As an entrepreneur, you already understand that without clients, your business is as good as dead. Your business won’t thrive either if you don’t increase the customers’ base or their purchasing power. Many businesses do the hard job of getting new clients but fail in retaining them. Most activities of acquiring new clients and retaining existing ones are related.
Even when you have enough clients (It’s rare), it’s important to continue conducting marketing activities to ensure you retain the existing ones. How do you get new clients and retain the old ones? There are many methods you can adopt.
Here are some useful tips.
Set the customer expectations
Failing to set your customers’ expectations early will make new clients in your business leave. Most clients will want to know what to expect from you. This avoids over expectations and builds clients’ loyalty to your business. Once you set the expectations, ensure you fulfill them. Clients will always remember the number of times you failed and not when you met their expectations.
For example, if you deliver 99% of your promises and fail on one, clients will still inquire about the 1%. They may not inform you about this but will influence others, which will make you lose a huge percentage of them. Satisfied clients will stick with your business and refer their friends and families, which adds the numbers.
Also Read: A Basic Guide To Building A Marketing Strategy
Have constant contact with clients
If something makes clients happy, it always has communication with companies they spend their money to. It would be best to have consistent, professional communication with your clients. How do you do this? There are many ways you can communicate with your clients. Some are old communication methods but still effective.
Direct messaging is still the preferred mode of communication for customized messages. According to SMS API experts, you can set up an effective messaging service that informs clients on important issues concerning the company.
You can also use the same medium to send marketing messages. Other communication methods you can use include direct calling, direct emailing, social media chats, press releases, and much more.
Conduct feedback surveys
If there is one thing businesses should never miss is conducting marketing surveys. Why marketing surveys? By conducting marketing surveys, you can compare your deliveries versus the customers’ expectations. It lets you know if you satisfy your clients and if there are areas for improvement. Marketing surveys enable you to know what satisfies your clients, upsets them, and the market’s complaints.
Any business wanting to retain clients and attract new ones will treat complaints as gifts from clients. Why is it so? It’s because the client wants to stick with you and provide information to improve your products. Clients who don’t complain are either satisfied or are looking for alternatives.
Provide proactive services
Proactive services are meant to retain existing clients. It involves noting the problem in advance and informing the client before they complain. One good example of this is airlines notifying the clients that they will be a delay in takeoff. Instead of the client complaining about the delay, they will appreciate the message, proving the airline is concerned about its passengers.
Imagine the situation when the client finds the same delay while at the airport waiting to board. They will be angry, upset and probably they won’t use the airline again. Your business should try as much to stop issues from happening, and if there are issues, you should inform clients in advance.
Online presence is paramount
Everything nowadays revolves around online. If you haven’t established your business online yet, you are losing a lot in marketing and communicating with your clients. Social media sites have enabled companies to build a relationship with their customers, and more companies are becoming popular through it.
You need to have an account on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and communicate with your clients. You can engage with your clients through business posts, regular posts, and chats, among others.
Your clients will help grow your client base by reposting or sharing your posts with their friends. Ensure you engage with your clients at all times to build your online presence. You should also have a website fully optimized with SEO features to attract and retain online traffic.
Also Read: Here’s Why Video Marketing Will Influence More People. Learn How To Do It Perfectly?
There are many other effective ways you can attract and retain clients in your business. However, the above has proven to work the best. As a business person, you have to go the extra mile to achieve your clients’ best.
Once your clients see how much you are committed to satisfying their needs, they will continue making purchases from your business and sharing good experiences with others. The same applies when you don’t fulfill the promises.