The Best Customer Retention Strategy You Need to Know
Keeping the clients who have worked so hard to get is going to be so much simpler and cheaper than it is to go out and find a new client. And this is where a lot of entrepreneurs spend most of their time focusing either on the client work or on their lead generation system and just constantly looking for new new clients. And while that's a great thing, that is where a time should be spent, there should also be time spent in looking at what can you do to make sure that every client that you get, you keep.
And, of course, there's always going to be a client who falls off for all different types of reasons. But there are so many things, even very small things that you can do that really make a difference when it comes to keeping those clients.
So that's what We want to share with you today, 17 different strategies that you can use to keep the clients that you work so hard to get in the first place. So even if you just have one client, this is definitely something you should be paying attention to. Here are the 17 Customer Retention Strategy:
1. Expand Your Offerings
The first thing you can do to keep more of your clients is actually to expand your offerings. But this is actually the opposite of what a lot of entrepreneurs try to do when they first start. They want to provide a lot of different services. So the clients that they get don't go anywhere else. And what happens is that makes it really, really hard to provide those services really, really well and get great results because you're trying to spread your time and your attention over all of these different systems over all of these different services, and that gets really hard to do. So rather, the best thing to do is really start with one service.
What is the one offer you can put in front of your audience that is really going to help them in their business and work on just improving that as much as you possibly can. And as you continue to get great results, you learn and learn and learn, and you're getting excellent results for your clients. You're finding it easier to attract clients for that particular service. Then that's really a good time to start looking at, how can We expand and offer a new service?
And when you offer this new service, this gives you another reason to reach out to your clients, to let them know what you're offering, and they're saying, “Hey look, this business is growing alongside my business”. You kind of are growing together, and that is really exciting and that they see that you are constantly working on adding value to their business, and one way that you do that is through offering new services.
2. Contact Customers/Clients First
The second strategy you can implement is probably the easiest thing that you can do, and that is simply to contact the claim before they contact. This does wonder for the relationship because they're so busy, they're business owners, and so they don't always have the time to pick up the phone to check in, maybe as much as they would like to.
So this gives you an opportunity to really build trust with them. And when you are reaching out to them just because you want to, it really shows that you care and that you have their best in interest in mind. So some of the things that you can reach out to them for are to give them some new insights.
Maybe there's something that you've seen on their website or in the campaign that you are running for them, and something that you want to try or tweak in order to get better results for them, or perhaps a result that you've been able to get for another client that you want to try out for them.
This could be a new service, as we've just talked about. This could be to request feedback, or if you identify any problems that you make sure that you are the one bringing it to the client's attention before they happen to see it, and then you have to bring it to your attention. So there's so many different reasons why you can actually reach out to them, but just make sure that you are working to stay ahead of them and you reach out to them before they reach out to you.
3. Be Open to Feedback
The third strategy is also very easy to implement, and this is simply just being open to feedback. But like in number two, you want to make sure that you are the one requesting.
So of course, we're gonna be requesting feedback on the specific project that we're working on for a client that they've hired us to do. But we also want to make sure that we asked for feedback just based on their experience:
What was it like for them coming on board with you
What was it like as they were making the decision to work with you?
What has been their experience and actually going through the project with you? And then afterwards,
How are things going for them?
And this is really going to give you insight that can be very valuable because it can help you just continually improve your process to help the overall client experience be the best. It possibly can. Just make sure that you are open to both positive and negative feedback so you can get open and honest feedback from them and do everything you can to make them feel open to providing any feedback that they want.
4. Add Recurring Revenue Stream
The fourth strategy is one that most people want to do, and this is to add a recurring revenue stream to your There's certainly a lot of ways to go about doing this, but when you have a recurring revenue stream and you're able to keep the same client onto paying you month after month. Of course, as long as you are continuing to add value and provide a valuable service to them, this is an easy way to get them to stay on board and continue to pay you.
5. Make Customers/Clients Life Easy
The fifth strategy is to take a step back even before you bring on a client and look at:
what is it that you can do to make your clients light and working with you even easier?
what is it that you can take off of their plate and put onto your own?
by doing so, this makes the experience just that much better for clients because they've had a really good experience. You've made it as easy as possible to work with, and you have essentially taken off tasks like looking for images or editing content or getting the content written.
Now, We are not saying that you need to be the one to provide all the biggest different services or do all of these different tasks, but you are simply the person who is removing it from their plate. This is also going to help you keep your projects on time, because this is one of the biggest reasons why projects get delayed is because there's two much on the business owners plate, and they simply just put it off and go on to something that's a little bit easier for them to handle.
6. Keep Clients/Customers Educated
Number six is to keep your clients educated, so we think about what are lead magnets that we could create to attract clients? What are things that we could put out there in the world to the clients that we exist and we're adding value, but what happens when we actually have a client does all of that stuff?
This is where we want to make sure that we are continuing to add value and educating them along the way so that they continue to see that we are educating ourselves, that we are staying on top of things, and they know that they are in good hands. So there's a lot of different forms that this could take, but this could simply be writing a blog post. This could be writing a quick email just to educate them on something new maybe that you have found or that you have…
This could be recording a quick two minute video that you share with all of your clients, or maybe just with one in particular that you want to shed some light on a particular task or something that's going on with their marketing campaign.
7. Go Above and Beyond
Number seven is to go above and beyond, now, this is one that you hear all the time. Of course, We got to go above and beyond for clients, We want to make sure they're very happy.
But if you actually taken the time to incorporate this, so you definitely want to look at that, so ask yourself; what are just one or maybe two things that either are very low cost or that are not time intensive that you can do that would add value and show that you are going above and beyond for the client that would just put a smile on their face.
