Have you thought this lately: “We need more leads.” It can feel like marketing is about just getting new leads and customers into your business, but what about the leads you already have? It’s time to think about boosting your customer retention and bringing them back over and over again.
Why do we often neglect our current customers?
Because the misconception for many businesses is that we need new leads to scale and build revenue. The reality is repeat customers spend an average of 67% more than new customers and it’s five times more expensive to get new customers than it is to retain the ones we have.
So why aren’t we taking care of our customers and selling them more?
Let’s break down five strategies you can implement in your business to cultivate customer loyalty.
1. Make Every Touch Point Count
Once someone signs on the dotted line and decides to work with you, that’s not the end of it. You have to keep winning them over.
Kind of like a relationship.
You can’t just sign a customer and think that they’ll stay with you forever. You have to keep working for them and make the entire relationship easy and beneficial for them.
Every single time you talk to them or your business gets in front of them.
A few things you need to keep in mind:
- What happens when someone emails you?
- What happens when they get an email from you?
- What happens when they need help?
- What happens when they come across your social media?
There are so many places that our customers can find us any more that we need to keep in mind where they might see us.
Let’s talk about emails for a second.
When your customer needs help or support, how do they get it? For many of us with service-based businesses, we get requests straight into our inbox. You might have some kind of communication/ticketing system, but that doesn’t stop customers from reaching out directly.
For instance, we have a support ticket form for existing customers but most would prefer to send an email.
Why?
Because it’s personal. They love getting to talk directly to a human being that they know is going to take care of them.
When you get those emails, answer them.
The best form of customer support in emails is to just answer those emails when they come in, within a reasonable timeframe. For me, that means within 1 business day.
Do I always have an answer or something done? Absolutely not. But my assistant can at least respond that we’ve 1) received the email and 2) are looking into it. Just a simple acknowledgment can go a long way.
Make help easy to find.
Do you use a ticketing system or some kind of support? Then make that easy to find.
No one wants to bookmark your link. They just want to be able to find it when they need it.
It’s super easy to add a link to your website’s footer that says Support and goes to your current support form or system.
Will some non-customers try to use your support? Maybe. But that could be a good way to capture some new leads, too.
Everything should look the same.
When your customer finds your business on social media or goes to your website or even sees an ad for you, everything should look consistent.
The biggest way to kill potential referrals from your current customers is to confuse them about what you do.
“Well, I know they help me do this, but this says they also do that…is that my vendor?”
Make sure that no matter what content you’re putting out, everything has the same flow, colors, language, and all just feels like your business.
2. Keep a Record with a CRM
If a new person joined your team tomorrow, would you be able to quickly catch them up on your customers? Or does the very thought fill you with dread?
It might be time to explore a CRM.
A CRM or Customer Relationship Management platform is just a database that allows you to track your customer data easily. In one glance, you can see who is on what package, when their payments are due, a record of emails sent out, etc.
This can be a huge benefit to not only helping your team, but helping you to provide better service.
Especially when you have a process in place to check in on your customer data, you can see who might be primed for an upgrade to their service, a new offer you’re launching, or who just might need a little extra attention.
It’s also much easier for your team to track everything than it is when you try to have things in a glorified spreadsheet.
Some CRMs allow you to send invoices and accept payments, sign contracts, and more so that you’ve got everything in one place.
If you’ve been wanting to explore CRMs, some of the most popular include Hubspot, HoneyBook, and even project management tools like ClickUp.
3. Offer Referral Bonuses & Deals
Want to keep your customers loyal and get them to send people to you? Give them some incentives.
We often think of customer incentives as things like 10% off coupons or those Star rewards we get from drinking too much Starbucks.
That might not be the best case for you. After all, you’re selling services worth thousands, not a cup of coffee for $6.
One way you can show your customers you care is to send small gifts randomly (treats are always popular), offer a small service for free, or even provide them some kind of referral bonus.
Let your customers sell for you.
For most of us, our best customers can refer our next best customer. Referrals make up a huge amount of any service-based business, so are you keeping your current customers happy enough that when a buddy asks them “who they should use for that,” they automatically hand over your name?
An easy way to encourage customers to refer your business is to offer a dollar incentive. For my business, I’ve offered 5% discounts on future services when their referral signs a contract.
My favorite web hosting company offers a $200 finders fee for every new customer I send them.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure that they know you offer some kind of referral bonus and then simply ask them to sell for you.
You’d be amazed at how many people are waiting for permission to sell you.
4. Ask For Feedback
Want to know the best way to connect with your customers and keep them coming back?
Ask them!
I know it can be scary to ask for feedback (and oddly personal), but every single one of my customers has always been happy to do it.
You don’t have to ask all that often, but it’s a great idea to send a survey out to all of your customers once or twice a year.
Not only will this help you figure out what’s working well (and can inform your strategies to get new customers), but it can also show you where you may have some things to work on.
I sent out an annual survey last year (and do at the end of website builds and other big projects), and I’m always amazed at how many things I think go unnoticed don’t. Compliments make me uneasy, but I love hearing how much they loved my team, this small thing, or just our positive attitude in general.
Some questions to ask
Not sure what you’d even put in your survey?
I get it. Here’s what I’ve found valuable:
- Why did you choose to work with us?
- How do you find our communication style?
- What do you like about working with us?
- How would you describe our working relationship?
- What would you say about working with us and the results?
You’ll get back a wealth of information that can help you make their lives that much better AND keep them with you.
You just have to actually implement their feedback.
5. Create Valuable Content
Want to keep your customers coming back? Sometimes you have to remind them that you’re there with some great content that can help them.
When you’ve asked for feedback, you’ll know better what kinds of topics will help your current (and future) customers.
Creating content gets a lot easier when you ask your audience what they want to hear about. It also helps you connect better with them. Your dream client will continue to feel seen and heard because you’ve quite literally heard them and are delivering what they want help with.
The great thing about creating consistent content? When you release some kind of content on a schedule (weekly is best), you’re also creating an expectation. Your audience will know that you put out a podcast or video every week and they’ll go looking for it on your website and your channels.
Getting in front of current customers every single week helps to reinforce why they’re choosing to work with you and allows you to build a relationship with them in a different way.
Turn that into Google-friendly content.
You can create this content however best works for your business (meaning videos, podcasts, social media, etc.), but can I encourage you to take whatever you’re creating and put it to use on your blog?
Blog articles are the best way to build up your SEO impact and help you get found through Google and other search engines.
You can harness the SEO magic of blogging and help to bring traffic to your website and provide great, in-depth content that answers your customers’ questions and continues to build trust with them.
Email them the updates.
How can you ensure that your customers see the content you’re creating? Email them about it!
If you publish a weekly or monthly newsletter to your email list, you’re missing out on the potential of sharing that great content you’ve been creating.
Take a bit from that article, tell them exactly why they’ll want to read it, and then send that out in an email blast.
You might want to share some other company or industry news with them in the same email, but the key here is to make your content the center of attention.
You want to show them that you’re creating free content that feels like it was written especially for them.
Improve Your Customer Experience
Want your customers to stick with you for the long haul?
It’s all about the customer experience!
You can get a ton of people through your virtual doors and have them choose to work with you, but if you’re not doing the work to keep them with you you’re wasting your time and money.
Invest in your customer experience and make working with you a great experience – from start to years to come!
