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Establishing
and Maintaining Customer Loyalty in Cyberspace
by Nancy Roebke
Human beings are used to making buying decisions using their
senses, especially their sight and hearing. They read body
language, want to make eye contact and hear voice
inflection. As more and more business gets done in
Cyberspace, there will be less and less of in-person
contacts made. Although, the chances of online business
development TOTALLY replacing in-person contact is slim,
more and more clients will be found in Cyberspace, and the
need to maintain them as clients is great. This can be very
challenging since people do business with others that they
know, like and trust. A lot of those "feelings" come from
in-person contacts. So how DOES one retain client loyalty in
Cyberspace? I recently asked that question, and here is the
answers I got.
Many business
professionals felt that the same type of things used to get
and keep a client off the internet would be necessary online
as well. Those items included:
Building a strong
personal relationship with the client. In Cyberspace, this
usually takes longer then face-to-face. Be patient.
Have frequent
contact with all clients and potential clients. This
contact should be in the form of online contacts through
email and web site visit, but also traditional methods
like the use of the mail with postcards and flyers, and
the telephone were still necessary to develop a strong
relationship.
Be sure to let
clients and potential clients know how you can help them -
EVERY way you can. Many firms today offer a wide variety
of products and services. It is important that clients
know what you can do to make their life easier and their
business more successful.
Respond in a
timely fashion. If the client gets an acknowledgment the
same day or following morning even if the product can't be
delivered they will be pleased.
Provide quality
service at fair prices. "Bargain seekers" will look for
the cheapest. It goes against good business logic that the
cheapest is always the best. Charge a fair price and back
it up with great service.
The above ideas work
on and offline. Here are a few that are geared toward
on-line client activity and web site traffic:
Send e-mails to
registrants when there are new features on the site.
Reward
clients/visitors for a certain number of visits to your
site. (track logins)
Require a
subscription to critical info (people are more likely to
use resources they pay for).
Offer previous
customers discounts, and then NEW customers different
discounts.
And finally, there
is a technique that works extremely well, both on and
off-line. Be there for people when they need you with what
they need if possible - with sympathy, enthusiastic support,
ideas, congratulations, small gifts (little tidbits of info,
articles, cartoons, reference materials, etc. resonating
with their personal style of humor, business insights,
hobby, family or personal charities & causes, etc. etc.). It
is also necessary to be forthcoming, to reveal bits and
pieces of yourself to let people know you're not a scary,
untrustworthy stranger.
Nancy Roebke, is the Executive Director
Profnet, Inc., a professional business leads generation
corporation. We bring business professionals together in a
non-competitive environment to help each other make more
money. Visit her site at http://www.profnet.org
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