Last week we discussed the first three ways to engage with your customers and keep them satisfied and brand loyal. The tips below and in our first blog on successful customer management focus on keeping customers, getting them to want more and exciting them enough to initiate word of mouth. This week we’ll round out the list with keeping your customers informed and going that extra mile.

Keep Your Customers Informed while Work Is in Progress

Nobody likes to wait for work to be done. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to wait an entire minute for a website to load. Time is more valuable than gold. In fact, no amount of gold can equal a second of someone’s time. You can’t get back time that is wasted.

So if you do have to make your customer wait for something, be it some unexpected server downtime, a delay in the food that was ordered or the product that was bought, make sure you keep your customer informed during the wait.

Pamper your customers by telling them exactly what is happening at that moment. Are you checking that the product is in top condition before handing it over? Tell them. Does it take a long time for the fish to be cooked to perfection? Tell them. Is the software programming team checking every single line of code to make sure it’s perfect? Tell them.

Have you ever tracked a UPS or FedEx package with a tracking code? UPS and FedEx give you tracking codes so you can stay informed while you wait. This makes for a very happy customer.

Keeping customers informed makes them appreciate the time they’re spending waiting. Many businesses overlook this issue. You’ll be able to maintain customers for a lifetime if you keep them well-informed during a wait.

The Coup de Grâce

Once the job is done or the product has been delivered, you’d better not count your chickens before they hatch. There’s one last step. The parting shot. The home stretch.

Give your customer a call, or send them an email. Ask them what they think about the product. Ask for their comments. Ask about what they think about you, your company or your business. Let them know that you care about what they think. You’re not dropping them because you already got their money; you’re in this for the long term.

You want to create a relationship. A partnership.

Let them know that you are an exceptional company and that you deserve their trust as much as they deserve your service.

There’s No Rocket Science Involved

Devoting time and effort to individual customers is difficult. We at Thumbtack don’t yet do it as well as we’d like. We do some of these things, but we’re always striving to do more. We know that each new program we launch to build a relationship with our customers will boost our business.

It’s all about making your customers feel at home. Make them feel extra special and give them a little extra so they’ll want to tell all their friends about you. You don’t need to grab hold of everyone’s attention, you just need to get one customer to believe in your business so they can’t wait to tell the world how awesome you are.

Once you’ve converted one customer into a lifelong partner, a chain reaction will occur. They’ll come in twos. In threes. In multitudes.

Are you ready to boost your business?

Author Bio:

by Thumbtack

Thumbtack is an online marketplace for local services based in San Francisco, CA. Thumbtack was started in 2008 and is available nationwide. Thumbtack provides an easy way for small businesses to market themselves online. More than 170,000 local service professionals have used Thumbtack's free listings to market themselves online. Thumbtack also provides consumers with a quick and trusted way to book local services online. Do you need a graphic designer or a home remodeler to do a job for you? Thumbtack seeks to deliver 3-5 bids on any kind of local service job to your email inbox within 24 hours. This helps save you time and money when searching for reputable local professionals.