The Business of Broadband

You want your business to grow just like your flower garden, right? Well, that takes proper care, feeding and sunshine, too.

Spring has sprung (finally!) and many of us are looking forward to sticking our hands – and some plants – in the dirt. We’ll watch over those tender buds to make sure they get just the right dose of sunshine, water and flower food to grow into big beautiful blooms.

You want your business to grow just like your flower garden, right? Well, that takes proper care, feeding and sunshine, too.

It’s not enough to focus on growing your customer base by adding new customers. You’ve also got to retain your existing customers for your customer base to truly grow.

How do you give your current customers the care, feeding and sunshine they need to stay loyal?

You need to create stronger relationships with customers that help them find additional value in the service you provide so that they feel an affinity and loyalty to your business.

Care for Your Network & Your Customers
Taking care of your customers means meeting their needs and expectations by keeping your service reliable. If your network isn’t working as well as your customers expect it to, they become less loyal and more likely to leave your service. Also, make sure your customer service and tech support representatives are trained to give consistent and reliable service. No matter whom your customers speak with when they call, each person should be able to meet or exceed the customer’s expectations.

Feed Customers with Relevant Communications
Consistent communication with your subscribers is essential to building strong relationships. Be sure to engage your customers with information they find relevant and valuable. You can achieve this by:

• Including brief announcements about upcoming maintenance or planned outages on your monthly bill
• Highlighting customer news, particularly for business customers, in your newsletter
• Post news, information and tips on your website to help customers get the most out of their computer and Internet connection
• Send periodic non-sales email messages to keep your customers up to date on Internet security issues, online safety tips, or general interest information
• Featuring actual customers in your local print, outdoor or online media advertising
• Engaging in social media

Spread Sunshine Around Your Community
Independent ISPs often have a long history in the communities they serve, and this is a major advantage over national providers. These ISPs should leverage that history by becoming actively involved in their communities. Sponsoring local schools, park & rec league teams, and supporting local charities are all good opportunities to create a reputation for a commitment to the community, while also connecting with many individual customers to cultivate direct and personal relationships.

Relationship Resources
If you’d like additional information on steps you can take to develop stronger customer relationships and increase customer loyalty, you may find these resources helpful:

• 7 Relationship-Building Strategies for Your Business
• Ten Tips to Build Customer Loyalty
• Customer Loyalty: Dos and Don’ts

Resources for ZCorum Affiliates
ZCorum Affiliates can follow the links below and log into the Exclusive Affiliate Center to access pre-configured and customizable materials to build relationships with customers.

• Internet Safety Month Campaign: June is national Internet Safety Month and you can connect with your customers by helping them protect their children online. We’ve prepared presentations you can give at community or school meetings, three email messages you can send throughout the month and links to additional Ad Council resources. Trend Micro, our partner in Internet Security, is running a video contest in support of Internet Safety Month.
• Goodwill Email Program: These read-to-send HTML email messages contain non-sales information that helps you connect with your customers. Plus, periodically sending goodwill messages may help increase acceptability and impact for other sales-oreinted messages you may send.
• Additional Campaigns: There are several additional campaigns, activities and events available in the Marketing Zone to help you build stronger customer relationships, including Home Enterstayment, Refuel for Summer, Summer Picnic & Open House and more.

If you’re not a current Affiliate, you can contact us for information on services, tools and resources available from ZCorum.