Innovation/Communication

A colleague I worked with for many years in our advertising department had a favorite expression, “They haven’t stopped advertising Pepsi, have they?” When I was out with sales people visiting customers or working trade shows, nothing irked me more than, at the end of a great presentation, hearing a customer say, “I didn’t know you did that” or “I didn’t know you had that.” Too often followed up with, “I had a job last year I could have used that on.” My salespeople would insist they had brought this service or product to their attention. Most of the time I believed they probably did, just not often enough.

It is important to continually communicate to your customers what products and services you can provide, and why they do business with you. We are all busy and time is valuable, so it is important to be able to get your message across simply in a few words and often. Too many times customers only remember you from the last transaction. You may have done some exterior storefront work, and they do not know you also do interior projects. They may not think of you as a company that can offer design ideas and solutions unless you communicate this to them.

As business are allowed to reopen, they are going to need partners that offer them creative and innovative solutions to protect their employees and customers. You need to communicate your capabilities and how you can help them solve problems.

The quickest way is communicating with email. You don’t want to bombard your customers, but you do want to remind them how you can partner with them to solve problems. If you’re a small company and don’t use email broadcast software, there are several free programs you can find online to get you started. Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor both have free options.

Take pictures, be sympathetic, offer solutions and tell your story. You may want to send out a picture of your crew wearing protective masks and letting your customers know they are trained to wear masks inside and keep social distancing, along with any other steps you’re taking to keep your employees healthy. Start your email by letting them know you are concerned about their health and business. Then tell your story. If you have completed some social distancing projects let them know. List your capabilities so they know all you do.