Don’t Forget your Existing Clients
MoneyMoz.com presents you “Don’t Forget your Existing Clients”, an article written by Will Dylan. We hope you’ll find a lot useful information in here.
MoneyMoz.com will present you every article we find interesting and educating, and which has no copyright protection. If available we’ll link the source.
Quest for new clients shouldn’t ignore those who pay the bills
Acquisition. It’s a big word in small business marketing. Companies are constantly looking at ways to draw new people to the business and generate new streams of revenue. In this quest, some small businesses make the mistake of focusing too much on new customer acquisition, only to find that their existing customers have been lured away by a competitor.
| MoneyMoz recommended article: How Do I Become a Mediator? People from a wide variety of backgrounds can make good mediators. Presently, California has no mediator licensing requirements, which makes the answer to the question “How do I become a mediator?” as individual as the mediators themselves. Before embarking on the journey to become a mediator, there are some questions you may wish to ask yourself in order to have a realistic approach in developing a career in mediation. Going from mediation training to a full-time mediation practice is difficult road, like building any quality business. Before you get started, ask yourself: Do You Have Each Aspect of Trust The ability to gain and keep trust is a vital factor in being able to influence others. Research has shown, time and time again, that trust is always a contributing factor in the ability to influence others. When a person trusts you, trust alone can cause them to accept your message. On the flip side, if people don't trust you, all the evidence, reasoning, facts, or figures in the world won't get them to budge. Trust can be an ambiguous concept, but certain things are quite clear: You can't get others to trust you unless you trust yourself first. Your message will not be convincing to others unless it's convincing to you. Whenever someone tries to influence us, we ask ourselves, “Can I trust this person? Do I believe him? Is she really concerned about me?” We are less likely to be influenced if we sense that the person is driven solely by self-interest. Never assume that people trust you. |
Ironic, isn’t it? The very tactics you use to drive new customers to your business are the same ones that your competitors can use to take them away from you. Losing sight of your existing customer base is truly an example of not seeing the forest for the trees. Did you know that on average, it costs a small business 10 times as much to attract a new client as it does to retain an existing one? Think about that the next time you are planning an acquisition marketing campaign, then use these three tips to ensure that your customers don’t fall prey to your competitor’s acquisition efforts:
Coffee Anyone?: One of the simplest and most cost effective retention initiatives I’ve seen involved sending your customers a brief letter and tossing in a gift certificate for a free coffee at a local coffee shop (if you’re a local business), or a national coffee chain (if you operate in a broader area.) It will only cost you about one dollar for each of your customers plus mailing costs, and you’ll accomplish two things. Firstly, they’ll be reminded of your company name and services thanks to your brief letter, and secondly, they’ll enjoy a hot cup of coffee and feel good about you gesture. That free coffee can go a long way towards client retention.
Get Them a Deal: Who are your customers? Are they small businesspeople operating in your area? Are they pet owners? Are they car lovers? The product you sell will dictate what your clients are interested in. (For example if you sell a new type of car wax, you can be fairly certain that 99% of your clients are car buffs). If you have even a few dozen clients, you could approach another local business that sells a car related product (let’s say a new tire polish) and offer them a deal. You’ll send a letter to all of your customers and offer them a great deal on the tire polish of 40% off the retail price. The company you approach should be willing to do this, as they have the potential to make a number of sales at one time, and your customers receive something of value from you, making them remember your company name and feel good about your offer.
Take it one step further and reciprocate the offer. The tire polish company can tell all of their clients about your car wax, and you’ll offer them a 40% as well since you now have the chance to sell some of your product. Client loyalty and new business too….a total solution! Just make sure that what you offer to your clients is actually valuable and not just a hollow sales pitch. Your reputation may be hurt by partnering with businesses that do not invest as much in client satisfaction as you do.
Build a Community: Keeping in contact with your customers is another way to improve customer retention. If your customers receive a newsletter or ezine from you on a regular basis, it becomes very difficult for them to forget about you or your services. Producing an ezine or newsletter is not as difficult as you think. The Internet is full of articles and opinions on almost every subject imaginable. Most authors will grant you permission to use their articles free of charge provided that you include a link to their website (you can find a great collection of articles on a wide variety of topics at www.ideamarketers.com, www.clickforcontent.com, and others). By building a small newsletter or ezine that contains 2 or 3 articles per month, you will get one opportunity each month to remind your customers that you value their business. Of course you could also include information about your latest product or service offerings in your newsletter in addition to the articles.
| MoneyMoz recommended article: Finding Items To Sell On Ebay There are lots of people selling great new items on Ebay every day but many Ebay items are old used things that you have already. A good place to start searching for items to sell is your own home. You can start in your garage where you could find something rare and valuable, along with all that other stuff you've had for years. All its takes is one day to organize everything then spend that next day using your digital camera to take pictures of all your items. For the remainder of the week you can just focus on writing descriptions for the items and deciding on the starting price. You should now have your garage clean and your pockets full of cash, and no more items for Ebay in your home. You should then go around to all of your friends houses and people that you know and ask them can you take all of their old stuff that they do not need any more. If you want you can offer to pay them for it, and even clean and sweep when you're done. Take all of the items you got from the different places and put them on Ebay. You now have more profit in your pocket. |
Acquiring customers is important, but retaining customers is critical to the ongoing success of your business. Small gestures often go a long way towards thwarting the acquisition efforts of your competition, and ensuring that your customers remain aware of your company and interested in your services.
About The Author
Will Dylan is the Author of “Small Business Big Marketing” a powerful e-book for small businesses available through his website www.marketingyoursmallbusiness.com. You can contact Will at askwill@marketingyoursmallbusiness.com.
Article contents © 2004 by marketingyoursmallbusiness.com.
Keywords assigned to this article by MoneyMoz: client,customers,customer service,CSR,business
| MoneyMoz recommended article: Bit By the MLM Bug: Is There a Cure? Perhaps you've experienced this yourself or did at one time. If you're currently involved with MLM/Network Marketing there's a 97% chance that you're not making a profit as you read this article. This is not a jab at the MLM industry, but rather a discussion on the core reason why people stay in for sometimes decades with no success. There are various reasons for this stunning statistic, but what is more stunning is the fact that so many people continue on investing time and money despite the tremendous failure rate. Why is this? I've found this phenomenon best described by Business Success Coach, Jeff Zalewski as “being bit by the MLM Bug.” This best describes the masses of people who continue on in MLM even though they have no actionable plans to enhance their current success. It is fueled by “ever-existent hope” that someday the business will take off, they'll get lucky, or they'll eventually figure it out. They don't want to give up on the dream that mlm builds so they stick with it. And what other perceived potential hope can one hold onto where the payoff outweighs the cost so significantly in the mind of the marketer? Innovating Can Be as Difficult as Learning to Swim When you first learn to swim you may be afraid of the water. When you work with other people there may be areas of talk where you may not be prepared to go for the same reason. |