Category — Customer Service

Staying in touch with your customer base is one of the most important things you can do to grow your business and increase sales revenue. At Optum Consulting we receive a lot of emails asking us “what is the best service we can use to maintain our customers’ email addresses?” That’s a great question. Currently we have been using the same service for about seven years. We receive no money from them for telling our clients about their services – this is not an advertisement. And in fact, I bet half the time they might never even know that we recommended them. The simple fact of the matter is that they are one of the best email database services out there for the price. Their system works and they are affordable.

We’ve done the research and we still think this particular company is the most affordable and best ‘bang for the buck’ when your company wants to stay in regular contact with your customers every month – which you need to be doing no matter what you are selling, whether it is goods or services. It is one of those “essentials” of good business. If you want to know the name of the company we use, please email us at info@optumconsulting.com, and we will be happy to tell you. I will post future entries regarding just how important building, sorting, cleaning, maintaining, and growing your email database is to any business.

In the meantime, let us focus on another issue regarding business which is just as important – responding to customer emails – or potential customer emails. When you’re in business, if you’re lucky, you are going to receive a lot of emails everyday. Some will be orders. Some will be questions. Some will be complaints. The most important thing you can do to grow your business and keep it growing is to reply promptly to emails from customers or potential customers. We have all heard the common phrase “If one of your customers is happy with your business, they will tell one or two of their friends. If they are UNhappy with your business they will tell FIVE of their friends.” Unfortunate but true. This is how you separate the men from the boys so to speak — to use an outdated and slightly sexist phrase.

So let us use a real world example and I will show you exactly what we are talking about here. We just received an email today from a new company in the “music business” that calls itself “Fanbridge.” Now new companies in the music business are not a new thing. Especially not NOW. In the new “renegade internet age,” a new “music business-related” company crops up every few hours claiming that they are THE THING that will help artists “skyrocket your career to the next level.” Why? Because let’s face it, it isn’t that difficult to start what “looks like” a new company in the internet age. You simply create a website and hope that people come along and lay down some money. Whether or not you deliver on the promises you make to your potential customers is an entirely different matter.
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