As a business owner, providing great customer service is the most effective and least expensive way of marketing.  In my humble opinion, I believe that majority of a small businesses marketing time and budget should be spent on building solid relationships with clients and prospective clients.

In my 10 years in business, relationship based marketing has been the single most effective way I have marketed my business. For me the key part of relationship based marketing is being customer service driven and providing a continuous value-added approach.  To date, majority of my clients, at least 80-90% have been a direct result of referrals from individuals who I have developed a relationship with and who are happy and content with my services, enough so to spread the word.

Any business can spend thousands of dollars, even tens of thousands of dollars marketing their business but if you’re not good at what you do or do not treat your client as the valuable asset they are, they will not be coming back.  It’s that simple.  It’s no secret that it is more expensive to get a new client than to keep an existing client. 

One thing I do every week is take a client service inventory. A time for me to reflect on how I can bring value to my clients and ensure they are receiving superior service. Asking myself what I can do to support them in being more organized, productive, creative and most of all more successful.  Then I do it!

I encourage you to create your own client service inventory.  Take a few minutes and ask yourself how you can take a value added approach with your clients this week then implement it!  

 Your clients will thank-you and so will your business!