No matter what business you're in, your clientele is a vital element to your success and development. Not only are they your source of income, they are also a source of information that allows you to grow, improve products, services, and even affect the structure and function of your business.
Through Customer Relationship Management, businesses are able to deliver to their customer with a unique connection. Keep in mind that a customer database is comprised of individuals. Each individual is seeks to do business with another individual.
Companies, small and large, while comprised of a group of individuals are always represented and associated with the "one person" who interacts most with the company.
Today our many digital tools, made to simplify the relationship between a business and their clients, often are the very items that make the interaction impersonal. Even with social media, you must have a specific focus of creating a relationship with your client or you can fall into the practice of merely broadcasting to the masses in your social platforms.
Your personal brand and customer relationship management
In a recent conversation with J.P. Narowski, CEO of KarmaCRM - a web-based small business customer relationship management system, he shared that part of the reason he developed KarmaCRM was because of the impersonal nature of customer relationship management (CRM ) systems:
"For about six months I tried every software package out there because like most developers I resisted the urge to reinvent the wheel. I was looking for a simple, fast tool that would allow me and my sales guy to work on projects together. All of the packages seemed to fall short."
In our discussion, he revealed that the reason he named the business KarmaCRM was:
"Because I wanted to bring some harmony and balance back to the CRM world. I also think the best sales people are not just selling their product but helping out their customer in a number of ways because they want to. Therefore the customer is more comfortable with them and their services, and it comes back around in business. Do good to others and treat the right and your business will grow (karma) type of thing" explained Narowski.
Small businesses let your personal brand shine through
If a business spends time getting to know their clients and customers they can better serve their needs. As you become better acquainted with individuals, you can prepare for trends and evolve with the demands of your audience.
It also give you "space and time" to let your personal brand shine through.
In the hustle and flurry of activity that we do every day, it's often too easy to fall into becoming disconnected from our connections and even disconnected, in their mind, from the very personal brand that brought them to the table.
What I appreciated with my discussion with J.P. Narwoski, is that he focuses on growing slow so he doesn't lose the focus of creating good karma which is really the unique promise of value for his brand.
In their shoes
I focus on small business owners and entrepreneurs who are in a unique state of transition. They have a personal brand and its one strong enough that they know their unique promise of value; it's expressed in everything that they do, touch and say; and the expression of it is evolving. Why? Because they are beginning to grow and develop their business to a point where it becomes more than just "them" interacting with their customers and the successful extension of their brand is where the struggle lies.
And, that's why I'm always on the lookout for good tools. From Hootsuite to manage your social media interactions and tracking, to Do.com to measure your projects or from KarmaCRM to manage your customer data to WhenIsGood.net to managing your meeting scheduling - every tool I use focuses on automating the process but not the relationship.
The relationship and connection is very personal and need to remain so.
What do you to keep things personal in your business?
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