It’s The Right Thing To Do

I’m a business coach, and I can’t help but observe business owners and how they operate.

I’m always looking at what works and what doesn’t, so I can pass best practices on to you! And recently, I got slapped upside my head with yet another example of how business owners can be shortsighted in how they treat their customers and clients.

If you’ve been reading my newsletter, you know we got married in the Cayman Islands recently.

We hired a wedding planner to help with the legalities and facilitate the details for us, since we live 1,100 miles away.

There’s something she did … or rather didn’t do … that can provide a major learning for you and your business.

It wasn’t the fact she informed me, just a week before our wedding, she was going to be out of the country and wouldn’t be able to attend.

It wasn’t the fact she put her assistant in charge, someone who was woefully ill-equipped to do the job.

It wasn’t even the fact that our beach venue got changed an hour before the ceremony and no one let me know until the last minute!

Okay, so what might she have done that was worse than all that?

It’s been well over a month since we got married. She was certainly aware of the last minute challenges, and yet, she’s never once checked on us to see if everything went okay!

Not even an email. Not even a little note in the packet she sent with the registered copy of marriage and stick drive with our photos.

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Now granted, she’s probably figurin’ I’m not gonna be a repeat customer, so why bother?

Why? Because it’s the right thing to do! It’s how you run a business with integrity.

It’s your character that’s in question. It’s your reputation that’s at stake.

So, my question to you is … how well do you follow-up with your past clients? If they’re no longer working with you, do you check in on them once in a while? Not as a tactic to get more business, but because you’re generally interested in them?

One of my clients completed her work with me in November, but I knew she was scheduled for surgery on December 3. So, I checked on her.

I wrote a reminder in my calendar and texted her from my vacation on Grand Cayman the day of her surgery … and also a couple weeks later.

Why? Because I care about her, and it’s just the right thing to do!

It took two minutes to put a reminder in my calendar and maybe another two minutes to text her and wish her well. Doing the right thing doesn’t have to be hard or take very long!

So, pause for a moment here and take stock of how you’re doing in this area.

Do you check to see if your past clients were indeed happy with your services?

Do you keep clients’ important dates in your calendar?

Do you send birthday cards?

If you aren’t currently doing so, the business coach in me wants to suggest you make the effort to obtain your clients’ personal information from now on and send them birthday cards. They’ll thank you for it.

When you see something that speaks to them, do you send it along with a short note?

And, think about this as a good practice. Take a dozen or so of your best clients you’re currently not working with and simply send them a warm note.

Ooooh … good idea. In this day and age, a personal card goes a long way.

And the New Year is a perfect time to put structures like this in place.

Not all of these fall into the category of the right thing to do. Some are simply nice things to do. But either way, people will appreciate them and love you for making the effort.

Plus, you’ll feel great.

And my bet is you’ll get repeat business and more referrals as a natural unintended consequence!

Best Wishes,

Denise