Consider this, many businesses focus solely on attracting new customers, but you NEED to spend a good chunk of your time retaining current and re-engaging former customers. These are people you already know to be of good sales potential. They trust you, they’ve already bought from you! Best of all, they are cheaper than new customers!
Take the time to market and sell new products to your old customers and less time trying to sell old products to new customers and you will see a drastic change in your sales, customer quality, branding position, and confidence.
Here are a couple of key elements to use to retain your current customers:
- Stay in contact: This means by phone, email, e-newsletter, in person, by pigeon if you have too! Do your best to maintain that contact.
- Post-Purchase Assurance: This means you want to follow up with customers. Your customers need to feel like they are being supported for their purchase and with the item they purchased. How many times have you purchased a product, then felt completely abandoned? Something as simple as a Thank You note with your contact or customer service information can go along way in retaining a great customer.
Note: You can even purchase these and not take the time to write them yourself!
- Deals & Guarantees: Always offer your current customers the best deals and guarantees you have. Show them you appreciate their business or even come up with a club specifically to reward loyal customers. You can also do this with a preferred pricing option.
- Integrity: Using good business practices and simply upholding integrity, dignity and honesty go along way with customers. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of swindling and crap out there and the safer and more confident you make your customers feel, the more they will trust you and that makes for an amazingly supportive and loyal customer.
There are three cornerstone ideas to a successful business:
- Quality product/service
- Offering useful products/services that solve a problem for or enhance the life of a customer
- Offer subjects your customers find interesting
Use this approach of educating your customers and offering them real information and insight and you will be rewarded with loyalty and success. I can't offer suggestions here as you are a diverse bunch but, in light of the video I sent last week, consider their pain and help them solve the problem causing it. Note I say the cause, not the pain point. EX: I have a headache because I have a bad tooth. Don't give me aspirin, I'll be frustrated tomorrow AND that's what everybody else is saying!!! Instead, refer me to a good dentist. Now that I'm not blinded with pain, I trust you!
Stop wasting all your time on new prospects while your current customers fall by the wayside! They already like you. Use this.
As Jay Abraham says, “Your best prospects are your existing customers. If you’ve been putting all your marketing efforts into acquiring new customers, stop and diverts some of your resources into reselling, upselling, cross-selling to those same customers. In every way possible – through package inserts, regular mailings, special offers – stay in touch with those customers and get them used to buying from you.”
I know you (or we) can brainstorm many ways to keep your company, products, and services top of mind for your customers. As I've likely said to you, to aid in this try new environments and situations; a different tea, new coffee house, sitting at a different desk, changing something in your patterns not too dramatic. This will facilitate creative thinking. Also, I find creative brainstorming can be aided by a beer or a glass of wine, NOT 2 or 3. Just as when we're tired, we tend to think more creatively with a softening of the senses. We let down some of our barriers and let go of assumptive "that can't be done" thinking.