Double Vision

Before jumping into this week's article we wanted to take a moment to thank each of you for making the time to read our thoughts each week.  We know that as business owners you don't have spare time and we truly appreciate every moment that you choose to spend working with us on building your business.  We wish you, your staff, and your family a Happy Thanksgiving.

Last week we looked at the  frequency of your customer contact strategy. What you want to do and what you can do are sometimes very different but that doesn't mean you should wait to get started. What can you do today to get started? What needs to happen for the long term viability of your contact strategy? This is where you look at your strategy with double vision. Short term actions and long term preparations designed for the ultimate success of your strategy.

Short Term: You know your Top 10 Customers. A handwritten thank you note is an excellent way to cement your business into their mind. Or, pick up the phone and dial. Give your Top 10 a call and thank them personally for working with you and your business.

Long Term: Have a database that meets the contact strategy needs of the business. To accomplish this, your business must know what information needs to be in the database and have confidence in the integrity and viability of that information. Have a clear strategy on how often and what information is updated. If there is a question as to the accuracy of email addresses in the database, use a service such as Mail Chimp which will provide reports on email validity. Also be aware of what information is missing from your database. Is there information that the business would like to have captured but doesn't? How do you go about collecting that information? These are all pieces that make up the whole of your long term vision for a strong database and even stronger contact strategy.

Make no mistake; the long term strategy will take planning and commitment. The end result of that effort will feed your customer contact strategy and set the business up for long term client communication success.

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