Five ways to build stronger customer relationships

Are you ready to market in a new way? Most of the traditional marketing efforts focus on branding, advertising, and online marketing. One of the best and most basic ways to market your businesses is by building stronger customer relationships. When customers are satisfied and happy with your company, they will be able to spread the word about your company. Word of mouth is essential for any company, especially when you are trying to acquire new customers and you are trying to build your reputation.

Send out greeting cards
When the holidays come around are you sending greeting cards to your customers? What are you doing to show them that you appreciate them? Customers need to feel valued and just sending a simple thank-you card or greeting card will help them see that you truly do appreciate their support.

Regular communication
In order to keep your customers interested, you must stay in touch with them. Regular communication is a large part of developing relationships with your customers. Send out email newsletters to your customers to show them you would like to stay in touch. Direct mail pieces like a "thank-you" mailer will also help you keep in touch with them. Some customers may also be interested in your annual report so you also want to send that out as well. Communication is essential for your business to become a success so you must spend time focusing on communication.

Advice
To establish a name for your company in your industry, you also want to offer advise to your customers. In an email newsletter, send out valuable information. A blog is a great way to also offer advice to your customers and to strengthen your relationship with them. A lot of companies have turned to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to offer advice to their customers and to build stronger relationships with them. If you are going to use social media, you need to make sure you are staying active on these sites or you will have a hard time getting their attention and to showing them you are here to help.

Listen to your customers
Another big part of developing proper customer relationships is by listening to your customers. Have you been asking your customers for feedback on your products and services? Sending out customer surveys will help you to acquire the information you need to learn about the needs of your customers and to build stronger relationships with them. Here are the steps you need to follow in order to properly listen to your customers:
1. Ask for their opinion. One way to find out what your customers are thinking is to flat out ask them. Surveys can help you find out what their opinion is. Another way to ask them is by using the discussion boards on social media sites. The discussion boards allow you to ask a question and to wait on your customers to talk to you about the question.
2. Respond to their needs. The other way to focus on listening to your customers is to respond to what they are saying. Your customers need to see that you are trying to do something about their complaints. Send out emails when you change the way you are doing business, this will help them to see that you are actually listening.
3. Adapt your business model. In order to help customers see that you are changing the way you do business is to adapt your business model. Focus on better communication by sending out more mailers and other things to your customers. This will help them stay up to date with your business needs and it can help you to build stronger relationships.