Communicate Proactively with Customers for Mutual Success in Business and at Work

Easter Sunday is a holiday for most people, so when our Sunday paper arrives a little later in the morning, we certainly understand. Included with our Sunday paper this past Easter Sunday was this professionally typed letter from our paper carrier:

 

(Carrier First Name) (Carrier Last Name)

(Street Address)

(City, State and Zip Code)

(Phone Number)

(Email Address)

Good morning:

I’ve been contracted to deliver your newspaper and related products since (Date).  Although many of you have received my contact information before, I took over another 140 subscribers at the beginning of the year, and I wanted to provide all of you with my contact information.

While I strive for the earliest possible delivery, I have discovered that the route takes longer to deliver certain days of the week: particularly Thursday and Sunday. The quantity of customers on those particular days increases dramatically with my Sunday deliveries – over 3 times the daily amount.

Please save my contact information shown above and discard any information from your previous carrier(s). In the event that I may have forgotten your delivery, please call me first so that I have the opportunity to correct the error.

I look forward to being your carrier, and if you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

(Carrier First Name)

As service business owners ourselves, my husband Joel and I were delighted at this proactive, transparent and thoughtful communication. We’ve certainly walked in our paper carrier’s shoes, e.g. working on holidays, evenings and weekends to get the job done for our customers. Frankly, the only communication we had ever received from our other newspaper carriers in the past 23 years was the obligatory holiday card on Thanksgiving as a not-so-subtle reminder to remember the holiday tip. As far as I’m concerned, our new carrier has already earned their holiday tip, as well as our respect and gratitude.

How do you proactively communicate to your customers to support mutual success, in business and at work?