Customer Contact Plan

A customer contact plan can make all the difference between maintaining or losing valuable customer relationships.

The thing that most companies mess up is that when they call their clients, they attempt (sometimes too aggressively) to sell them additional products and services.

Furthermore, they choosee to call the client at home during dinner, when the customer is less likely to appreciate receiving a call from a 'salesperson'.

To avoid the pitfalls and to improve your chances of being received well by the customer when you contact them, you should plan your calls very specifically.

A successful customer contact plan will include the following activities, which will:

• Add Value - before ever making any sort of pitch, first ask the client how you are treating them. Be sincere. Ask for feedback on how you can improve the service you deliver. Follow up to correct any issues for the customer. Demonstrate to the customer that you genuinely care.
• Entice - explain in simple detail how you can save the customer time or money. Use prospect list to identify new customers, then contact via telemarketing, advertising and outside calling activities.
• Impress - prepare effective introductory messages for all first-contact opportunities. Be sure that your actions support your service claims. Over deliver on your promises to create postive brand awareness.
• Produce - sell with the utmost integrity. Stand by your product and you will experience higher cross-sell rations, and gain ongoing referral business.
• Retain - maintain customer loyalty and maximize customer retention by always doing what you will say you will do, and by making sure that your product also does everything that you claim it will. Take great care of your customers and they will take care of you.

Business owners and department managers must realize the number one rule in developing a successful customer contact plan.

Leaders must understand that a business isn’t simply selling widgets – it’s selling an overall customer experience.

The quality of the customer experience, in part, will be determined based on the quality of your customer contact plan.

A key question for every organizational leader is, “What experience are you selling?” Intentional or not, when your customer walks away – how do they feel? When they talk to their friends about your product or organization, what are they saying? Do you know?

Additional questions for leaders to consider when developing a quality customer contact plan include:

1. When a customer walks into your place of business, how do you reach out to the customer? Are they quickly greeted with a smile and offered assistance?
2. When a customer calls your place of business are they introduced properly? If your customer service representative needs to transfer a call to another department, does he warmly make a personal introduction and explain the issue on behalf of the customer – or is the customer left to explain their request again from the beginning?
3. When a customer emails a question to your organization, is the customer given the option to be called back directly via phone? Is the question answered within 24 hours? Does the service representative provide their direct phone number as a convenient way for the customer to ask a follow-up question?

In addition to learning how to properly respond to customers who are seeking assistance, a meaningful customer contact plan must also provide a blueprint for an organization’s “outreach” activities.

Great organizations are careful to “conduct” the customer experience.

For instance, Starbucks isn’t just selling coffee they’re selling an experience. The Gap and Old Navy are not only selling clothes, they’re selling an experience – from the time you walk in the door to the time you walk out.

Gather your team and create a solid customer contact plan that your customers will not only appreciate and remember, but an experience they will look forward to experiencing over and over again.

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