Tips to Improve Customer Relationships

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Customers

Any business professional should know how to manage customer relationships and event planners have a unique perspective on these. ABCey has outlined five insider tips to help improve customer relationships and motivate your customer base to choose you over the competition!

Customers Value Quality Over Quantity

As event planners, we are often in a rush to satisfy our customer’s needs quickly and present preliminary results as soon as possible. However, rushing in order to satisfy the customer could impact the results and the quality of our work negatively. When all is said and done, most customers remember how competently and accurately we did our jobs and prefer that we are knowledgeable and precise rather than fast. In fact, a recent Gallup study revealed that the number one reason customers leave a service is because they feel too rushed. Very few people have stated they have left a service because it was too slow.

Customers Value Time Over Money

When it comes to events, always make sure to promise your customers a good experience rather than an inexpensive service! Customers feel better about a brand or a service if they feel like their time was well spent. They will most likely chose a service that guarantees their event to be a success and a great experience, no matter how inexpensive your service is compared to others. Most people favor memories of good times over memories of great savings.

People are Willing to Pay More for Customization

Offering basic packages is easy. Often, the small differences help your service or brand stand out. Surprise your customers with unexpected extras and put additional effort into your work. Your customers will notice additional benefits and pay more if they feel comfortable with your work. They are also likely to be repeat customers in the future, because they will remember little extras you offered in your service.

Loyalty Programs Actually Work

Offer your customers a loyalty program and they will stand by your brand. When you start a loyalty program with a first-time customer immediately, they are more likely to come back and finish the program. You could offer a 10% discount to repeat customers or offer discounts for referrals. There are many ways to reward loyalty! Be creative and have be open to suggestions and ideas.

Customers Love Stories

Persuade your customers of the value of your service or brand by sharing brand-related stories or anecdotes. Past researches have shown that storytelling is one of the most persuasive forms of communication, whether in verbal or non-verbal from. If we can connect our service or brand to a story, we convey lasting messages in our customer’s mind, because they build relevant connections. Therefore, storytelling enables us to leave a powerful impression on our audience.

What valuable lessons have you learned from your customers? Tell us about in in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter!

Utilizing Loyalty to Make Your Event a Success

Loyalty has been used in marketing for hundreds of years but it is perhaps in the past 40 years that we have really seen the growth of loyalty programs. Programs such as airline frequent flyer points, credit card points, coffee shop loyalty cards or hotel club memberships are all examples of this growth.

This type of marketing is all about repeat business and if you run regular, or even annual events then you will know that repeat attendees are an incredibly important group of people; both in terms of direct bookings, but also because they help you advertise your event to their peers. At ABCey Events, we cherish these relationships and wanted to share a few ideas that can be borrowed from loyalty programs to make your next event a huge success!

1. Make Previous Attendees Feel Privileged: When announcing a new event think about the ways that you could make previous attendees feel exclusive. For example, you could leverage principles from airline loyalty schemes such as priority boarding by telling these people that you have reserved them a seat in the front row as long as they confirm before a certain date. Or perhaps you could offer them a free gift such as a shopping voucher or a free night in a nice local hotel if you know they are traveling from a distance.

2. More is Better: It’s true, we are all greedy and we all like more – aim to give a few additional surprises at your event that the attendees were not expecting. This will make your event memorable for all! This could be utilized in the form of a bonus speaker that the attendees were not expecting, a free gift for all, or even a surprise drink reception!

3. Incentivize Feedback: Positive feedback is a mechanism to confirm a good experience in someone’s mind. By asking all attendees at your event for feedback you will firstly give yourself the opportunity to improve your next event, but you will also improve loyalty amongst this group of people as it shows that you care about their opinions! For the people that give you positive feedback, it has the effect of helping them to relive and solidify in their mind the memory of something that they enjoyed. This positive recognition is very helpful when you contact them about future events as they are more likely to attend and also to share your event information with their peers.

4. Build Strong Relationships with Your Speakers: Having positive relationships with speakers will make more speakers come your way and want to work with you in the future.If your speakers enjoy being at your event and they have a strong rapport with you, this will be visible to all.

Events are a great opportunity to build a personal bond with your most loyal customers so make sure that you reward & incentivize them appropriately! Will you be using these tips to create that bond? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!