Building customer relationships is a crucial part of marketing services like remodeling and building. Relationship marketing, reputation, and word of mouth advertising are strong sources of quality leads in your industry. If you develop an amazing rapport with your clients, they will come back to you for all of their remodeling needs throughout their time in their home, and maybe even from future properties!
How do you develop this relationship?
Every point of contact your company has with the client or prospect is an opportunity to nurture your relationship with them. It begins with each aspect of your sales process, from gatekeeper to closing.
Many salespeople track their leads and appointments in spreadsheets or CRMs (customer relationship management systems) which are accessible to the entire company team.
Important Facets of Relationship Marketing
- Promptness of response to clients’ requests for information, appointments, or service is a vital factor in the relationship building process. One surefire way to annoy clients or make them decide to remain prospects rather than customers, is letting them fall through the cracks early in the process. They will find another company who responds promptly to their requests.
- Clarity in communicating: Having information on interactions with your prospects accessible to every member of your team can help prevent miscommunications and delays in response to a problem or inquiry.
- Recording the details of your interactions with clients is of the utmost importance.
- Refer back to notes before speaking with someone. If you happen to bring up their interest in Aging in Place or their desire for an outdoor kitchen, it helps people feel heard. You remember what it is they want to gain from working with your company, and it’s a powerful foundation for a relationship with a potential client. Connecting on a personal level can be appropriate and effective too, just be sure to use tact and have accurate information recorded.
- Expand your networking capabilities by having a database of your contacts. You can also keep track of vendors, subcontractors, or others whose services or products you may need in the future. If people in your list provide great service, refer others to them! A little reciprocity can go a long way when forging long-term relationships.
- Even if a lead fizzles out, it helps provide you with market research when building customer personas or tracking demographics. Tracking your leads can help you to map out patterns, like which social media platforms your prospects seem to prefer, the neighborhoods they live in, or whether a marketing campaign was successful.
- Putting the customer first means interacting with authenticity, anticipating their needs, and providing them with something of value, whether it is information provided in the content of your blog or social media, or a discount. Authenticity is important; you should want to develop a long relationship with clients. Not only does it improve your income, but it adds to your life to make connections with other members of your community.
- Personally contact people in your database, whether it’s with a note, a thank you card, or a birthday card, it can be a wonderful way to make them feel appreciated.
- Ask not what your client can do for you, but what you can do for your client. Maybe this aspect was covered under reciprocity or authenticity but serving your clients in every stage of your relationship is what provides you with longevity in relationship marketing.
Finally…
We want you to cultivate a focus on your customers: who they are, what they need or want, and how to serve them. Interested in our marketing services? Contact us today and let us know what your company needs to succeed in 2023 on onward into 2024. For a look at one of our previous blogs on remodeling sales, click here.