8. Reward Loyalty
Number eight is to reward loyalty, so we talked about recurring services. If a client has been on with you and they've been paying you every month for three months, 6 months, 12 months or more, look at specific increments where you really want to reward that loyalty. This could be something where you send them a small gift. You could even send them a handwritten note.
This isn't even something you have to do. There are companies that will automatically send a handwritten note for you. You could offer a small bonus, just something to say “Thank you, that we recognize you, and you have continued to support us as we continue to support you, and we appreciate it”.
9. Connect Clients/Customers with Others
Number nine is to connect clients with others, oftentimes as we want to be do everything for a client. We don't want them talking to anyone else, so we don't ever lose them as a client. But it can actually be something that's very beneficial is to start building up your Rolodex of contacts. So that in the instance where they are in need of something, you have different people that you could call on or refer them out to People really, really appreciate this.
It saves them a lot of time and having to figure it out. And they would rather have a trusted contact that they can go and reach out to, So this really makes you look like the person to go to. If they ever are in need of a contact, it gives them a reason to contact you back.
10. Create a Waitlist
So even if you only have a few clients, you can still create a waitlist. And this is where you can put clients so that they know that when you have a free slot for a client or a project, you will call them up, and so they'll know where they are on that list. But it also lets your current clients know that if you leave, well, now I have a wait list of clients waiting so you're gonna go to the end of the list, that makes it so they don't want to lose their spot and they want to stay on.
And this also shows others who are interested in working with you, that others also want to work with you. And so this really makes more of a demand for your time and your expertise in your service.
11. Raise your Prices
When you raise your prices, what happens? You serve less clients because you don't need to serve as many clients to make as much money and when you serve less clients you have more time to spend on them. You have more time to get them better results and that makes for happier clients so, they keep coming back.
12. Make Clients/Customers Feel Like Top Priority
This does not mean that you have to answer their calls or their emails at any time day or night weekday or weekend, this simply means that you need to do what you can to make them feel like a priority so if you're able to and they call during your call hours then answer the phone.
If you receive a call for them but you're just too busy or you're not able to get back to them until maybe late in the afternoon or perhaps the next day shoot them an email or a text message simply letting them know you've received it, and when you will follow back that way they know that you've heard it and that you want to be able to get back to them and they just feel like a priority for you.
Because you are taking the time even when you don't have it to at least respond and the good thing is when you have raised your prices like we just talked about you'll have a less clients to talk to you'll have less leads that you need to attract to get those clients that you need in, and that gives you more time to be able to pick up the phone or to communicate a little faster and a little better with your clients.
13. Create Products
Next step is to create products now this adds an additional revenue stream without you necessarily have to expand your offerings, so if you offer one particular service and you can also offer a product around that service. That can be a great and easier way to be able to expand.
What this does is it gives someone who is unable to afford your prices a way to still be able to get value from you, and it also gives people who are on your wait list and can't hire you immediately some way that they can interact with you and start getting value as well.
14. Address Negative Experiences Immediately
In the event there is ever any negative feedback that is received, you want to do your absolute best to stay calm and stay open-minded, and hear the client out even if you think what they're saying is completely off.
Now this doesn't mean that you need to be taken advantage of but you do need to at least allow the other person to say what they are saying, and hear it so that you can see the other perspective people will feel better just being allowed to be heard and that you are willing to hear them and are open to being able to find a solution that works for both parties.
15. Demonstrate Ongoing Value
Next step is to demonstrate value on an ongoing basis, find a way to continue to add value to the clients that you have this can be done through communication. This can be done through simply doing something for a project or emailing them.
There's a lot of different ways to incorporate value so for instance, if you follow up with your clients with a monthly report this could always be followed up with a phone call.
So for instance you if you send a monthly report to your clients and month after month you don't regularly hear back from a couple of your clients it's always a good idea to still follow up with them, because this is a way that you can spend just a few minutes explaining some things to them. Checking in with them just to make sure that they weren't too busy to actually reach out and ask you any questions, otherwise you might just one day wake up to an email or a voice message saying oh it's time to cancel but rather when we can catch them before they actually have any issues or feedback that we haven't had the opportunity to hear this will help make sure that we're keeping those clients before it escalates to a position where they just want to stop.
16. Set-Up Automatic Recurring Payments
And number 16 this one is so important if you have clients who are paying you month after month you have any recurring revenue streams in your business, do not allow them to manually pay month after month.
You have got to find a way to automate those payments every time a client has to make a new payment with you, they are also even unconsciously redeciding if they want to work with you.
You don't want to go there every single month because every single month they have to stop they have to put in their payment, they have to think about what's been going on. We want to automate this process so they're not having to stop what they're doing to make the payment.
It keeps payments on time and it also keeps them from rethinking the entire process where we then have to go through a new sales process to really convince them, that it's worth staying so make sure to add in those automated recurring payments using a software.
And lastly to add to your Clients/Customers Experience make sure that part of what you are working on, when you are focusing on your own business is developing a very positive onboarding and off-boarding process for your clients.
So an onboarding process is what the client will go through as they start to become your client so when they agree to hire you what does that process look like, and how does it make you look very professional and show them that they've made the right decision.
And really support them along the way the same thing with an off-boarding process, this is going to be at the end of the project assuming that they are not continuing with another service what is it that you are doing to continue to stay in communication with them make sure that they've had a successful project, and you've gathered feedback from them and so on and this really just solidifies a very very positive customer experience.
so there you have it those are the 17 strategies that you can use to keep your clients so you don't have to keep starting over from scratch.
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