We all know it’s far more expensive to attract a new client than to keep an existing one. But all too often, we chase after bright, shiny, new clients instead of focusing on customer retention.
Not only do you lose clients when you don’t look after them, you also miss out on opportunities with the ones who stay. Often, you have part of their business, but not all of it. Today, let’s look at practical steps you can take to improve customer retention and grow the value of your business with each client.
1. Keep in contact
The simplest, most basic thing you can do is to keep in contact.
It is amazing how many businesses don’t. But if you never communicate with your customer database, what’s the point in having it at all?
The simplest, most basic way to keep in contact is via an email newsletter. It might sound like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be. Some tips:
- Aim to send monthly or weekly. If you’re really concerned you won’t have anything to say, send quarterly. That’s just enough to remind your customers about you, so they can get in touch with any requirements they have.
- Think about what to say. Keep a list of ideas. That could be:
- client stories
- industry news (regulations, seasonal changes, trends, anything which hits the news)
- new products or services (or the ones clients forget you offer)
- changes in your business (staff, location, holiday hours)
- events you’ve attended or are planning to attend
- helpful tips relevant to your offer
- It doesn’t have to be long. It does have to be friendly.
In most cases, you can use the same newsletter for customers and prospects. This keeps things easy for you, especially if you’re just getting up to speed in this area. But it’s a good idea to track who is a client and who is a prospect on your system. It’s essential for some of the more advanced ideas listed below.
2. Create a repeat or referring offer
Don’t just keep in contact. Instead, find a way to keep adding value which your customers will pay for.
This works for all kinds of businesses:
- Trades can offer an annual pest inspection, an electrical test-and-tag, air conditioner maintenance and so on.
- Physiotherapists, chiropractors and other allied health professions offer the ‘fix-it-before-it-breaks’ regular check-in.
- Web developers offer hosting and maintenance services
- Many coaches and consultants offer some kind of paid community. Members don’t get personal attention, but they can join in member activities, post questions online and so on.
- And of course as a writer I’d love to look after your regular blogs and newsletters rather than simply write your website copy once.
3. Schedule regular follow-ups
Even if you can’t charge customers for a service, you can find more ways to stay in touch, or get back in touch. For example:
- Mortgage brokers can schedule a review at 12, 24 or 36 months to look at what options are available on the market and whether it’s time to change lender
- Other financial advisors also offer reviews, not just of performance but also of strategy. People and businesses change over time, so stepping back to look at the big picture is helpful.
- Marketing consultants and agencies offer should plan the same kind of regular reviews.
- If you have customers who buy your product or service as a gift, track the dates of gift purchases. Reaching out before birthdays and anniversaries could get you a lot more business – and make your customers feel noticed.
The trick to all of these ideas is to set them up as part of a standard process. That means planning in your database or CRM. Setting reminders, or creating automated processes, to make sure these follow ups happen.
4. Upsell and cross-sell in your newsletter
Have you ever had a customer say to you, ‘I didn’t know you did that!’ – just after they’ve bought the product or service from someone else? It happens all the time.
You know your business backwards. You know everything you can offer. But your customers aren’t quite as invested in your business as you are. It’s up to you to make sure they know everything you do.
- You’re a web designer, but you also do graphic design work for print marketing.
- You’re a printer and you offer promotional products.
- You’re a plumber, but you also look after guttering. (A lot of plumbers don’t, and your customers may go to a roofing expert instead.)
- You’re a commercial lawyer, but you can also look after personal matters like wills and estates
Your email newsletter is an ideal tool for educating customers. Our example shows a product of the month. You can also have a client story of the month. The trick is to rotate through your main products or services, so that every client can learn about everything you do.
5. Create special client-only offers
A few years back, I checked the interest rate on my mortgage statement. I also checked the rate my lender was promoting on their website. You guessed it, new clients were getting a lower rate than I was paying. This happens so much it has its own name – it’s a ‘loyalty tax‘. Customers who find out they’re paying one don’t usually stay happy customers!
What did I do? I contacted my lender and asked for the same rate they were promoting – to the entire world! – on their website. They couldn’t offer it to me. They had some reason, but all I heard was, ‘Your 10-year-history of paying regularly on time doesn’t matter to us.’ I went to a new lender. (Surprise!)
Wouldn’t it be better to do this the other way around? Offer something to your existing customers to thank them for their loyalty.
It doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money or hurt your margin either.
- Give customers advance access to a product or an event. This works even more brilliantly if you have limited availability.
- Turn it around. Customer loyalty discounts on selected products. These could be end-of-life items, or overstocks. You clear out space and your customers get a bargain.
