IMAGINE selling your product/service to one person at a time and that this person only buys from you once in their life time… This is the hardest form of marketing there is - FULL STOP!
Let me explain…
Put simply you work hard to build the relationship and the trust with the customer as they buy your product/service and then they walk away never to be seen again. This means that you spend your life recruiting more and more customers. How much easier would it be if your customers came back to you time and time again, bringing with them their friends, family and colleagues?
You may think this is what is happening at the moment in your organisation, but when was the last time you looked to see how many of your customers are actually repeat customers? How many are leaving you to spend their money else where? And why? These are questions that as Haybury Marketing Coaches we have to ask our clients all the time.
In a world which is becoming increasingly smaller through enhanced communication and the internet, we have choice! Long gone are the days when you have a captive audience. Now you need to work at building relationships with your customers to bring them back! You cannot rely on treating your customers with indifference and expecting them to come back. Our customer service expectations have gone up and we all expect more these days. Consider the following statistics:
“65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers, and it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one satisfied.” – Gartner
“A mere 5% reduction in customer defections increases organisations profits by 25% to 85%.” - Harvard University
So how do you bring your customers back?
On average, most retailers experience a staggering 15% to 65% customer attrition within a 12-month period. Losing customers on this scale has a negative impact on business, since the cost of acquiring customers is 10 times the cost of keeping them. Rescuing defected customers costs 100 times more than keeping existing customers.
Ever wondered why loyalty cards are so prevalent? Could it be that they work? Many coffee shops have a loyalty scheme of some sort; most websites ask for your email address and permission to contact you about offers and news. Even dentists are becoming commercial and wanting to talk to you. They all simply want to build a relationship with you, to stop you walking away and spending your money elsewhere.
So what can you do within your organisation to retain customers? Here are 4 points for you to consider:
1. Firstly become proactive about retention activities rather than reactive about regaining lost customers. Think about how you can invite people back in rather than having to find them once they have gone.
2. Communicate new opportunities or product offers to customers in a timely manner. Beware not to send them too much too often otherwise they may feel hunted!
3. Continuously provide customers with reasons to come back to you such as news about new product ranges or fresh initiatives within your organisation.
4. Consistently provide a high quality service where ever the customer comes into contact with your business. From the front desk service levels, accounts and payments through to complaints and/or queries, ask yourself what impression the customer is left with and how do they feel about coming back to you again?
If you follow these simple guidelines and you consistently measure how often your customers come back to you to ensure that you are on the right track, then you will begin to see the fruits of your marketing dedication when your customer base blossoms over the next year.
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