Customer relations and entrepreneurs

Customer relations is not complicated, although staying in touch with a potential customer or following up a current customer is the foundation of a successful business.

Customer relations is beneficial for a company of any size and in any industry, but caring for a customer is especially important for a small business or the single entrepreneur who is working on a tight budget and has little to no money left for advertising and marketing expenses.

Simply showing each person they are important and they are valued—because you truly care—can result in referrals and it can also cheer up the person you contact.

I have seen individual employees in large corporations like Home Depot and United Airlines provide excellent customer service. Their hard work may go unnoticed in the larger corporate structure. One woman I knew working at Home Depot treated each customer like they were her own personal friends and she had to provide them with excellent service.

I’ve had pleasant buying experiences recently at McDonalds. Yep, that’s right. I’ve been greeted by employees at cash registers who will not personally benefit from my sale. Yet they’ve treated me with respect and they’ve smiled when I’ve placed my order. I usually only order coffee when I go to a McDonalds as you can tell in this Hub I wrote on McDonalds coffee versus Starbucks.

A good example of customer relations to generate cash flow through sales came from my local radiator and air conditioning company. I’ve taken our van and SUV several times. The last time was about a year ago when I took my 1996 SUV and needed to have the radiator system replaced but decided against it. The contact there, Dale, called just to check in and see how the vehicle was operating. I told him it was fine and I had decided not to bring it in at this point. Instead, I was going to see how much life was left in it and if something major needed a repair then I was going to move on to another vehicle. We chatted a few minutes and then I told him I was doing business networking for small companies needing websites.

He told me he would keep me in mind. I’ll send him a card as well showing him all that I have to offer.

Simply calling up a past customer to say hello is an important part of customer relations and a simple way of taking steps to keep generating cash flow.