CSDP's Blog:

I recently started a discussion on LinkedIn where I asked if anyone had a recipe for building great customer relationships, and the results were pretty impressive. But what struck me as amazing, was the strong common theme amongst most of the responses.

Here is the result: A recipe using the finest ingredients to mix up the perfect customer relationship…

1. Start by rolling out a foundation of trust. Add a large amount of honesty to your relationship and always deliver what you promise.
2. Peel and slice the customer’s words in order to really understand what they’re telling you. You need to LISTEN in order to know what’s best for them!
3. Add a heaping cup of open communication. The customer wants you to acknowledge their intelligence and feel respected.
4. Place motivated, understanding, and courteous employees into a large pot and gently stir in training, objectives, and leadership so that they will do anything to satisfy your customer.
5. Prepare your customers for any problems or setbacks that may occur.
6. Mix in proactive service in order to anticipate your customer’s needs.
7. Skim off any insincerity. Customers want genuine interest and earnestness.
8. Combine these ingredients in order to build the best customer relationships possible!
9. Garnish with random friendly phone calls just to check in and genuine cards to say thank you!