One of Conditioned Air’s customers sent us a nice thank-you letter. A couple of months later I was talking to him, and he mentioned he was a tad disappointed that we hadn’t followed up with him.

In our business we want to look for any reason to “touch” the customer. The more we are in contact with a customer, the more opportunities they have to see what kind of company we are.

So I went to each of our office staff and explained that anytime we have an opportunity to touch a customer, we need to seize it:

• When we get a thank-you letter, our service manager has a great chance to dash off a quick handwritten thank-you card in return.
• When a part we ordered is delayed, we can send email or call to give the customer a quick status update.
• When we make a mistake, we have a major opportunity to apologize and fix it.
• When someone complains about one of our trucks speeding (hey, it occasionally happens), we can turn that into a positive experience by thanking them, explaining how we’ll handle it with the culprit, then giving them a coupon for helping us be a better company.
• When anyone allows us to do a project for them, we want to always thank them with a post card!

Sit down right now and write down five different opportunities you have to “touch” your customers. Then train your staff and follow up to make sure they are taking advantage of every opportunity.