Greetings SPARKers!  As the dog days of summer draw near, it’s important to make sure that we all stay focused on our work and not let the heat get to us.  To maximize your efficiency, we here at Spotlight would like to dedicate this issue of our newsletter to a really swell group of people—customers, clients and colleagues.  It is this group of people, who keep our business gears a crankin’ and without them, our enterprises might all go down the drain.  It’s important to keep them happy, but to do so, you need to sufficiently understand them.  To further discuss this issue, here are a few wise words from this month’s guest writer, Kim Proctor, Customer Relationship Consultant, Customers That Click.  We here at Spotlight like to call her Kim Possible, because she’s so darn good at handling even the toughest customer issues. Take it away Kim!

Stay Loyal to your People
In order to better understand your customers, clients or colleagues, it’s smart to first collect all of the information that you can find about them. Be as thorough as possible, because when this data is viewed as a whole, it can reveal opportunities to provide custom services for each client. For example, look at Amazon.  This online book store and more is loyal to its customers: it knows your history, suggests new books, stores your credit card data, AND provides one-click ordering. The website is so easy to use and personal that many customers have no interest in buying books any other way (a.k.a. loyalty!). 

Organization is not Just for your Sock Drawer
Reams upon reams of information are useless if they aren't easily accessible. Do you have a database to track client interactions, client needs, meeting summaries, personal notes, recommendations and conversations? Or do you just shove everything into paper folders?  If you have data in various places, put it together already, so you can get a complete view of your clients.  A database should display a full history and will ideally include each action and communication (outbound and inbound), a history of services employed for this client, feedback from them as well as whatever else is relevant to illustrate the full relationship and their preferences.  Do they prefer cappuccino over coffee? Put that on the list too (maybe not). But you get the point— whether it’s a list of vendors, reporter contacts, or a group of sales prospects, organization will make your job a lot easier.

It’s Okay to Create Cliques
Okay slackers, even if you don’t have that database setup yet, start looking for patterns and similar characteristics amongst your groups.  For example, if you are trying to attract a group of realtors, feel free to sub-segment them, so that each group includes constituents, who are similar in as many ways as possible.  In this case, perhaps they cover the same area, or show similar properties. It is most important to convey to them the fact that you are taking their specific needs into consideration and addressing them individually versus a mass e-mail blast to undisclosed recipients. Although you might be trying to catch the attention of 15 realtors, 21 food editors, and one travel writer, each one of them wants to feel special.  And making them feel special is easier if you’ve characterized and addressed them accordingly.

Analyze Until You are Dizzy
Think about each segment - what services might they need? Say you are trying to reach non-profits:  How could you customize your interaction, services, and messages to better support them?  For example, what kinds of updates do they want on what basis and in what format? Perhaps they want to know about different grants, fundraisers and statistics and trends.  Everything you know about how their Organizations are run, internal processes, and preferences will help you create greater customization and thus loyalty. Though analysis isn’t always the most fun way to spend the day, this method will enable your business to maintain a steady stream of loyal constituents.  Continue to listen and learn from everyone your business interacts with, and record it all in the database. Over time, this database will host a wealth of information about your business. Learn from it, adapt, and increase loyalty each step of the way.  And remember it costs 7 times more to replace a customer than to keep one, so keep them singing your praises!