Follow Up—With Custom Corporate Note Cards

It’s time to make business personal again—learn what one of our engineering customers discovered about nurturing relationships during a long term project:

Proper care of your customer doesn’t end when you get the contract—it’s almost more important to nurture your business relationship during the project than it is upon completion, especially in the case of long term and complex collaborations. We all know that you usually get more of what you reward, so be sure to recognize and “reward” client behavior.

One of our larger engineering customers kept re-ordering a custom engineering thank you card we had designed for them using their logo, and they were ordering to the tune of about 100 of them each month! Needless to say, that’s a few more than most firms usually order and we were curious. It turns out that they were using these mighty little business note cards to thank (“reward”) client team members at all levels for their timely follow up to questions, meetings, and requests for information.

The engineering firm calculated that this simple technique alone had saved massive amounts of “aggracost”, headed off potential misunderstandings, and helped them to meet milestones on time or early—all while building a much richer relationship with their client. They didn’t replace the standard project communications, but these little corporate note cards served to build a collaborative relationship with their client that was profitable for both.

And guess which engineering firm now regularly receives referrals from that same client?

Things to keep in mind:

• If you are writing a business thank you card on behalf of your organization, have good quality custom, corporate logo note cards printed and keep a supply on hand. Suitable for many different occasions, professional logo note cards build and reinforce your brand, and are just as important as good quality business letterhead and business cards.
• Keep a book of stamps handy—nothing stops the mail, or you, like the lack of a stamp.

Remember, clients and customers are not transactions, so don’t treat them as if they are. It’s time to make business personal again—like it used to be.

What methods have you found to nurture your business relationships?

Next up: How to Keep in Touch With Clients: Part 3 We’ll share more of your ideas and get down to the nitty-gritty-Miss-Manners part of writing thank you cards for business.

Missed Part 1? Look here for Part 1 of Keeping in Touch with Clients.