In a competitive economic climate, professional service firms need to capitalize on any edge they can, and many are finding rich resources through an important customer base — their alumni network. Alumni programs have become crucial for customer relationship building, strengthening brands, and recruiting the best and brightest. Moire Marketing Partners, a strategic branding and communications agency, offers these tips for building your own alumni program as part of a relationship marketing plan:

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• Pay attention to your firm’s culture. Is your firm conservative or progressive? Do you like to take risks or do you want to maintain the status quo? You’ll need to consider your culture to determine the best tools to engage your alumni.

• Engage your alumni in person. There’s nothing better than face time. Build your program around a series of events alumni can attend throughout the year. Happy hours, special family-focused events, receptions, and parties, as well as continuing-education programs, are all great ways to engage alumni.

• Stay connected. To keep former employees involved, reach out to them with a specialty publication that offers alumni profiles and news about your firm. You can even develop your own social network for alumni to meet and stay in touch.

• Take ownership. To stay focused and ensure a successful alumni program, you’ll need to decide who should take ownership of it. Alumni outreach could fall under the purview of marketing, HR, or IT. Consider the way your firm is structured and the outreach you’re planning.

• Measure your efforts. Before implementing an alumni program, be sure to set the objectives. Do you want to increase brand awareness or boost referral sources? Once you know what your goals are, you can identify the most appropriate metrics for measuring your program’s effectiveness.

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