All businesses rely on their customers to be successful. Your marketing efforts may excel at attracting new customers, but other aspects of your business might be KILLING your retention rates!
Jayson Demers writes in his Entrepreneur.com article, “Client retention is an enormous factor for success [because] ‘client retention’ means a continuing stream of revenue without the cost or effort of new customer acquisition.”
Luckily, a few simple steps can greatly enhance your chances of retaining your customers. Here are 5 that Demers recommends:
- Manage expectations. Disappointment is a direct result of not meeting expectations. So review what you are promising your customers and make sure you aren’t setting a bar too high for you to achieve. Even great results will disappoint if your customer is expecting phenomenal.
- Deliver more than you promised. Going along with the first point, you can easily create customer satisfaction by outperforming expectations. Anything that goes above and beyond the call of duty or provides the customer with an unexpected benefit will send their satisfaction sky-high and make them want to stick with you for the long haul!
- Stay transparent. Trust can be a major issue that drives customers away. Don’t hide information from your customers or try to trick them with complicated terms hidden in footnotes. Make information readily available so your customers fully understand the nature of your relationship. Maintain regular communication and proactively address problems.
- Be there when things go wrong. There will come a time when something goes wrong, on your end or the customer's, but you can salvage the relationship by being upfront with your customer. Explain the full situation and do everything you can to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of your customer. They’ll appreciate the energy you put into resolving conflict rather than placing blame and or hiding information.
- Change. Everything evolves, so it is natural that your products, services, platforms, etc. will evolve too! Don’t stay stagnant. Continue to grow to meet the new needs and demands of your customers. As you move forward, your customers will want to move with you rather than move past you as you fall behind.
Client retention is not a one-time effort. It is ongoing; something you continually work on and improve. So start growing your customer retention rates with these 5 steps, and check of the rest of Demers' article for 5 more actions you can take to ensure your customers want to remain your customer.