- Give clients a voucher for a related but non-competing business. Works fantastically for the other business – they get no-risk marketing to your customer base.
- Offer to feature customers on your blog or in your newsletter. They get a link to their site, which is great for SEO. They get exposure. They feel loved and special.
Tip: Use dynamic content in your email newsletters to make this easy
I said earlier that you can use one newsletter for both clients and prospects. What if you have an offer like this for customers only? How do you send that just to them? Dynamic content blocks are a great option.
A dynamic content block doesn’t go to everyone on your newsletter list. It only goes to those who satisfy specific criteria. Depending on how you set up your database, this might be people where the ‘status’ is ‘customer’, or it might be people with the ‘customer’ yes/no field set to yes, or it might be something else entirely.
Most email platforms offer dynamic content. Our screenshot comes from Mailchimp.
If you’ve never done this before, try searching for ‘<your email service provider> dynamic content’. Or reach out to their online support.
6. Connect meaningfully on an individual basis
However much you personalise, people know that an email newsletter goes to everyone on your list. Go beyond that and add quick emails or social media comments which are clearly specific to one individual customer.
The most straightforward examples are anniversaries and milestones. Recognise client birthdays – you can add a special offer, or just send best wishes, depending on your business and your style. Recognise when they’ve been with you for a year, or when they hit a target level of business. Say thanks. Show that you noticed.
Going a step further, there’s the opportunity to communicate proactively, on a real one-to-one, specific basis.
- I saw you’re up for XXX award. Well done and wishing you the best of luck!
- Nice article in YYY magazine
- Congrats on being mentioned as an expert in this blog post
- I came across this article on <relevant topic to their business> and it made me think of you. Is the trend they’re talking about affecting your business?
These are all proof that you were thinking of your client even when you weren’t in email marketing mode – and that’s great for customer retention!
But how do you find all these conversational tidbits without it taking over your entire day?
- Follow clients on social media. (And check their activity every so often too – you won’t always get notifications!)
- Set up Google Alerts to get notifications when your clients or customers are mentioned anywhere online.
Most offline media have an online version too, which makes this even more effective.
You can set up alerts for the company name, the individual, or if they have niche products or services, use those terms to get industry-specific updates. - If you have a lot of customers in one industry or one location, subscribe to relevant newsletter updates.
- If you use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, remember to follow your clients as well as your prospects. Then you can engage with their posts, and also with other posts they comment on, supporting them.
Whatever method you use, you’ll get some irrelevant notifications. You’ll probably find you can refine your sources over time.
5. Casual Client Catch-Ups
Make the most of trips to visit a new client or attend an event. Which of your existing clients are nearby? Reach out in advance and say, ‘I’m going to be in the area. Do you have 15 minutes to say hello and grab a coffee?’
There’s no pressure, but it’s a chance to connect. Even if they can’t meet you, you’ve shown you were thinking of them. If they do have time, you often find the 15 minutes turns into 30 minutes, and if there’s anything in their pipeline, you hear about it.
This approach is especially good if you travel out of town or interstate. And it’s another one where a dynamic content block in your newsletter can work. Although I’d also recommend individual contact with key customers, since they may not read the newsletter in time!
6. Host a client event
As a business owner, you expect to run a Christmas party for your team. You may host other events for them in the year to build morale.
Why not go a step further and have an event for your clients? This will
- strengthen your relationship with customers
- help them grow their own business network by meeting each other
- let them hear stories of how you’ve helped other customers – this is the most natural and effective way to reinforce your value and cross-sell all the different capabilities you offer.
7. Expand your network by asking clients to bring a guest
Give each client an extra ticket. Ask them to bring a colleague or another business owner who could benefit from some networking.
Every single one of those extra guests attends an event which you hosted. An event full of your clients singing your praises.How good is that for you?
Meanwhile, your clients get to entertain a business contact without having to pay for it. That makes them look good and feel good too.
How are you going to improve customer retention in your business?
So there you have it – 7 ideas to improve customer retention. None of them are expensive. None of them are especially difficult. Most of them boil down to a mindset and a process.
- The mindset is that you want to pay attention to your customers, regularly, without engaging in a hard sell. You want to build a relationship.
- The process depends on the mechanism you choose. It may require a bit of effort to set up. Once it’s running, it will need less effort to keep going.
That effort is an investment in improved customer retention, higher lifetime customer value and better business relationships. I believe it’s worth it, and I hope you do too.
Here’s hoping some of these ideas inspire you. And while I’m not about to run your client events for you (ask me for recommendations if you’re desperate), I’d be only too happy to help you set up or improve a newsletter if that’s what you choose to do next!
