Get to Know Your Customers Day is celebrated each quarter — in January, April, July and October — as a way for businesses to take the time to understand their customers better and make them feel special.

Today is July’s commemoration of the day.

The observance began in response to the rise of the internet and big-box stores, which replaced mom-and-pop stores, where, like in the Cheers TV show theme song, “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came.” That sense of personal contact has been somewhat lost as online and big-box shopping has grown.

So why don’t we observe this day at Velsoft? It’s simple. For us, every day is Get to Know Your Customers Day. Sound corny? Well, it’s true.

Here at Velsoft we have a Chief Happiness Officer. His job, as the title suggests, is to keep customers happy and involves having thorough knowledge of them and their history. Keeping them happy is done through solving customer support requests, doing new product demonstrations for clients, and providing new customer training on how to use our Learning Management System and other products.

Michael Harding is our Chief Happiness Officer. He says he and the account managers spend a great deal of time getting to know potential customers, sometimes as long as two months before they actually become a customer. He says learning about customers is essential, making it possible to provide a solution tailored to their need.

Account manager Scott MacKinnon says getting to know customers is the basis of what we do here at Velsoft. “As an account manager I cannot properly do my job without this key information. In order to recommend a solution, I first need to know more information about the person, their organization and what they are hoping to achieve. All this information assists in suggesting a solution that will work for them.”

As well, a dedicated account manager is assigned to every client, so they know who to talk to when they have questions, experience technical issues, need more information, or want to purchase new products. Michael says the account managers stay in contact with customers by periodically checking in with them, and are on a first-name basis.

Interacting with them in these ways allows us to serve them as best as we can, and we really do get to know them.

Scott says: “On a more personal level it is great to get to know more about the person I am talking to. In dealing with potential clients from all over the world, it helps to learn more about their culture and background. All this helps form a better connection with the customer. One customer said to me that it is the value of the relationship with his supplier which is more important that the product itself. They want to know that you are someone they can depend on and rely on if they need assistance.”

Knowing customers well is important, especially in light of a survey from RJ Metrics. Their information showed that top-performing companies receive more than 20 per cent of their revenue from repeat customers in the first month of operation, while other businesses get only 10 per cent. The information also showed that in their third year these high performing companies got as much as 60 per cent of their revenue from return customers. The likelihood of continued sales from existing customers increases with each successive purchase: 53 per cent of those who make a second purchase will make a third.

Although at Velsoft we don’t specifically try to get to know our customers better on Get to Know Your Customers Day, one thing we will be doing today is letting them know how much we appreciate their business, because without them, we wouldn’t be here.

To our customers past and present: Thank you! And we look forward to serving you in the future.