A question for you: have you ever asked your clients how they would like to be communicated with? If you haven't asked them directly have you instead supplied ways of collecting the information from them - either through an occasional survey, email opt-in/out facility, or IT tools that allow clients to manipulate/change what data you store on them?

Nowadays there are all manner of ways of communicating with clients: in person, by post, fax and phone and more recently, mobile phones [SMS], email, and PDA's. You may look bewildered at the thought of sending your clients final nominations and acceptances by SMS for example, but a large number of your clients may actually prefer to be informed using that medium. Shouldn't you know who they are?

Staying close to your customers allows you to learn more about them and, importantly, how they want information presented to them.

I have only once been asked by a horse stud (I have never been asked by a trainer) how I wish to receive my bills (by fax, email or post). I have never been asked how I wish to be informed of nominations, weights, results or, on the breeding front, latest service dates and again, only once have I been asked how I wish to be informed of veterinary interventions or agistment issues. Typically I just get the information when and how the trainer/stud chooses to provide it. Many of you will no doubt say "well that's fair enough". But has anyone stopped to think that the way information is currently being communicated may in fact work to a company's detriment? If your client works/lives interstate or overseas for example (and many clients do) then a bill can take anywhere from 2 - 8 days to reach the client. If it is emailed then a client receives it immediately. For clients who pay promptly (yes, there are many who do) that extra week could end up affecting your cash flow.

Don't automatically assume that all clients are the same either. As odd as it seems to many of us, a lot of people still don't know how to use email. If you're sending these clients updates/newsletters/bills by email (and just to throw a spanner in the works many companies give all their staff email addresses which then appear on their card - doesn't however mean everyone checks their accounts) ... they won't be reading them and all your time and effort has gone to waste.

Also make sure that the information you are providing can be easily accessed by a client. I am surprised by how often companies or individuals approach me to print media releases for them and then send it to me in a format that may not be compatible with the way we print updates (as we do not work off a 'typical' content management system for our news section). This means I will choose to ignore it, or I have to undertake a significant amount of work re-formatting it. After awhile certain companies do end up getting treated more favourably simply because they have made the effort to work out what communication system works best for both of us.

Taking the time to learn more about your clients and discovering what works best for them in terms of contact means you are a long way towards gaining long term loyalty -which given how expensive clients are to get (and keep) is a rather important matter for today's marketing staff and companies generally!