4 Core Principles of Customer Relation That Fuel Business Growth

Customer relation is a way business relates to its customers, clients and patrons. Some organizations hire people specifically to manage how the company interacts and communicates with people. The goal is to retain existing customers and to gain new ones by providing the best customer relation and client services.

Companies in all industries and all of sizes understand that customers are perhaps their most valuable asset. Improving the overall customer experience is vital for continued success and survival, and always has to be.

There are some core principles to relationship management that any company can and should follow:

Communication: Listening is just as important as telling. Think about how often you actually speak with your customers. Focus on less financial-driven communication (whether it’s e-mail, phone call or face-to-face interaction) if you make your customers feel involved, they feel as though they actually have a stake in your company, and feel like you care more than just trying to make sales.

Rewards: Every company should initiate and make provision for reward programs. It is a very simple form of saying “Thank you” and particularly it is a viable and measurable marketing tool that big companies and small businesses can use to retain their customers and grow their business.

Be flexible: Be quick and attentive to customer’s complaints: The objective of customer relation is typically to interact with the customers in order to answer questions, resolve support issues, establish credibility and nurture relationships.

Here are strategies that Improve Customers Relations and building customer’s loyalty, from simply opening up communications channels to implementing elaborate point systems that reward loyalty enhanced customer communications;

  • Providing customer feedback forms
  • Asking about customer needs in general when customer calls with problems
  • Training call-center staff to handle disputes
  • Encouraging a service culture throughout the organization.

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TOSSE exibition

ONE KEY THING TO KNOW BEFORE TOSSE 2022

Whether you a teacher, consultant, a business owner, a sales representative, a worker in a start-up or maybe you are just a stakeholder in the education sector who just wants to attend the Total School Support Seminar/Exhibition for the experience, then this post is for you.

I know most people are busy and you need to get on to other businesses or you are probably preparing your materials for TOSSE 2022, so this post won’t take more than 2-3 minutes of your time.

You are reading this because you want to know that important thing before you attend TOSSE 2022. So here it goes: “TOSSE IS THE MARKETPLACE”.

“Is that all?” you say.

Well, yes. But there is more.

You see, TOSSE is not just any marketplace, like any platform you have ever been to, TOSSE is ‘THE MARKETPLACE’.

From the man in the suit who looks like an ordinary fellow but is the director of a major firm, to the Commissioner of Education talking to an exhibitor, to the chairman of a top school in Lagos looking for a new distributor for his school, TOSSE is the gathering of some of the biggest decision makers in the education industry.

Now, here is the aim of this post which is ‘TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPORTUNITY AT TOSSE 2022’.

An event like this comes seasonally and you may never get this opportunity again till next year and the testimonies of individuals who have gotten their big breaks from past TOSSE editions are all over the place.

From the lady who attended a TOSSE seminar as a regular attendee years ago but has now grown because of that encounter to be one of this year’s speakers, to the organizations that have struck multi-million naira deals from prospects they met at TOSSE, the list is endless.

This is the reason why some individuals, companies, schools and other organizations keep attending TOSSE yearly.

For this year’s edition, we advice that you wear your best, come prepared and ready to meet and network with thousands of other attendees. You never can tell who your big break will come from.

Make sure you open yourself up to meet and build new connections, grow your network and increase your capacity as an individual or organization.

Have a wonderful TOSSE 2022 experience!

uLesson logo

uLesson: Revolutionalizing the education sector

uLesson is an edtech startup that leverages best in class teachers, media, and technology to create high-quality, affordable and accessible education for African students.

Founded by Sim Shagaya in 2019, uLesson is now regarded as a leader in the African home-tutoring business. uLesson is available in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Sim Shagaya, uLesson founder

The uLesson app has more than 2 million downloads, with more than 12.3 million videos watched and 25.6 million questions answered on the platform.

The edtech startup is focused on delivering affordable, high-quality and accessible education using technology. Speaking in 2021, Sim Shagaya stated how the startup is deliberately looking to design products that will meet the demanded needs of users across Africa.

uLesson is viewed as the startup aimed at revolutionalising the education sector in Nigeria and Africa as a continent.

