How to manage customers

Keep one up-to-date record for each customer, group customers by what they buy and how recently, plan a few useful touches a year, deal with problems quickly and personally, and only keep the information you need, stored securely. Repeat customers come from being remembered, not from more messages.

Managing customers is not managing leads

Lead management ends at the sale. Customer management starts there. The aim changes from winning a yes to earning the next booking, the referral and the good review. That depends on remembering who each customer is, what they bought and what they told you.

One record per customer

• Name and the way they prefer to be contacted.
• What they bought or booked, and when.
• Notes worth remembering, such as preferences, access details or the dog’s name.
• Every conversation, so anyone on the team can pick up where the last person left off.
• Whether they agreed to receive marketing.

Group them, simply

Where Kahu fitsKahu CRMEvery enquiry from your site, WhatsApp and email lands in Kahu CRM automatically, with the next follow-up already drafted.Site, WhatsApp and email enquiries in one listFollow-ups drafted, waiting for your yesNothing typed in by handSee Kahu CRM →Leads · this week3 waiting on youAroha TaneAsked for a valuation · 2h agoFollow-up draftedJMJames MooreWebsite form · quote sent MonRepliedPWPriya WalkerEmail · quiet 6 daysNudge Tue 9am

Stay in touch without spamming

Plan a handful of useful messages a year rather than a weekly blast. A reminder when a service is due, a note about something new that fits what they bought, and a thank-you after a big job. Marketing messages need the customer’s consent and an easy way to unsubscribe under New Zealand’s spam law, so record that consent on the customer’s record.

Handle problems well

1. 1Reply the same dayEven if you do not have the answer yet, say you are on it.
2. 2Keep it personalComplaints get a person, not a template or a bot.
3. 3Fix, then follow upCheck a few days later that the fix held.
4. 4Write it downNote what happened on the record so nobody is caught out next time.

Look after their data

New Zealand’s Privacy Act sets out principles for personal information: collect it for a clear purpose, keep it secure, let people see and correct what you hold, and do not keep it longer than you need. In practice that means one system instead of scattered spreadsheets, sensible access for staff, and two-factor authentication on the accounts that hold customer details.

Frequently asked questions