Earn Every Customer

When Elaine Fogel asked a local printer to bid on a direct mail project, she got much more than she expected: a note straight from the company's CEO.

"It is important to me that your questions were handled knowledgeably, professionally and efficiently," he wrote, stressing that he hoped the estimate was easy to understand and had arrived in a timely fashion. "If you have concerns about any of the above," he concluded, "please don't hesitate to share them with me."

This type of executive follow-up was a first for Fogel. "Very good first impression," she writes in a recent post at the MarketingProfs blog Daily Fix. But what happened next proved even more surprising.

When she let the CEO know that his quote exceeded that of other suppliers, he responded with astonishing honesty: "You have brought to the surface and confirmed a weak spot with my pricing … I will be reconfiguring the pricing model. ... Maybe you can give us another try come October?" The CEO so impressed Fogel with his attention to detail and level of communication that she agreed without hesitation.

The Po!nt: "I value business owners or CEOs who take the time to earn every customer," writes Fogel. And encouraging your executive team to interact directly with customers has the potential for additional, long-term ROI. "One never knows … the small-volume customer today may turn into the larger-volume one of tomorrow."

Source: MarketingProfs Daily Fix. To read the entire post and the buzz it created, go here.

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