Do you customers know what you do?

Most people know the old saying about giving a speech, tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. In radio, we try to promote what we are going to do, then do it, then tell them what we did. My boss says it best, if you don't tooteth your own horn, no one will tooteth it for you.

What about you? Are you tooting your own horn? I see a number of businesses who are doing some incrediby nice things for their customers and not getting the credit. Now, I understand that most of us were taught to be nice and not brag about things. This is dangerous in business, here's why.

1. What is given this year is expected next year.
2. If you are doing more than your competition and you don't tell your customer, they will never know unless they start doing business with your competition.
3. You are training your customer to expect more and more freebies.

We have a vendor who usually twice a quarter, would out of the blue send us some material. His email would say "here are some freebies". I sent him an email and told him that I appreciated that very much -- but I would suggest that he cahnge his wording. Instead of freebies -- say something like....For having a great credit history with our company, we wanted to provide you a good customer bonus.
This reinforces good habits and does not cheapen his product. So now if I call up and say, I need some more freebies, he can easily say, that was becuase you paid your bill x amount of months in a row on time, etc.

Make sure that your customers understand what you are doing for them and the value of your gift. Give them a specific reason why you are doing it.

Marketing is an ongoing job. You are either getting new customers or reinforcing the customers you have. You have to train customers and like anything else, it is important to start early.