Justin Jones, owner of Heavenly Foundations Inc. in the Tampa/St. Petersberg Fl area, asked this question on the Construction Marketing Ideas LinkedIn group:
How do you keep in contact with existing customers?
For some years I have been keeping a database for my construction business. I am looking for the best way to keep in contact with my customers, what are you doing to keep the contact?
It is a good question ? because existing/previous customers are most likely to be the source of repeat and referral business ? and these leads are the most effective and least expensive you can find.
Readers within the group offered some observations on how they handle this follow-up challenge.
Gavin Bailey, in Northampton, UK, responded:
Not sure the info you put on your data base but I often take the time to send birthday/Xmas cards, or sometimes depending on the client or the project I give them a call just to make sure they are still happy etc. not to mention the up date emails on what we are doing.
Seth Griffith, vice-president of operations at Kaiser Siding and Roofing LLC in the greater Atlanta area wrote:
One thing I implemented is a system where upon the completion of any job. The contact information and work performed for that client goes into a schedule for contact either six months out or one year out depending on the job. Then when that contact pops up on the calendar, they are contacted and we send a guy by to check in and make sure everything is still good with the service performed.
Since we offer multiple service lines, it gives us an opportunity to get in front of them face to face to offer another service they may need, or at the very least, it keeps your company and service in the front of their mind for a longer period of time leading to more referrals.
It?s MUCH more effective than a phone call or email.
Russ Stephens in Brisbane, Australia wrote:
As part of our CRM system we include an auto responder that is activated on completion and runs for 10 years on the handover anniversary. It?s a good way or staying in touch, keeping your business in the mind of the client which assists with increased referrals.We also include an automated Birthday greeting for any contact.
It works well especially when you have an integrated scheduling system for all your representatives so my secretary can just drop it into the reps Google calendar when it comes up.
These ideas all have merit. I think the combination of systematized auto-reminder tools coupled with a really personal touch are most effective. The automation can remind you to send out greetings, newsletters and the like, but if you can humanize and make the connection immediately relevant, I?m sure your effectiveness will be greatest.
Do you have your own client contact/follow-up strategies? Please share them at the LinkedIn group or here, as a comment.
