Cc:

Customer Connection [Cc:]

1) Inform Your Client [IYC]

We need to spend time to educate our client about the current project. Technology is not a top secret any longer. We are living in an open-source environment, so always unlock the so-called “Top Secret”.

2) Recognize Your Client [RYC]

Spend time to speak to your client on their area of interest. We could chat about soccer/cricket, travel, food, uniqueness of the place etc., anything that has crossroads with your interest. These connections will bring in faith.

3) Be Crystal Clear [BCc:]

Yes, all the Apps do have traffic jams. It’s not about clearing-up the traffic jams; it’s all about sorting out the issues at the initial level. Be so transparent to your client on the project concern and known threats.

4) Nod Your Head: “YES” [NYHY]

It’s tricky, still we need to adopt it. Willingness to agree the challenges and new R&D work could let you in superior books of your client. It’s not only a project delivery, but for our own knowledge too. Make sure it’s not happening very often and be clear to draw a line between extended work and exploited effort.

5) Nod Your Head: “NO” [NYHN]

We need to take the time to understand why our client is asking us to do this; let them know our reasons against it, and try to find any further solutions together. Client is GOD, but they are “Always not Right”. Help them to make balanced judgment (if needed). Don’t agree to the things, which could go awful. Better not to fight with fire [than] struggle with an alarming flag.

6) Gently Observe [GO]

Let it be phone call, mail or chat; Listen to your client patiently. Most of the time people find it difficult to communicate what they feel. They will be in search of words and trying hard to put the things on your table. So don't end with any ideas until the client feels that they are comfortable on what they wanted to communicate fully. Listening patiently might be tough, but it will bring in immense profit.

7) Boost-Up Belief [BUB]

Best way to increase your client’s faith is to keep-on focused on your deliverables. When we deliver what we say and when we say we will deliver it, we build our trustworthiness and enhance our rapport. The trust the client gives us increases, and will help us when we insist “this task will take two days” for instance, when they imagine it’s just a easy tweak and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. The most significant thing is letting them know that we are part of the team; we are both on the identical boat, planning the same goals. Once your client recognizes that their failure are also your failures, and their success are your achievements as well and the other way around, then you’ll be a step further in expanding their trust.

8) Throw-Away Compliments [TAC]

Make sure you send occasional greetings to your clients. New Year, Christmas, B'day or any grand day to send greetings would be a pleasant way of being sociable.

9) Enjoy Your Effort [EYE]

Knowing the client relationship is part of your job. Your efforts are forever enjoyable.

10) Keep Distance [KD]

Always be clear on your roles and responsibilities. We need to be careful in keeping our distance so we can persist to provide valued advice and knowledge.

Build a great brand experience

It’s really hard to build a brand. It’s hard to get the attention of others, it’s hard to get people onto your website, and it’s hard to create something that people will buy and use. We realized early on that the best visitors we get hear about us through word of mouth. Word of mouth is driven by happy people who have a great brand experience.

This is how we’ve focused on building a great brand experience:

1. Trust : A great brand experience needs to establish trust between the business and its customers. We establish trust by giving surprisingly honest feedback to customers (such as sending them to a competitor if they’re not a good fit), making it easy for anyone to get in contact with us (by putting a phone number on our website), and focusing on coaching instead of selling.
2. Do the work for the customer : We try to do as much work for the customer as possible. This means spending extra time designing a product to simplify the first time experience, asking for the least amount of information needed to solve a problem, and putting the onus on us to do the work.
3. Creating a genuinely useful product.
4. Surprise people with greatness : Give people unique and useful things that they’ll actually use. Give out the best quality t-shirt you can find instead of settling for the standard Hanes. Give people unique things they couldn’t get anywhere else. Give people something that will make them feel proud to support you.

Brand is everything. It’s every interaction with someone outside of your business. It’s your company culture. It’s your production process and the way you deal with a bug.

The secret to brand building is to start early and often. Your brand is not your logo or color scheme, it’s how people think about you. It’s the way that you represent yourself.