Great blog today at Pauley Creative today…
They’re talking about how to keep customers coming back for more – makes sense, as we all know that keeping clients and customers happy and buying from you, is a great deal more cost and time efficient than having to constantly find new ones to plug holes left by unhappy customers who’ve left you!
Here are the 10 high impact strategies they recommend :
10 Strategies to increase loyalty
1. Offer excellent customer support: ensure there is plenty of back up. Any problems need to be dealt with in a friendly and efficient manner. Give your customer plenty of ways to make contact with you, and keep your ear to the ground. Social Media is brilliant for this. Build and manage your Twitter & Facebook profiles and ensure you have alerts set up for any mentions of your business. We all need to know what’s being said about our business when we’re not in the room! If you know about it, you can sort it and keep a customer loyal to you.
2. Provide guarantees: this builds trust and shows your customers that you have their best interests in mind. It shows you’re confident of your service or product and removes barriers to the sale.
3. Don’t be greedy: when customers have bought something do not immediately pressure them to buy something else. Instead suggest a product or service they might be interested in at some point in the future, and explain how it will provide a solution to a need they may have. Show them how you can help them. Again, social media channels prove very useful here, especially Twitter. Ensure you follow the Twitter mantra – and Learn. Listen, Care & SERVE!
4. Be personal: make customers feel valued by using personalised messages or recommendations. Any kind gesture that acknowledges that you value them as a person/company and not just a sales figure will work in your favour. 68% of customers change supplier of a product or service because they feel unappreciated.
5. Keep up-to-date: change is inevitable so make sure you track customer requirements as these can change over time. What they needed 3 years ago might not be what they need now. To do this successfully, keep in touch and if you cannot meet them face-to-face then a friendly phone call, e-mail or message via Twitter, their Facebook page or their LinkedIn account could be just as effective. If you have a large customer database segment it into similar groups and send each one a tailored ‘catch-up’ message.
6. Communicate company news: start a blog or a newsletter where customers can read about your company – it reminds them that you are there if they require your services. These communication tools can also be used to let clients and customers know about any promotional offers or it can feature a new product review or demonstration. You can outsource your blog creation and maintenance to us here at Saucy Horse and we’ll ensure it gets done every day!
7. Build relationships: use a Social Media Manager to engage with customers and give your business a personality. Add a personal touch by sending your most profitable clients a xmas or birthday card just to show that you appreciate them. It is the little things that are important in fostering and nurturing business relationships.
8. Host an event: face-to-face networking is still very important in business and offering clients an opportunity to network with other industry professionals might get them some new business. People don’t tend to forget who referred them and by helping them grow their business, they might end up needing your products and services even more than before. Don’t forget to follow up your events so that you can convert potential client interest into actual purchases.
9. Testimonials Sell: a satisfied customer is the best kind of word of mouth marketing. Post these on your website – even better, video customer testimonials make excellent video content to really engage your website visitors and to improve your search engine rankings by up to 50 times. Testimonials both entice new customers, and also keep existing ones happy, as they can see that their feedback is appreciated and can also hear about the experiences other clients have had with your business.
10. Ask for feedback: in order to constantly improve your offering, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Many clients will probably be happy to share their opinions with you and make sure to listen carefully since at the end of the day your business is centred around keeping them satisfied.
In most business situations, 20% of your customers provide your company with 80% of your profit. Establish who these valuable customers are and focus most of your loyalty-driving activities on them. This will ensure your marketing efforts are both efficient and cost effective. A recent Harvard business review article stated that for B2B organisations, the best way to keep customers satisfied is by ‘cultivating satisfied and engaged employees’. Loyalty is seen to be a direct result of customer satisfaction and value, which is created and maintained through loyal and satisfied employees
So, some work to do in-house as well to ensure your employees are on board! Do you see the connection? Do you agree? Please leave your comments below.
From original blog at http://blog.pauleycreative.co.uk/2010/11/how-do-you-market-to-existing-customers/
