Secret Ingredient: Phone Accessibility

How many times have you dialed a business phone number only to reach a recording, or even worse, an automated answering system?

In his latest blog post on the Signage Success Tour, John Lewis, President of Direct Sign Wholesale, outlines the third secret ingredient to sign business success: phone accessibility. Even while on the road, John sets aside a few hours to call customers that he’d like to visit the following week.

John comments in the recent blog post that companies making an extra effort to answer their phones added a personal touch with communicating with their customers; and those companies seemed to be bringing in more business. All too often, we sit in front of our computers and ping the person sitting right next to us rather than talking to one another. The following are a few more tips for adding a personal touch to your client communication:

• Follow-ups. It’s easy to get in an “automated” mode when responding to phone calls and emails. But it most cases following up with customers is key to making progress with building your relationship. Try setting aside 10-30 minutes every few days to go through your messages and responding.
• Face-to-Face. It’s always nice to put a face to a name. Especially when you’re building a business relationship or trying to move quickly on a project. In my own experience, face-to-face meetings are often the most productive and establish a stronger and solid partnership with the client.
• Leave Behinds. These could be as simple as a business card or as detailed as Channel Letter Information Guide. There are so many times we’ve left a client meeting only to realize we’d forgot to mention something or hadn’t directly addressed the action items needed. Leave behind something that is valuable to their business.

Stay up-to-date with more secret ingredients to sign business success by following the Signage Success Tour blog by John Lewis.