Developing a strong relationship with your customers will set your business apart from all the other in your industry and will show it’s not “just another company”.
If you focus on relationships with people instead of them being “just another number or sale” you will build a brand they know and trust.
If you think about the relationships you have now – how important are they to you?
Relationships are really our most prized possession.
The relationship with our parents, partner, children, friends, colleagues and brothers and sisters; when you look at the way you navigate these relationships, work, effort and nurturing must be done.
It’s the same with relationship building from a business point of view.
Just as you would nurture your customers to help them, it’s equally important to build your relationships with people.
This can help you can help you acquire new clients, retain current ones, while also building your reputation as a business of choice for your potential clients.
What are the most important aspects of building a relationship:
I found a great article on happy relationships and while it’s not technically written for business owners, it reminded me of a few points that are important to personal and business relationships.
The article, by My Happify, states the five things that are essential for any Relationships. They include:
- Trust: Whether in a personal or professional relationship trust is the deciding factor as to if it will be a lasting relationship with mutual benefits.
- Respect: A key factor in relationships in building trust is respecting your clients and their points of views. It is also bout educating them.
- Love: This is simply just showing them the love in everything you do, and especially spending time to explain things to them.
- Attention: Everyone loves a little attention. Think about how you feel when you don’t get any attention from a business and then they send you a promotion or sales email asking you to buy a product or service. Always be showing attention and showing that you are thinking of them.
- Communication: You can do all the above – build trust, show respect, love and give attention – through your business’s communication. Do you send free content, regular emails and are you showing up on social media with educational, entertaining and engaging posts? Do you follow up with your clients to see how they are, do you send them emails with special links when you find something that would interest them? So you reply to their comments?
The 3 most important types of relationships you need to build
There are three specific relationship types you must build and work on. They include:
- Customers (and potential customers)
- Employees, contractors and team
- Members of your community and the wider community
What you can do today to start building relationships with more people:
- Let them know you’re here to help
- Share practical knowledge and tips
- Build genuine in your connection with them
- Care about their business, life and what they stand for
- Ask for honest and open feedback to help you improve your business.
My conclusion is building relationships with real people – online and offline – is one way you will grow your business and your reputation. Ask any successful business owner or entrepreneur and they will tell you it’s the key to success. Remember your network equals your net worth.
I’ve got a Create A Healthy Relationship with Your Leads, Clients and Team for you to download so you know who to nurture and put some nurturing system in your business.
Are you coming?
FACT: Systems allow your business to run like a well-oiled machine while making it more streamlined, productive, and ultimately, more profitable. It’s never too late to join the business processes bandwagon!
If you have any questions about organising your business, join me at my monthly Q&A session. IT’s on the last Thursday of every month!
You can register here or email me your question and I’ll asnwer you personally.
Are you coming?
FACT: Systems allow your business to run like a well-oiled machine while making it more streamlined, productive, and ultimately, more profitable. It’s never too late to join the business processes bandwagon!
If you have any questions about organising your business, join me at my monthly Q&A session. IT’s on the last Thursday of every month!
You can register here or email me your request here.
