Staying in Touch

Staying in touch with your Clients is a HUGE and big part of your business.

Today’s post was inspired by a comment that I had put on FB a few weeks ago.

I had posted that

Customer service is the hub of our business, pick five customers today that you will be in contact with this week to ‘offer’ some great service!

and received a great idea that a fan was going to share this with her group meeting!  Awesome, so I thought I would expand on that idea a little for today’s article.

I remember once going through a bit of a dry spell in my business (yup, we all get ‘em, even the best of us baby!) and I thought I could do some customer service calls.

Here was an idea I had, and even though I thought it was a little bit crazy (and I’ll be honest scared the beejeezus…sorry I seriously don’t know how to spell that!)  I went ahead with my plan and I got so much feedback it was INSANE!

I was going through a lot of old customer receipts; in fact, some of these rect’s were dated back almost three years.  Many of these were one time buyers…you see I was so successful having show after show and getting multiple bookings that I didn’t really need to rely on a lot of repeat business.  That is, until I hit a total dry spell and I had to come up with something really unique!

I had a few shows booked for the next month, but I needed income at the time….and I needed it fast (ya know the mortgage ain’t gonna pay itself right?), so….I thought “why don’t I just contact some of these ladies?…send them something in the mail (seriously this was WAY before emails I’m sure were even invented…and yes…I totally realize how old that makes me ha ha!)”

But then I had a fear kick in…. and the ‘monkey chatter’ in my brain went awhirling!

‘they don’t want to hear from you’

‘it’s been so long’

‘panic time baby’

Yup, I had a few good, or not so good, thinking going on!

But, I thought perhaps I could word it in a way that I wouldn’t seem like such a dork….perhaps I could be professional without seeming needy?  ummmmm

So I sat down and wrote a nice little note (ok…this was years ago…so I don’t think I can remember it verbatim) but it went something like this:

Dear SuzieQ,

Thanks for the purchase you made from me in the past!  Yes, I realize it was probably years (or months ago), but I just wanted to keep in touch with you….let you know I was still alive (ha ha) and thriving in my business.

So as a big sloppy thank you for being a past customer I’m going to offer you XXX if you phone by XXX amount of time to receive a discount off your purchase.  Don’t have a current catalogue?  I would love to stop by, have a coffee and give you one!

Sincerely,

Jody

Well….I sent this out to over 300 past clients/customers and the response was wonderful…and people did actually want to have coffee…who knew?  Many thanked me and told me they did indeed think I was dead (just kidding) and placed an order.  Some even said, please don’t contact me, but hey I was ok with that…they went into the ‘don’t contact pile’.

The point is that I did something outside of my comfort zone, I used the resources I had, I booked in a few shows…and even better “I made the goal of making my mortgage payment” (which back in the day was over 1,200 bucks)!

So, I hope that this will give you some inspiration to go and do just the same!

In a few weeks I will be hosting a TeleSeminar (this has to do with what I talked about above) and the whole Focus of the TeleSeminar will be how to boost your summer sales!  How coolio (my fav word) is that?

Glad that you enjoyed today’s featured article…it will be posted to the site as well and if you enjoyed it click “Like” to share it with your FB friends and “Twitter” it as well!

Hugs and Good Luck!

JODY

Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine? No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:

Jody Maley is the founder of the Home Party Planning Business. She will teach you how to “Get More Bookings & Connect with your Hostess’s!” To get your F.R.E.E. Free Home Party Plan Kit! immediately via email and receive our weekly marketing & success sign up here: http://www.homepartyplanningbusiness.com.