We are all guilty of this one, you get a lead and you are busy with other orders and customers and you don’t follow up right away and you lost any chance of generating a new customer from the lead. I am sitting on 3 leads right now that I have received over the past week and a half and I have yet to follow up with them. Why? Put simply I did not make it a priority. I was working on current customer quotes and processing orders and taking care to fires with vendors and the rest of the day to day stuff.
I can pretty much forget about these leads ever turning into loyal customers because I’ve dropped the ball on following up quickly. I read a study that claims if you follow up with a prospect within 24 hours your chances to gain a new customer are upwards of 90%.
If you wait to follow up until 48 hours your rate of landing the customer has slipped to 50%. It gets even worse, wait 72 hours and converting the lead to a customer drops to 10%, after fours days you pretty much can kiss any chance of a new customer good bye.
So make following up a priority getting new customers is not easy, following up within 24 hours is pretty darn easy, if you make it a priority.
Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.
Over 750,000 Promo Items to Help Your Business Grow!
I used to be guilty of the same, until I started using a SendOutCards system. Now, it costs me less than a dollar to send a card or postcard and I can do it from my computer. The system comes with a contact manager so that I can upload any and all my contacts.
I pick a card, I type in a personal message, I upload a picture, and wa-lah! send it with one click on “Send”. It then goes out by way of the post office as if I mailed it myself, and it’s customized!
I can also send special thank you’s –treats/gifts/coffees/teas/chocolates, etc.
And unless they have NOT given me a ‘snail mail’ address on their business card and I have had to search for an address, I have done my immediate follow-up wthin a couple of minutes. And customer follow-up is not as difficult as it used to be.
Blessings,
Linda
lindapastor@sendoutcards.com
Linda,
Great point, I to use Send Out Cards to follow up, but still struggle from time to time keeping up.
Tim