Keep Your Customers Engaged, Even When They're Out of Sight

In tough times, even the most service-oriented companies often see less of their best customers. The trick is to keep your company on their radar screens even though their wallets are clamped shut. When it's time to buy again, you'll be top of mind. How do you that? As a successful entrepreneur in the high-end retail clothing business, Jack Mitchell is an expert at customer relationships. "The economic tsunami hit us like everyone else," says Mitchell, the CEO of Mitchells/Richards/Marshs/Wilkes Bashford. "Loyal customers either took a break from shopping or shopped a lot less." But Mitchell isn't just sitting around waiting for them to come back, and neither should you. Here are a few ways he keeps his company top of mind with customers:

Step up marketing of secondary services. "We call our customers, email them or drop them a note," says Mitchell, who still sends personal, handwritten notes to customers (he's actually written a book called Hug Your Customers). "And we let them know we're still available to do alterations and that we'll come to their home, look at their closet and see what is still wearable." Each salesperson at Mitchell's five stores in Connecticut, New York, and California are charged with keeping in close touch with their database of clients.

Send meaningful swag. While top customers might receive a gift of fragrance or even a bottle of wine, Mitchell also came up with a list of simple, inexpensive ways to show appreciation. Among them: the store sends out books of one or two-cent stamps whenever the postal rate goes up (the last increase was in May 2009, at the height of the recession). "We probably sent out 1,000 books, along with notes saying 'we know how valuable your time is,'" recalls Mitchell.

Reach out to your community. "We had an event almost every week at our Mitchells store in Westport, CT," says Mitchell. Local not-for profits, such as the Boys & Girls Club, or the local hospital, used the store for their meetings and for fundraisers. "Sometime we'd give 10% off anything spent that evening," says Mitchell. The goal was not only to show the community that the company was in business for the long haul, but also to continue its reputation as a good citizen even in tough times.

Position yourself to grow. Mitchell describes the above strategies as "defensive." But when he began to see some glimmers of recovery, it was time to go on the offense again. "We started thinking about how we were going to drive customers in the store," he says. Throughout the recession, Mitchell's marketing campaign featured affordable, quality products while also emphasizing the intrinsic value of the stores' high-end offerings. More recently, he's begun to send out certificates for, say, $100 off a suit or $50 off a pair of shoes. Business, he says, 'is picking up nicely."

What do you do to keep your company top of mind with your customers?

Out of Sight image by Flick user INeedCoffee/CoffeeHero, CC 2.0