Are Your Customers Forgetting About You? Why Engagement Turns Customers Into Lifelong Fans
When business owners think about customer engagement, they often dwell on strategies that encourage people to buy what they’re selling. That’s far from the whole story when it comes to creating a loyal fan base that raves about your company. Customer engagement should be a constant initiative, not something that only happens when customers are thinking about buying. Engaged customers won’t forget about you. When the time to buy comes around, yours will be the first name on their lips. Engagement also drives word-of-mouthmarketing. According to a recent Nielsen study, consumers rely on referrals from trusted sources more than any other formof marketing. If you give your current customers a reason to rave, they’ll spread the word. Here are a couple of ways to ensure that your customers become fans. Be Personal Treat your customers like a number, and they’ll think of you the same way. Treat them like real people, and they’ll love you forever. Remember details about your customers, address themby name, and go the extra mile to develop a real bond. Mindy Grossman, TimAnderson is the owner andmanaging partner of TimAnderson Law, LLC., a boutique white-collar federal criminal defense firm in Red Bank, New Jersey. He currently has one associate and plans to add another within the year. Timgraduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1993. He then stayed in Minneapolis and worked for a highly respected solo criminal defense attorney for 11 years, learning the trade and discovering how successful a small law firm could be. In 2004, he decided to strike out on his own, opening his own solo criminal defense practice in Minneapolis and taking onmore federal matters. He soon learned that being a successful, highly respected lawyer doesn’t necessarily translate into having a successful business. Nevertheless, in what he characterizes as“a fairly haphazard way,”he figured out how to make it work and developed a pretty solid practice. Tim’s turning point came in 2009 when he and his wife moved back to New Jersey to be closer to his wife’s family. Although he had to start over, including taking and passing the New Jersey bar exam, Tim took the challenge as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. He decided to focus on the area of practice he lovedmost and believed would allow him to quickly succeed: federal criminal defense. He soon narrowed his practice even further to white-collar federal criminal defense. With that, otherwise competing lawyers became referral partners. Tim started to work on his business, not just in it, hiring law firm coaches and other business partners, including Borbala Banto as his CFO, who taught him
CEO ofWeightWatchers, says,“Our ability to create that one-on- one engagement with a customer is a point of differentiation and strategic advantage for us.”Nomatter your industry, you can create that advantage for your business. Make Proactive Contact If you only engage with customers when they are looking to buy, you’re a pricing company. Once a customer is shopping around, they already knowwhat they want. They’re just looking for the best deal. Conversely, if you reach out to your customers to follow up, provide themwith information, or even just share something fun, you’ll build brand loyalty. Create a Community Speaking to your customers is great, but giving them a way to speak to each other can be just as valuable. Savvy use of social media is a great way to achieve this goal. Give people a reason to share their experience with your business and a forum in which to share it. Even better, incentivize. Offer customers discounts on future purchases for the importance of tracking his numbers. He learned to develop policies and procedures for his firm, and he created efficiencies such as using a law office management system (CLIO) and a virtual receptionist service (Ruby Receptionist). Timgot involved in the New Jersey State Bar Association and other groups to network and get his name out. Within five years of his move to New Jersey, he became chair of the Solo and Small Firm Section of the state bar, which focuses on helping solo and small firms learn tomanage and run their practices successfully. Tim’s philosophy for his firm is to approach every client with empathy and understanding and to be true to himself, projecting decency and credibility. His mission is to help as many people as possible while also having a financially and professionally successful firm. His mantra is, “What is the highest and best use of my time?”He tries to delegate everything else. Finally, Tim strongly believes in the importance of a good work-life balance and spends as much time as possible hiking, road cycling, running, working in the yard, traveling, and spending time with his wife and family.
Client of the Month: Tim Anderson Check out our podcast interviewwithTimon LawBusinessPodcast.com.
In short, Tim loves what he does: He gets to help people through very stressful situations while alsomaking a good living and having time to enjoy life with his family and friends.
Website: www.timandersonlaw.com Email: tim@timandersonlaw.com
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