5 Ways to Retain Clients
BY MELANIE BARR
For many companies, 70 to 80 percent of total revenue comes from a few clients, repeat customers, or referrals. I’ve been in business development, management, and strategy most of my career. I learned to gain clients by reaching out to people I didn’t know, or by thinking about a potential client and figuring out how to turn them into an actual one. It was the best training early in my career.
It wasn’t easy in the beginning — no one likes to hear the word “no” — but you learn to have thick skin. You learn to not care so much if someone says “no” because you have the confidence that around the corner someone else is going to say “yes.” After a few no’s you also start to perfect the technique of getting to yes. It takes constant evaluating, tweaking, and testing until you find the right formula.
Business development can be incredibly intimidating. I am a big believer that clients will say yes to you, and stay with you, if you provide quality products, services, and good customer service. To me, that means under-promising and over-delivering. It takes a while to gain customers and repeat clients so let’s talk about the work we put into earning them and how to retain them. It’s so much easier to retain clients and earn their repeat business and new referrals than to try to consistently gain new customers from scratch.
1. Offer Quality Products & Services
Have you ever purchased something online and realized the poor quality of the product when you received it in the mail? What’s the first thing you thought? My first thought, whenever this happens to me, is to not purchase from that source again. Sure, we all make mistakes, we’re human. We should be given the opportunity to fix mistakes, but first impressions really do matter.
Put your heart and soul into creating quality products and excellent customer service and you won’t go wrong.
2. Stand Behind your Products and Fix Issues
During the Coronavirus pandemic, I started to use a box clothing business to be able to shop and add some new clothes to my closet. You can wear them and send them back or you can purchase items that you like.
I was wearing one of the shirts that came in the box and when I took it off I realized that the collar had a small tear. I had only worn it once, I’m not particularly hard on clothes, and I hadn’t left the house while wearing it. I emailed the company to let them know what happened.
Their response: “Don’t worry. Minor damage and tears are expected. Send it back and our team will fix it.” I was relieved!
This took the pressure off of me and made me think, “I’m going to keep ordering and purchasing from them; they handled that well.” They made it easy to fix a small issue. It probably took their team 10 minutes to fix the tear. In return, they earned and retained a happy customer who will likely become a routine customer for a while. Customer service, especially the little things, can go a very long way.
3. Under Promise and Over Deliver
This is one of my favorites. Clients expect the status quo. When you go above and beyond in helping clients look good, such as helping them do something more efficiently, make their life or job easier, or help them grow their business, you stand out and make an impression.
Even though we only have so much time in a day to spend on our clients — small or large — there are usually things we can do to assist our clients that are above and beyond and don’t take long for us to do. When we do these things, clients are often incredibly appreciative and, once again, you’ll stand out as someone they want to continue to work with and purchase from.
4. Provide Impeccable Customer Service & Response Time
I was driving to pick up my parents at LAX — they were scheduled to land around 4:30pm. Our twins were four years old at the time and I had been working all day. I knew my parents would be hungry, and thought I’d be able to pick them up, have food delivered, and try to time it around the time we’d get home.
When we got home, the delivery app said the food was 10 minutes away — “perfect,” I thought. Ten minutes became twenty. I called customer service. The customer representative told me that “I” had changed the delivery address for the food and that the delivery went to the next town over.
I responded that I didn’t change the address (why would I send the food to a place that I wasn’t at), and that the mistake had to be on their end. I asked if, since I knew the driver was close, the meal could still be delivered to us.
“No, that address is out of your range” What!?
Then I asked if I could at least have a refund or discount on the $150 of food I had paid for.
“No, we can’t do that.”
I was appalled that somewhere a driver was eating our $150 worth of food. My immediate thought was to never order from them again. Had they given me a discount, I would have been discouraged, but I would have given them the benefit of the doubt and ordered from them again.
It was the lack of any kind of help, understanding, or bending at all that I couldn’t believe. Yes, I am very aware that I am just one person and the company might not care about losing me as a client, but we spend a considerable amount of money on food delivery each month, and losing clients due to poor customer service can add up quickly. Customer service can make or break client retention.
5. Thank Your Clients and Show Your Gratitude
Sometimes a simple thank you makes all the difference. Other times going above and beyond to send notes, gifts, and appreciation can make a real impact.
I recently heard an unexpected knock at the door. I wasn’t expecting a package or delivery. When I opened the door I was completely surprised to see a small flower arrangement.
I had purchased something from someone and to show their appreciation they sent a small flower arrangement. The point of mentioning this is not because of what was sent, the surprise of the gesture made it memorable and brought an extra feeling of appreciation. Even If you have millions of clients, small giveaways, discounts, and thank you’s, can go a long way.
Until next time... Keep growing and building your business, making the small daily and quantum leaps, and let nothing stop you from living the life that you crave.
With gratitude,
Melanie Barr
Founder & CEO, She Built It™