Customer Retention is as Easy as...

Personal contact with customers is a crucial element in the success of any new business – and it’s one of the most common casualties of growth. As a company grows, the President tends to fade away into his or her office. That can lead to loss of leverage right at the point when a company is starting to take off and needs it most.

The danger is that the company can become just another faceless entity that the customer deals with every day. This danger increases in this era of reliance on computers to handle communications with customers. Think about instituting a policy of sending a personal thank-you note to each customer. It’s not that difficult to do if you stick with it. Just sit down one evening per week and work through your list of customer contacts from the previous week.

Savvy companies will track customer contacts in their contact-management databases, but you can get away with keeping a simple Excel spreadsheet of all thank you cards sent. Trust me, your customers will not forget it!

To really kick the personal touch into gear, spend one day per month doing nothing but making “courtesy” calls to your existing customers. Don’t have any plans to do real business – just call to say hello. Your clients will be pleased and astounded that you took the time just to check in. To ready your mind to play the role of friend rather than business associate, make the calls from home that day.

Really any little thing that you can do to make your customers feel that you remember them and care about them is priceless. I have a particular customer that mentioned to me one day that she was a tremendous Ray Charles fan. Months later when Ray passed away, I sent her a little note of condolence. I don’t think she will ever forget that gesture. She later told me that I was the only one who mentioned anything to her that day. She had been feeling like nobody knew or cared until she received my note.

What opportunities to make personal contact with clients are you missing each day Sure, it’s easy to use convenient excuses like “I just don’t have the time,” or “I’ll get to it next week.” Just remember how much more difficult and time-consuming it is to find a new client rather than to keep a current one.

In the end, taking time to keep in contact with your customers will pay a lifetime of dividends both personally and professionally.

Five Ways to Improve Your Interpersonal Communication Skills

1. Seek out opportunities to lead

Great leaders are great communicators, and what better way there is to enhance your interpersonal communication skills than to seek out opportunities to take up leadership roles?

Taking up a leadership opportunity does not mean going after titles; It rather means being proactive and taking the initiative. In a business setting, it may mean voluntarily bringing coworkers together to solve a problem or develop a concept. By forming teams, directing projects, solving problems or leading a product development focus group, you learn how to communicate with people, thereby enhancing your interpersonal communication skills.

2. Take a speech course

If you really want to improve your interpersonal communication skills, then taking a speech course may be an idea worth considering. A good speech course helps you build confidence and teaches you how to communicate coherently. This is by far one of the smartest ways to improve your interpersonal communication skills.

3. Write, write and write some more

Writing helps you to learn how to express yourself clearly. It makes you think before you speak. Because it requires that kind of control, it helps you to personally communicate to yourself. Internal communication precedes interpersonal communication. Therefore, consistently practicing the art of writing can help you improve your interpersonal communication skills.

4. Rehearse with a recording tool

To be able to communicate effectively, you need to understand the way you communicate. By recording yourself, you will have the opportunity to listen or even watch yourself talk so you can observe your body language, tone of voice, language command, confidence level and even what causes you to communicate effectively or poorly.  Once you make these observations of yourself, it will be easier to improve in some areas so you become an effective communicator.

5. Take an acting class

Acting offers you an opportunity to relate with different kinds of people. It can boost your confidence and language command. Because acting lets you communicate on stage in a manner that will be understood and appreciated by an audience, it can be an avenue to develop your interpersonal communication skills. Watch and learn from effective communicators

There are leaders in every sphere of human life and this includes interpersonal communication. One best way to improve your interpersonal communication skills is to watch and observe how effective communicators communicate. If you want to know whom to learn from, think of the people who leave a positive lasting impression on you anytime you interact with them; those who can motivate you toward a course; and leaders who inspire you – but not manipulate you – to take an action.