Time and again, we have been told by countless industry professionals (myself included) that the primary key to keeping and retaining customers is communication. You can have the best products, services and teams in the world but if your customer does not know about them, or feels like they are being ignored, it’s all for nothing.

As the industry continues to evolve into the “new normal” of social distancing, self-quarantines, remote learning and well-planned budgets, it’s more important than ever to stay connected with your most valuable asset — your customers.

In the very recent past, the majority of your communication efforts were accomplished in person during service, sales or prospecting calls. Now, customers are a bit reluctant to meet face-to-face, which is a challenge because most of your products and services need to be seen by your customers and explained by you.

Video Conferencing Can Help Pave the Way

Since you can’t showcase your products and services over the phone, it seems to me that there’s really one good alternative: video conferencing.

From free services like FaceTime, Messenger and Google Meet, to more sophisticated tools such as GotoMeeting, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, video conferencing can give you a wide variety of tools to help you grow your business by literally being in front of and connected to your customers.

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Think about it, six months ago everyone thought Zoom was a tagline in a car ad or a noise from an airplane. Now it is being used to facilitate school programs, business meetings, online parties, personal training sessions, doctors’ appointments and even collaboration on a COVID-19 vaccine.

So why not use the same tool to help communicate with your customers? By taking advantage of video conferencing, you can develop a variety of sales tools and opportunities for your company and team to use to promote your company, products and services.

If you want to reach a broad audience of customers, consider hosting webinars on hot topics. There are plenty of subjects to choose from and your customer service and sales teams can be creative with the content.

For example, you can host a webinar on the 3G sunset, how it will affect your customers and what you can do to help them. It’s important that you and your customers both understand the 3G sunset has not been affected by the pandemic, is still moving forward and will begin this year.

Another idea is to have your sales team host a webinar to launch new products or services that attracts new customers and grows your business such as video and smart home devices. Now more than ever these types of upgrades provide a peace of mind to customers who are looking for new ways to protect family members that they aren’t able to physically visit as often as they have in the past.

During each webinar, it may also be a good idea if your team discusses all of the procedures you and your central station have put into place to protect your employees and customers during the pandemic while maintaining the high level of service and monitoring they have come to expect from you.

Keep customers engaged by using chat features to host a Q&A session after the webinar and answer any questions they may have. To make things more interesting and increase attendance, you may also want to consider giving away a piece of equipment or offering a promotion that complements the subject matter.

To create a more personal touch with current customers, set up a one-on-one “virtual security checkup” with your customer and either you or a member of your team review their account and discuss any concerns they have.

Be proactive and reach out to them first then take the opportunity to review their system and coverage, discuss any changes that may have occurred since your last visit, and again update them on the changes you and the central station have made for their safety and service levels.

At the end of the one-on-one, make sure to remind them of the referral program you have in place and ask if they need an updated certificate for their insurance company.

The most valuable asset that each of us has is our customer base. During these challenging times, the thing customers want most is certainty and peace of mind, which you can provide by developing creative and safe ways to stay in touch and stay connected. Remember, if you don’t, your competitors will.

Ron Bowden is Director of Sales & Dealer Development at UCC, with 35+ years in the security industry in a variety of roles.

This article originally appeared on our sister publication Security Sales & Integration‘s website.

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