The relationship between your business and a client can be a strong one. When that client's connection, however, is far greater with one employee rather than with your whole business it creates a cause for concern. If that employee leaves, will the client break ties with your business to follow them? Is that connection with one person strong enough to result in loyalty to an individual rather than your business?
This is a frequent issue in my work with business owners. Thankfully, there are ways to prevent clients from jumping ship when people leave. To increase the chances they'll stay loyal to your business, invest in this five-stage approach to building relationships:
Stage One: Personal connection
Clients need to develop a strong personal connection with their primary contact: the sales rep. They have to know them, like them and trust them so they'll be compelled to buy from them. It's important that business owners help foster this relationship and acknowledge its significance.
Stage Two: Professional connection
To be known, liked and trusted is not enough. Today, buyers also need to know that you and your sales team are business experts in their line of work. Build a professional connection by adding value to every interaction. Ask yourself this question when you meet with the client in their office or when out for coffee: "How is what I'm doing, saying or bringing to the client improving their situation?"
Stage Three: Company connection
At a higher level, the customer has to develop a strong connection to your business. This means they trust your organization. How do you do this? The first and easiest step is to ensure the customer knows who the other people are inside your organization, including you. Additionally, if you have a tech support or customer service team, clients should have primary contacts within those groups. Lastly, a connection with the management, directors or the leadership of that organization is crucial as well. These key leadership contacts are essential to helping the client feel as though they're being given special attention and, most importantly, help them develop loyalty to the company as a whole.
Stage Four: Client focus group
For some of your best customers, consider forming a client focus group. This provides your customers with a third level of connection within your corporation by way of developing relationships among your customer base. It will highlight the strong association between the two groups, with your company as the link. And, this bond will act as added reinforcement that it's in the best interest of the client to stay with your business.
Stage Five: Advocacy
Once your business has focused energy on building a connection with clients, the next step is to further strengthen your relationship through advocacy. When a client publicly states how much they love your product or how you've transformed their business ─ and you document it via testimonials and case studies ─ it's very difficult for that customer to leave your organization. Aside from helping to cement your relationship with your current customers, advocacy allows you to leverage your relationship to grow new client leads.
The secret to effective case studies and testimonials is to ensure they highlight a current customer who's in business today, credible, similar to other prospects you want to attract and shares a similar business case with them. The most critical component of any testimonial or case study is that it's compelling with objective and measure results. As a bonus, strong advocacy is not only the pinnacle of your client relationship hierarchy, it can be a powerful source of new business and leads.
By taking the steps above to enhance the overall connection with your clients, you're allowing them to become familiar with the many layers of your organization as well as with fellow customers. Ultimately, this will prevent them from following their personal contacts if they depart your business, helping you to maintain their loyalty to your business for many years to come.
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