Why Customers, Why Now?

It's been almost 30 years since I worked with my first customer. I lived in Fremont, Utah and sold night crawlers one summer and learned more about customers and marketing than in probably most jobs. I was 11 at the time and wanted to earn some money for school clothes. Fremont just happens to be located by a reservoir where many people go fishing in the summer. As many of you know, one of the first rules of business is location, location and location. Since I already had place figured out next I worked on product, pricing and promotion to make my business successful.

But early on I discovered it wasn't just about sales and marketing, a business's success depended on customers. I made many friends that summer that came back time and time again because I built relationships with them. In fact, I think there were some that didn't even need worms for fishing, but wanted to check in to see how I was doing!

Since that time, I have done some exciting projects ran a very successful business selling books online where I made over $100k in two years working part-time, worked in call centers for 12 years as a front-line employee and as a manager, and now worked in sales and marketing for the past 8 years for various high-tech companies. I am currently working as a Customer Programs Manager for a hardware/software company.

And after all these years, I still believe that customers are the most important part of every company! In this blog, I plan to address various parts about how to appreciate, understand and communicate to your customers. Some of my upcoming topics will include:
- Customer touch points
- Customer satisfaction surveys (new and ongoing)
- Customer welcome programs
- Customer communication including newsletters, direct mail etc
- Customer advocacy departments
- Customer reference program
- Customer advisory boards

I also plan to include some research and links to my favorite blogs, books and company sites. Stay tuned for more blogs from a person who is very passionate about customers and is lucky enough to do this for her job.