Turn every customer into an opportunity

This article was included in the April 5th, 2016 issue of the LACRM Newsletter.

In every business, building a robust customer base is clearly a priority. But your relationship with your leads shouldn’t end once a sale is won. While it’s tempting to always be on the lookout for fresh new leads, your former or existing customers can often end up being the best form of advertising for your business! Here is what Estelle and Stephen Cockcroft, owners of Catamaran Guru, have to say about why they focus on past customers:

“We treat our past customers like royalty because they are our biggest source of new customers just from all the word-of-mouth referrals that they generate. Another good thing is that because we actively follow up with all our customers, many of our former customers also end up becoming repeat customers -- which is great for any small business!”

-Estelle & Stephen Cockcroft, Owners of Catamaran Guru

How can a CRM help?

When you attach a pipeline to a contact in the CRM, you can track the entire process of turning any potential client into an existing or past customer. This also means that even after a sale has been closed, you have a full record of any past pipeline activity. Estelle and Stephen use their pipeline reports to see who their former and existing customers are which allows them to stay on top of all their old relationships. So instead of having to dig through long-ago interactions to look for past customers, they can generate an updated list whenever they want!

Tip to try: Create a list of your customers by filtering the pipeline report to see all of your successful sales, and send everyone a quick email to let them know that you loved working with them. A small gesture of gratitude goes a long way to make sure your customers are happy, and if you haven’t caught up with them in some time, it reminds them of how your business helped them out! Click here for a tutorial on how to create a list of all your former and existing customers.