One piece of advice I like to give professional clients is this: When you’re completing your client checks, make sure you get the birth dates of the client’s spouse/partner and any children. And then make sure you send these people a birthday card at the appropriate time. If you can do that electronically then so much the better. Why? Several reasons.
- It is a human thing to do and most professionals are not very good at ‘being human.’
- It demonstrates a commitment to caring about your clients beyond sending them a bill for informing of their tax position.
- While recommendation is always best, keeping up a relationship with the client’s family is just as important. Who knows the “& Sons” bit of a company name might one day actually mean something.
- It represents low cost, common sense marketing.
Let me give a practical illustration that also speaks to the wider topic of social networking and its underlying value.
Yesterday was my birthday. I lost count of the number of e-cards, email messages, Twitter greetings, Google Group messages and Facebook wall posts wishing me a ‘happy birthday.’ It went over 100 and represented a near constant stream of good wishes throughout the day. Guess what? All those people, many of whom I’ve never met, just went up a few notches in the ‘people I value’ stakes. It also made for a really nice day and counts as one of the nicest birthdays I’ve ever had. In that sense, it speaks to the power of networking as a relationship builder.
I use Plaxo. It allows me to easily connect with anyone in my extended network and notifies me 7 days in advance of someone’s birthday – if that information exists somewhere in the networks to which Plaxo connects. I can then decide if I wish to send a card, which design I’d like, what the greeting should say, which font I’d prefer and when the greeting is delivered. The whole process takes no more than 1 minute. Anyone can afford that amount of time.
At $19.95 for the e-card facility, Plaxo’s cost is trivial yet I reckon it’s one of the best investments you can make. I have the Premium service which costs $49 per year. Even so, that’s a piffling amount for any firm.
As an alternative, Maggie Fox reckons the someecards service is the best. The illustration comes from the one she sent me. It made me smile.
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