that you can send out to them.
Basically, once you’ve made that point of sale, thinking about how you can continue the relationship and how that can continue to build, so that they stay within your pool of people. Keeping top of mind is important and then when they want to add to their collection, the product that you offer or service that you provide they will know exactly where to come.
There are so many ways that we can connect and stay connected with people now. Social media, is a very fast way to help your customers, when you are talking to somebody about a particular problem, no doubt, other customers have got that same problem so you can jump on to a quick Facebook /Instagram live or do video, and solve the problem for them and now you have content to share as well.
Stay Up to Date and Relevant
Keeping your customers up-to-date with what’s relevant with your products and services. It is also important to check back in with your customers to see how they are experiencing what they have bought from you and how it is going for them.
The worst thing in the world would be for a customer to buy your product or service and not use it; that doesn’t help anyone. Sometimes it might be an education piece and they weren’t sure if they were using the right amount or if it should be making their skin feel like that. By having a courtesy follow-up service can really help enhance your customers experience.
How to Follow Up Your Customer
It is all in the wording about how you follow up. If we ring Mary after she has bought something off us and say, Mary, I’m ringing to see how your products are going. Do you want to buy more? That’s not the point of it.
The point is touching base, this is a follow up call to see how your products are going. If you’ve got any questions, please let me know?
The Importance of Continuing to Build Relationships With Your Existing Customers To Strengthen Your Business.
Listen to the importance of continuing to build relationships with your existing customers to strengthen your business episode 020 of the Small Business Talk podcast for the rest of Tasha White’s tips.
