How does a 50% raise sound to you?
According to Belinda Ellsworth, that is how much you can increase the revenue of your direct sales business simply by having a customer follow up system.
Others I’ve spoken with told me that once they consistently started following up with their customers, their business tripled!
Customer follow up is key to your direct sales success!
Please read that last line again. That’s how important this is.
If it is so easy to grow your business, why aren’t more people consistently doing this?
My guess is one of three reasons:
- You’re probably already very busy, and the thought of adding another to-do to your list doesn’t sound very good.
- You don’t know what to say.
- It’s hard to keep track of it all!
Well, how do we fix this? Easy!
- Knowing how important this is to your business (50 – 300% growth, huge!), you need to make this a priority.
- Automate the process, so you never forget, always know what to say, and save you time!
Want more reasons to provide great customer care with your customer follow-up system?
The probability of selling to an existing happy customer is up to 14 times higher than the probability of selling to a new customer!
Businesses that grow their customer retention rates by as little as 5% typically see profit increases up to 95%!
The average American tells 15 people when they’ve had a poor customer service experience.
Wow! Is there any denying how important great customer service is?
Below I will show the 2+2+2 customer care follow-up system you can use to grow your business.
Before getting into the process suggested by Belinda Ellsworth, make sure you always have a purpose each time you contact a customer. Their time is valuable, and if you respect that while providing amazing service, they will love you for it.
Having a purpose for every contact leads to more sales, more bookings, and more recruits.
So, the next time you call a customer, don’t say you are “just checking in to see how everything is going.” Instead, you are calling to see if they have any questions about using the product they ordered from you or letting them know about a great promotion you are running.
Here is the 2+2+2 customer follow up system by Belinda Ellsworth.
The 2-Day Contact
The 2-day contact is for thanking your new customer.
The purpose of this contact is all about thanking them for their order and letting them know when it will arrive.
This is a quick contact that can sometimes lead to more.
If, and only if, your customer starts talking about another product of yours or more friends that might be interested, you can turn this call into more sales, a booking, or even a new recruit.
Remember the purpose of the contact, though.
Pro tip: during this first contact, make sure your customer saves your number in their phone as [Company] [Your Name.] For example, if you are selling Thirty-One and your name is Ann, ask your customer to save your number in their phone as Thirty-One Ann.
The 2-Week Contact
The second contact is after two weeks. The purpose of this contact is to make sure your customers receive the products they ordered and ask them a few questions to make sure they are using them correctly and loving them.
This can uncover easy-to-fix problems. If the customer is not using the product correctly, they are more likely to not like it, leave you as a customer, and possibly tell others.
Questions such as “How are you loving the product” or “Is it working the way you expected” can lead to a great conversation about using it correctly.
It can also lead to you helping your customers find the right product for them if they have further needs.
Always end by asking, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
Your customer may have started using your product and fallen in love with it already.
Maybe they are now thinking about hosting or selling.
The 2-Month Contact
The third contact in your follow-up system is about two months after your initial sale. The purpose of this call is to provide value and ask for a booking.
For example, my wife sells Norwex, and she recommends a deep clean for the microfiber cloths every few months to keep them working their best.
In the two-month contact, she provides value to her customers by sending them easy-to-follow instructions for the deep clean.
This is a great time to ask them for a booking.
They have heard from you at a party and twice after the party. They know you care, and they have been using your product for two months.
Ongoing customer follow up
After this initial “new customer follow-up period” is completed, it is now time to set the customers into your ongoing follow-up schedule. If they purchased a consumable product from you, then follow up with your customer every two months. If they didn’t, then space it out to every three.
You want your customers to always think of you when they think of your product or company, not someone else. To do this, you need to provide an amazing experience by providing great service and staying in touch.
How can we make customer follow up easier?
We can automate it!
I love technology! I love how it can make things simpler and can improve productivity! Now let’s use it to automate the 2+2+2 customer follow up.
As I mentioned earlier, having systems and processes in place will make your business work much better and your life much easier.
Automating your processes does not mean they are now impersonal to your customers, hosts, or team. On the contrary, doing so allows you MORE TIME to work with them and allows you to maximize your time with them.
Example of automating Belinda Ellsworth’s 2+2+2 follow up system
Step 1) From the main Drip page, click the New Drip button on the upper right to start a new drip series and enter your title and goal for this series. Only you see this, so make sure it is descriptive enough to remember what the series is for.
Step 2) Add tasks (reminders) or set up an automated email. For this example, I will add a 2-day task, a 2-week email, and a 2-month email.
Step 3) Assign this drip to a customer. Simply go to the drip tab under a customer and click the assign drip button. Click the checkbox next to the drip series you want to assign and click submit.
You are done!
Easy, and your customer follow up is now automated for you!
You can change the above example to fit your needs, of course. Maybe you prefer to do all phone calls (task reminders) or all emails.
You may also want to make one drip for customers who purchased a consumable that will need to be reordered every couple of months and a separate drip for customers who did not. For the consumables, just add tasks or emails every two months, and for the others, make them every three months.
What other things can you automate?
What about Hostess coaching? Hostess coaching is important for having large home and Facebook parties with good sales, bookings, and new recruits.
Have you ever skimped on this due to lack of time or not knowing when or what to send? Set this up once, and never have these excuses again!
Another example could be setting up a drip sequence of tasks and emails for new recruit training. Getting new recruits up and running and seeing success as quickly as possible is the key to their success and yours!
With Direct Sidekick, you can add multiple drips to a customer or team member. You can even edit the drip emails after they are scheduled to personalize the message even further.
Add a comment below for other processes you are automating or would like to automate in the future.
FYI: Direct Sidekick is accounting software built for direct sellers, network marketers, crafters, vendors, VRBO owners, and many other home-based business owners. Create an account and start tracking your income, expenses, and inventory.
About the Author: Steve Nauta
