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  • Peter Davidson
    Peter brings over twelve years of marketing experience for both a professional services firm and a large non-profit organization. Peter has built successful permission email marketing systems, word of mouth marketing programs and has built communities of interest around a variety of topics using blogs. He currently writes for three blogs on marketing, branding, design and technology.

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« Leaders: Stimulate Fresh Thinking | Main | More on Being A Good Customer »

Eight Ways to Be A Good Customer

Sarah Eaton over at my sister blog BeTuitive talks about being a good follower. That got me thinking. I talk about developing tools and systems that help you know more about your customers. In a sense leading your customers. As a customer are you a good follower?

Eight ways to be a good customer:
Participate in Customer Intuition Systems - Be sure you are on the company's mailing list. Make sure that they have accurate contact information for you. Subscribe to their email newsletter.
Speak Up - If you are a satisfied customer let them know. Write an old fashioned letter. It's hard to pass around copies of a voicemail or recorded call center call.
Offer Constructive Criticism - If there is a way they can improve a product, service or experience offer them constructive criticism. Even great companies have many areas that can stand improvement.
Link To Them - Of course, I'll assume you have a e-newsletter or a blog. If you like a company or product say so by linking to them and talking about why you like them.
Comment on Their Corporate Blog - show your support for a company or product you like by being active in the community and conversations they are fostering on their blogs and newsletters.
Respond to Surveys and Questionaires - If a business you value asks for your input give it to them. Yes, we're all busy these days but your input might make or break a new initiative that you would value or conversely it might save you pain and loss of time in the future.
Reffer a Friend or Collegue - Share your good experiences with your network. What goes around comes around. This is a pathway to discovering new great people to do business with.
and, of course
Buy Their Product, Service or Experience - Continue to support the businesses you value by being a repeat customer.

These are basic elements of building B2B sales relationships but it is surprising to me how few people follow even these basics.

Update:Jackie Huba adds to the conversation in More on Being A Good Customer.

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June 1, 2005 in award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Blogs, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, Business Marketing, Business newsletter, Business publications, Business relationships, CMO, Current Affairs, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink

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» How to be a better customer from Lifehacker
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Comments

I don't know if I agree with the "old fashioned letter" approach. Email, yes, old fashioned letter no. If I were in a company and got a paper letter, even a great one, it would pretty much end there. I may walk it over to an colleague or two, but that's it. An email I'll send to a dozen people, who will in turn send it to a dozen people, and soon your entire company knows about this one customer who loves you so much and what you did that was so right.

Posted by: Cam | Jun 10, 2005 4:26:04 AM