Wholesale distribution is a huge marketplace, with little to differentiate the products each player offers. The way you treat your customers is the one thing you can control and is likely one of the bigger factors that keeps them coming back. It can also be very beneficial to your own strategy if you understand how your competitors are treating their own customers.
Let’s have a look at how you can improve your customer relationship strategy:
- Please:
Personalized discounts have been shown to be far more effective in getting people to make a purchase. eCommerce vendors can find it difficult to create a personal rapport with customers given the lack of direct contact; so take every chance you get to connect with your customers and make sure they’re pleased. Create personalized email marketing campaigns that address the customer individually. If your customer’s company is celebrating something, like a decade in business or a major new business deal, send them a card, a special discount, or both! - Communicate:
You may have heard this before, but relationships are built on trust. To keep your customers committed to the relationship, they should be confident that you have their best interests in mind. Respond to inquiries and resolve any issues as soon as possible. A good approach is to be available across multiple channels, phone, email, and social media to ensure that you can be easily reached. If you give a deadline, listening and resolving issues within that time frame shows that your organization can be trusted. - Measure Success:
There are other ways to measure success aside from customer satisfaction surveys. Use data to get additional insights. Is the number of customer service calls reducing? Are more people interacting on your social media channels? If your strategy is working, keep doing it. If it isn’t, change it. - Focus:
Too often the emphasis is on acquiring first time customers rather than retaining the ones you already have. Today’s new customer is tomorrow’s old customer and if they’re not getting the attention they deserve, they WILL switch to a competitor quite easily. Most studies show that getting new customers is far more expensive that retaining old ones, so a strategy that assigns a lower priority to existing customers is a losing strategy. This is particularly true in the case of B2B enterprises where the customer base is usually small and takes a longer time for the relationship to mature. Give long-time customers higher priority in discounts and problem resolution. - Community:
Think of your customers as part of your family. Tell them about what’s happening at your company and get them involved. Keep your customers connected by organizing events like product showcases, trainings, and workshops. Make sure they are familiar with your representatives and interact with them. The more a customer feels comfortable with you, the more likely they will stay with your brand.
Managing customer relationships isn’t just about delivering the product on time and in shape, it’s about making the customer feel secure in trusting your organization to delivering great service alongside the products. Prove to your customers that they never have to worry when it comes to choosing you.