Your barn is a community. Engaging your customers will help it grow.
By Jennifer Paulson
You have a barn full of horses. Each stall is occupied, and the turnouts are full. What more could you ask for? (Other than another unicorn assistant or two.)
Just because you’ve reached this milestone in your career doesn’t mean the effort to engage those customers and continue to engage with potential new ones is over. In fact, it’s just beginning.
What Is ‘Engagement’?
You see the word engagement in social media references all the time, here and in other resources for your business. While it’s an important metric on social media, it’s also a useful tool for your day-to-day interactions with your customers and those you’d like to add to your barn.
The key to engagement is authenticity and thinking about how you can help someone instead of how you can sell them. In the end, the help you provide to solve their problems and fulfill their needs is what gets you their long-term business—not slick salesmanship. This is especially true for most horse owners because their horses are important and special to them, and the community your barn provides offers them a place to belong.
Here are five ways to engage your customers and leave an impression on potential new ones to keep your barn full.
Education
You’re a horse university packed into a human-size package. Taking the time to share your knowledge with your customers allows them to see you as an expert and someone they can rely on. Even a lifelong non pro rider with a room full of trophies is hungry to learn from you.
Your openness and willingness to share your knowledge is a key asset for your business and a proactive way to engage your existing customers—as well as garner potential new ones. Next time you’re at a show and see someone struggling with their horse, see if there’s a way to share some insights with them in a positive way. Your effort could play big dividends if they decide to join your barn.
Connections
If buying and selling horses plays a big part of your business, then you know your connections can mean everything. But you have other connections that can engage your customers, too.
Think about offering opportunities for your veterinarian, farrier, etc., to educate your customers. This can come in the form of an organized event at your barn or in a more casual connection so your customer can ask questions and learn about their horse’s condition, treatment, and care. If it’s an organized event, consider opening it up to riding groups in your area. Inviting other riders into your barn to access your expertise could lead to a boost in customers, sales, or future opportunities.
Inspiration
The customers in your barn are not only there for your talents, but also for how you make them feel. Horses are your job, but they’re your customers’ hobby. Share your barn’s/business’ core values, influences, and ideologies to inspire your customers and inspire your customer base to “buy into” your philosophy. Doing so engages their interest and helps make them customers for the long term.
Sharing those ideas on social media can enable current outsiders to become connected to your barn and eventually join your crew by bringing their horses to you, buying horses from you, or hauling in for lessons.
Entertainment
This strategy goes beyond taking owners to dinner. Entertainment can come in the form of funny videos, clips of inspiring rides, heart-tugging stories—just about anything. These are most valuable to your business when shared on social media—and they can be shared over and over by anyone. Showing your funny, soft, and victorious sides can help your audience and customers understand you and draw them in to learn more.
Support
Your business is training horses, but you also likely become a sounding board to solve problems, a shoulder after a tough ride, and a confidant when making tough decisions. Engaging with your customers in this way builds trust and lets them engage with you a different way than they might with other people. Letting your customers be vulnerable around you—and keeping their confidence—build relationships that are difficult to replace.
