It doesn’t really matter what kind of business you are in, it’s common knowledge that it costs a lot more to find new customers than to retain existing ones. As entrepreneurs we tend to put in plenty of effort on getting new clients but how many of us can honestly say that we devote as much time to our existing/previous customers?
Having a good strategy in place to do this is crucial if you want to keep them happy, engaged and wanting to keep working with you so it’s definitely worth giving your time up for this.
Some of the top reasons that businesses lose customers are the following:
- No customer contact/relationship strategy
- Customer is dissatisfied with the product or level of service they are getting
- Competition steals the customer form you
- Customer gets referred to somebody else
- Customer moves location
There are lessons to be learnt here. The main lesson being that you need a viable strategy for keeping your existing customers happy and previous customers on the radar.
So how can you do this?
With existing clients it’s really not that difficult. Sending thank you notes after jobs, email, phone, text, social media messages, go for lunch (depending on location). Basically, anything that lets them know that you value their business and don’t take them for granted.
With previous clients it’s a little trickier but sometime a simple email to say hello again can reignite the conversation. Engaging with them on social media or simply picking up the phone to have a catch-up with them can lead to kick-starting the relationship. It’s amazing how many of us are reticent at doing this. Maybe it’s a British thing!
Here’s a challenge for you. Reach out to a previous customer by email, phone, social media, text, it doesn’t really matter how and see if you can re-start that connection. It’s minimal effort that can often lead to significant gain.