Christine and I were working in the
garden when suddenly our next door neighbour appeared at our gate with six fresh eggs.
His chickens had just laid them that morning, he explained. Yum!
We chatted for five minutes about this and that before he asked, 'Michael, do you have a cordless drill I could borrow for a couple of hours, please?
I did; and a few minutes later it was in his hands - complete with charger and a
reassurance he can 'hang on to if for as long as he needed'.
But that's not quite true. He can hang on to it... but only until I need it.
Reciprocity runs out.
Of course I would have loaned him the drill without the eggs, but they were a nice opener. A sweetener or poacher as they will be known in the morning.
Your customers think the same. Your equivalent of six eggs may be an introductory
offer, a lot of early attention or a fancy meeting in a posh restaurant.
Your longevity (keep the drill) will depend on communication, constant emotional deposits and multiple good reasons why they should stay loyal to you.
Here are 3 sure fire ways to put deposits in your customers emotional bank account. Deposits that will help you to build and maintain reciprocity.
1) Call rather than email. A
friendly, genuinely interested voice is worth 20 emails.
2) Give them something they haven't already got. A report, a book, a tip, an introduction, anything to show you genuinely care about them.
3) Contact more often than you think you need to. Think of 3 customers you should have been in touch with and call them. Do this now.
Be Brilliant!
