Everyone knows that the most important part of any business is the customer. Knowing your customer's needs and wants is crucial to the success of your company, but this is merely a starting point. The key to ongoing success hinges upon your ability to create and develop strong customer relationships. Making a strategic plan to develop customer relationships is crucial to the future success of your business. Here are four key ways to build lasting customer relationships.

1) Evaluate your touchpoints
Touchpoints are the circumstances in which a company comes into contact with a customer from start to finish. This could take place in the form of an online advertisement, a radio advertisement, or a website viewing. The very first interaction a customer has with your brand will leave a lasting impression, therefore, you want to make sure it's a positive one! Determining your company's touchpoints is the first step to creating a positive customer experience.

2) Stay in regular contact with your customers

All relationships take work and regular communication. The same principal applies to customer relationships. Staying in touch with customers before and after a sale will help build customer loyalty and trust. This can be done through email, phone calls, or even social media. When you start communicating frequently with your customers it’s important to make sure that your information is personal and relevant. Sending out a mass email to all of your customers addressed "Dear Customer" isn't personal and won't leave a memorable impression. Instead try sending information that your customers can use like news tips, industry information, or even congratulate your customers when they have important events like birthdays.

3) Reward loyal customers

Rewarding your top customers is a great way to make sure that they keep coming back. Loyal customers love special treatment. Think about creating an exclusive group where membership is obtained after a certain number of purchases. This type of program is easy to implement, adds value to your company, and shows your loyal customers that you appreciate their business.

4) Obtain feedback

The best way to make sure that your customers are happy is to ask them. When customers can openly dialogue with a company it gives you the opportunity to mend any broken relationships and see what needs improvement. Obtaining feedback is easy and can be done through a survey, poll or a questionnaire. Take the time to evaluate the results and see what areas of customer relationship management your company can work towards strengthening.