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What if every time you had to figure out all of the things that you needed to do, you had to walk to each room of the house or to each floor of your office or the conference rooms where you had your last meeting to find sticky notes that you had left there with the reminder? I don’t know you, but I suspect you would find that a particularly painful brand of mischief.
This scenario plays out every day online when companies that have some type of follow up that is needed by their customers assume that the customer will come back to their site to find that follow up.
Yesterday alone, I transacted on a dozen websites for different things. As marvelous as those sites were, they are not the center of my world. [GASP]
Sometimes I can’t even remember the name of the site. Sorry marketers, but if I don’t need you every day or even every week or month, you just don’t penetrate my psyche. [DOUBLE GASP]
Email may be passe, but I know for me, it is the central place from which I generate my to do list.
If I order something for my son’s birthday and need to track the package, or need to order business cards once the new design is done on our logos, no matter the task, it generally crosses my email first.
I have been lamenting as far back as 2009 about how much email that I get. I have recently graduated from leaving everything in my email box until it is cleaned off. Now I put everything in separate lists in an amazing tool called Basecamp, which I use for all my projects at work and all my to do lists at home.
Why do I like it? I have tried dozens of free list management apps. Why do I like Basecamp? First and foremost, it is because every day, it delivers to me a summary of what I have to do. It is my new virtual assistant. Further, it allows me to invite others to each project and to delegate things on the list to others.
And the most amazing thing is that now that I have someone working for me full time, they are actually crossing things off and it doesn’t all fall to me!
I recommend that you find the tool that works for you, but what this blog is about is your customer.
- Think about what your site/business is all about. If it isn’t about your customers, then rethink your strategy. Make it about them and what works for them.
- Think about the frequency with which you interact with your prospects and customers. Make sure that your communications and expectations are appropriate and that you have permission to email, call or text your clients for reminders.
- If there is a reminder needed, or an update in information, don’t wait for them to come back to you and retrieve the information. Push it to them in an email or a text if they prefer.
If you are not asking about communication preferences, then you don’t know your customer. And if you don’t know your customer, then the chance of them coming back to you is slim to none.
Stay tuned.
