A few weeks ago, I mentioned that there were some “numbers you might care about“.
Examples included figuring out the costs to obtain both new leads and customers.
In prior discussions, I’ve also suggested that you need to be thanking your customers, following up, tracking referrals, making sure purchase intervals aren’t abnormal and so on.
And then…I get emails.
Some of them tell me I’m nuts because no one has time to do all that and that I must be making it up. Others get it and they ask HOW to get all that stuff done.
Getting Stuff Done
Here’s a primer on getting this stuff done. What I mean by “primer” is that it’s simple and you don’t have to buy anything fancy or expensive, nor do you need to do anything geeky. You *can*, of course, but it’s not a requirement.
Start with these tools:
- A free calendar (banks, insurance agents and others hand them out all the time). A large one-month-per-page desk calendar is best if you feel the need to splurge.
- A free pen/pencil (ditto)
- A $0.99 yellow pad
We’ll keep it simple for now and create a process for each of these events:
- A new prospect contacts you
- A customer buys for the first time (or buys again)
- Someone calls to make an appointment.
- You communicate with a prospect or customer.
Dirty Work
Now it’s time for the real work.
Use the yellow pad for these tasks:
- When a prospect contacts you, write their name on a yellow pad sheet. Write the date they first contacted you at the top. Below that, write “Last contact date” and keep it updated (yes, it’ll get a little messy, but this is a paper system). Ask them who to thank for sending them to you. Write down the answer as “Source”.
- Keep a separate sheet for each prospect and sort them by last name, unless you have a different way that works better for you.
- When a prospect becomes a customer by buying something, write a C in one of the upper corners of the page so you know they’re a customer. Write the first date of purchase at the top of the page. Write “Last purchase date” below it. Update it each time they purchase.
- When contacting (or contacted by) a customer or prospect, write a summary of each contact on their sheet. Indicate briefly their satisfaction level.
Use the calendar to remind you to perform these tasks:
- Record appointments. Make note of them on the prospect/customer sheet so you can follow up as well as thank them.
- Record follow up dates for new customers and most recent purchases.
- Follow up after an on-site delivery or service to make sure all is well. If a staff member or contractor does the work, follow up to make sure that they were clean, courteous and took care of the customer’s needs.
Do these every day:
- Check the calendar for follow ups, appointments, thank yous and such. Make them that day. Don’t get behind or you’ll never do them.
- Check the contact sheets to make sure that customers are being properly taken care of. Your “satisfaction level” comments should feed this process.
- Check the contact sheets for customers who haven’t bought in at least a month (or whatever makes sense). Follow up to see what went wrong.
Boooooorinnnng
Yes, it’s mundane stuff.
It’s what *so many businesses* flunk at day-in and day-out. Get the basics right first.
Disclaimer: The computer guy half of my head insists that I remind you that manual processes and yellow pads don’t scale well (and eventually not at all), meaning that what works for 20 or 100 customers doesn’t work worth a darn for 500, 1000 or 10000.
Because paper doesn’t scale, I know what happens next. You get busy and eventually, you just won’t do the work. This happens despite the realization that doing all that stuff is at least part of the reason you got so busy.
If you do realize there’s a connection, then you’ll either decide to introduce some technology or you’ll get some help. This kind of work is ideal for a stay-at-home parent, retiree or similar.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site or contact him via email at mriffey at flatheadbeacon.com.