When times get tough businesses have to pay more attention to the needs of their best customers. Now, more than ever, ensuring customer satisfaction is imperative; especially the satisfaction of those customers that provide the most value. Remember, a happy customer will tell at least five other people about their experience with your business, and many of those will do business with you in the future. Unhappy customers? They’ll tell a lot more.
The best opportunity for increasing sales in uncertain times is to pay close attention to the existing client base. Losing customers is expensive. It is estimated to cost 500 percent more to land a new client, than it costs to take care of an existing one. This premise lies at the heart of strategic account management.
Strategic Account management is about:
- Identifying the most valued clients
- Understanding their needs and most critical challenges
- Studying their buying patterns
- Calling on them regularly
It starts with developing an understanding that not all customers are equal and only a few customers are of strategic importance to the future success of the business. Once a strategic customer is identified, and the customer feels comfortable to invest in co-development, account management policies have to be crafted in such a way that the business now becomes an integral part of the solution to a problem that the customer is trying to solve.
At Total Recruitment Group we have launched a nationwide Strategic Account Management programme to look after our customers. Our Account Managers will be working with clients to grow the value of our services whilst strengthening our partnership.