It is all too often that companies get so focused on making the all mighty dollar that they lose touch of the fact that customers are people, not just dollar signs. Businesses get so caught up in maximizing profits, that they actually hurt their long term success by discounting the importance of having a relationship with their customers and working as a team to build success on both ends.
I used the reference of an SEO prostitute in this sense: Would you rather pay for your run of the mill SEO service (seo prostitution) and get nothing but a transactional relationship, or build a relationship with a company that stems much farther beyond the realm of the transaction, and into the realm of an friendship where it’s one business helping another to achieve mutual success.
We are different from many other SEO companies in that we don’t like hiding away in a secluded corner “working” while you have no idea what actually goes on behind closed doors. Our clients each have a personal relationship with us…we actually like face to face meetings, late night phone calls, dinner dates, we might even show up at your moms house at the holidays. You name it, we love it! We feel that in order to build our long term success, we need to build long term relationships with our clients. It just makes sense though, the more in touch you are with the company is marketing you , the better the job we can do as a team.
SEO is something that can so easily be a scam. This is because the very nature of it. It takes a good amount of time to be successful, and most people have no idea what we even do! They just want to show up online so they hire the first guy they find within their budget. Many SEO companies give empty promises with deadlines putting you at the top of google in a month, and that deadline keeps getting pushed back until you finally realize that SEO Company hasn’t been doing anything the past few months and now you are out a couple grand. We hate that we fall into that stereotype! We work smarter by maintaining a solid relationship with our clients that in turn makes for a much more effective marketing campaign.
It’s so ironic to me the inverse correlation between short term profits and long term success. You can only really put your all into one or the other. If you are so focused on maximizing your profits today, you are most likely deterring those profits, aka your customers, from continuing to do business with you. This is also true in the sense that customers want the most bang for their buck. If you don’t continue to be the most bang, you won’t get the buck if you treat your customers as nothing more than profits. They can get this transactional relationship anywhere! It is when you start to build a two way relationship with customers that you will see a commitment on both ends that results in long term success for everyone.
So moral of the story? It pays to not hire a prostitute. Start a two way relationship with every business you feel has a deep impact on your success. If that business isn’t willing to have a relationship with you, don’t let them have a relationship with your money!
Stephan Boehringer is the CEO of Get The Clicks, a web marketing company. Stephan has over 20 years of experience in the field of web marketing, and has been a speaker and consultant for many years. Stephan is passionate about web marketing and helping their clients be the best they can be.
Stephan Boehringer graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services.
