It’s a familiar and delicate song and dance that we do often to ensure that we are meeting our customers’ needs. How do we keep customers engaged? How do we re-engage them once we’ve already lost some of their attention?
One thing I try to do with customers is staying consistently on their mind. How do I do this? Consistent engagement. I schedule one day of the month, where I send customers an email giving them a quick snapshot of their engagement and deliverables for the month. I follow up to this email with a calendar invitation to go over the client’s performance for the month and my thoughts for the future. It’s fine if the customer doesn’t accept right away. Just keep sending your invitations and your analysis to keep your company and your service at the top of their mind.
The real key is consistency. Whether the customer is meeting with you or just reading your emails you need to be sure that the customer feels that they are getting something for their money. If you’re consistently in contact with them then they know you are consistently doing something for their accounts.
I had a client that never took my meetings for the duration of their contract. However, when it came time to renew the account for the year, they mentioned my constant emails and that they had been reading them and appreciated them.
Sometimes our work doesn’t get the acknowledgment we think it deserves but most of the time it is appreciated. This is what we have to hold onto when we’re pushing through on a difficult or unresponsive client. While they might not respond to every email, it’s highly unlikely that they are not seeing the effort.
Milan Bauder is a Client Relationship Consultant at Capsim.
Chicago Customer Success 