The platform currently combines the possibility to stream its classes in-app with the choice to receive those lessons on SD cards. This dual option is one big solution to the problem of frequently-unstable and comparatively costly data packages which parents usually complain of.

uLesson helps lower class African parents access world-class curriculum-based schooling that could either work alongside the day school or totally become the tutor to prepare their children for top-level exams.

Looking to gain more ground, The edtech startup has partnered with the organizers of Africa’s biggest education show, TOSSE to be the headline sponsor of the 14th edition of the event holding in September 2022.

Beyond Events – The Value of Leads

Exhibitions present opportunities for businesses to sell their products, get in the faces of prospective buyers/clients, and network with other competitors. The benefits of getting your business showcased at an exhibition cannot be overstated.

Rather than focus on only making physical sales, attention should also be given to getting leads for the future. In fact, the number of leads that are gained at an event or exhibition should be seen as a metric to measure the success of that outing. While immediate sales might boost business at that moment and possibly morale, it is these leads that will enable the business grow in the future. Therefore, this part of the exhibition should not be taken lightly.

Apply To Showcase Your Product/Service At Africa’s Biggest Education Trade Show And Conference 

Getting The Leads

People present at an exhibition are either business owners like you, or are (prospective) clients and customers. Identify the latter, that’s the group you are looking for. Most likely, the exhibition has a theme and so you do not really have to worry about trying to identify a particular set of prospective clients. For instance, if you’re part of an exhibition for Education, it is safe to say that most person’s that will be available there will be education-based to some extent, and your product should be relevant to most.

Attracting these leads is another thing. I’d like to break it down into two ways:

Direct marketing involves you walking up to prospective clients to begin a conversation. Advance preparation is required here to know exactly what to say and how to act. Note that it might not be necessary to put forth a business proposal at this stage, the main aim is to establish a relationship such that they are comfortable with you enough to engage in further conversation even after the event.

Dress the part, first impressions matter. Visual marketing requires that you set up an attractive booth that would draw people over. Some have found that using colourful banners, catchy copies and catchphrases, and side attractions draw the attention of the public.

Exhibit At TOSSE 2021

Remember the aim of the effort you’re putting in: to generate leads. Therefore, you would need to be able to get the contact information of these ones you meet. Have a viable system of doing this that would not be awkward or make them reconsider. Now you’ve got these leads, what next?

Following Up On Leads

This is the part that should eventually yield results: sales. This is also the tricky part. There are a few tips that can make this process go smoothly:

  1. Separate your leads. Not all contacts you make will require the same level of correspondence. Some might require immediate and constant communication while others might not need so much. Identify these early and strike as necessary so that you don’t get tagged as too pushy or too nonchalant.
  2. Get in contact early. You do not need to wait for too long to get in contact with these leads. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate call, as little as a “thank you” email or text message can do the trick. This will help impress you and your business in their minds.
  3. Personalise your correspondence. Include personal names of the recipients in emails and text messages. Don’t just push out these messages in bulk, it will sound faux and wouldn’t help boost your stock. For direct phone calls, sound friendly on the phone, and engage in conversation rather than giving mechanical responses read off a handbook.
  4. Be consistent. Sales are usually not made at the first contact. This is where consistency comes in. Make sure to always be in contact if you see the prospects of closing a sale on a lead, whether it immediate or not. Persistence would not mean “spamming” these leads as that would be counterproductive. Create a pattern that works.
  5. Know when to abandon a lost cause. Not all leads will become customers/clients. Identify this on time and save yourself a world of stress. To determine this, check for their ability to make a purchase, their motivation, and their level of influence if they stand as a representative for a business. If you determine that they would not be able to patronise you at the time, you’d be better served striking your blows elsewhere. This doesn’t mean you discard their contacts altogether however. Add it to your database of contacts, they might be customers for another product of yours.

Chasing and closing leads might be tedious, but it is usually worth the effort