Customer Service/Hospitality
Program Titles
- Compassion in the Workplace
- Profitable Telephone Selling Techniques
- Account Management and Development Techniques
- Mastering Selling Challenges
- Customer Service: It’s a Strategy, Not a Transaction
- Delighting the Customer: Beyond Customer
Linda Fracassi,
Direct mail.
Update Mailing List: To ensure our mailings get to the right person, we update both lists at least once each year.
We call both clients and prospects and requalify them. We ask five basic questions:
* Is the prospect/client still involved in customer service/telemarketing?
* If they are not, what their responsibilities are, and ask for the name of their replacement.
* Update titles, telephone numbers and mailing addresses.
* Contact the replacement and seek their permission and approval to be placed on the mailing list.
* Ask if there is anyone else who should be on the mailing list.
The last time we called all our clients and prospects, we decided to recall all of them by a certain date again, because we were featuring our new course “Delighting the Customer: Beyond Customer Service.”
Imagine our SHOCK to discover that we experienced 30% turnover in our client list and 60% turnover rate in our prospect list from the first call and the last call!
Recognize there really are two distinct customers for every single customer you now have. Namely,
1) the individual person who bought from you, and
2) his company. When the individual moves to another firm, you have another prospect; when the departing contact’s position is filled, you have another customer.
Seven-Part Strategy: Here are 7 strategies for developing and growing your prospect list.
1. Decide on the frequency of your contact. Because of the nature of what we sell, we decided a yearly update was appropriate.
2. Pick an appropriate time of the year to call. Our intention is to call during the month of February. Sometimes we are not always able to complete it in the month and the calling continues into March.
We selected February for two reasons: we do not traditionally have many training sessions booked, so we have the time. We also feel the “hoopla of the holidays” and end of the year crunching is over and people welcome a familiar voice.
3. Decide on your call objective. We state ours right up front. “Hello________, this is Linda Fracassi and this is my annual ‘how are you doing?’ call. I’m checking in to find out what you are doing and how it’s going these days.”
4. Next, listen to what the person has to say and respond accordingly.
5. Ask for referrals, i.e., “John, is there anyone else that should be on our mailing list?”
6. Obtain permission to contact the new prospect before adding his name to your list and ask the referring prospect if it’s okay to do so, ie, “John, is it okay if I call Carolyn beforehand to let her know that mail will be sent to her attention?”
7. Call the referral and introduce yourself. Next, mention the referring party and obtain the new prospect’s permission to receive the mailing, ie, “Carolyn, this is Linda Fracassi.
John mentioned your name in answer to the question, ‘Should anyone else from your company be on our mailing list?’ I wanted to call and make sure it was all right with you.”
Then watch how your repeat and referral business grows as frequent contacts to renew business relationships develop into more active referrals for you.
Summation: Systematically maintain customer contact to keep in touch with your customers and prospects because people change jobs and responsibilities.
Good Luck and Good Selling!
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