Competition in itself is good; it keeps you on your toes and makes you strive for perfection. What is important is the strategies you have in place to ensure that your brand and business remains afloat even in the midst of competition. While it is good and rewarding to gain new customers, the importance of customer/consumer retention cannot be ignored! As such, many marketing strategies focus on driving brand recruitment as well as retention of current customers and consumers.
Losing customers can be very costly to the brand and to the business and this happens for a variety of reasons; mostly centred on ineffective client service, complacency, uncompetitive offerings and propositions, poor quality of work and indifference to emerging trends amongst many others.
- Sell and sell again – Selling to a customer is not the end, it is just the beginning. It is important to follow up and ensure that the customer does not become remorseful after the sale is completed and give them the feeling that they made the right decision by buying from you. So many people do an excellent job of making the initial sale, then drop the ball and get complacent, ignoring the customer, while they chase more business. Your selling has actually only just begun when someone makes that initial purchase decision; to lock in that sale, and all of the referrals and repeat business that will flow from it, you need to follow up with the customer and demonstrate by your actions that you really care.
- Bring back the lost sheep: It might be cheaper to chase after old customers than trying to win over new ones! How about reactivating your old customers by demonstrating to them that you still value them and their business? Your dormant customers will be receptive to your attempts to regenerate their patronage if you approach them the right way, with the right offer that will attract them. Re-contacting and reminding them of your existence, finding out why they’re no longer buying, overcoming their objections and demonstrating that you still value and respect them will usually result in a tremendous bounty of sales and drastically increased revenues.
- Keep the line of communication open – it is important to build relationships with your customers and ensure that you don’t engage them only when you need them or when issues occur. Build a line of communication with them – send thank you notes, newsletters etc. This acknowledges them and keeps them informed about the brand and reinforces the reason they’re doing business with you; which makes them feel like part of your business!
- Extra ordinary customer service: It is better to under promise your customers and over deliver to them! Drive dedication to customer satisfaction by every employee and provide an immediate response to enquiries. Delivering what you promise before AND after the sale;
- Demonstrate Integrity: There must always be total consistency between what you say and do and what your customers experience. Service integrity is also demonstrated by the way you handle the small things, as well as the large. Customers will be attracted to you if you are open and honest with them, care for them, take a genuine interest in them, don’t let them down and practice what you preach … and they will avoid you if you don’t.
Retaining a client may prove more difficult than winning one – as such every touch point matters.