Customer Retention is an essential compenent of business success
If your in business your in the business of building relationships. What makes or breaks a business, is the quality of your customer relationships.
If you want to be in business for any decent length of time, the moment the customer purchases your product or service you make a commitment to satisfy their needs and wants for as long as you are physically able. This means more than a passive response to customer inquiries and request for products or services; this requires an active and ongoing effort to create a relationship that is built on frequent interaction.
Companies that do this effectively are people companies; they love talking to their customers and frequently. Building friendships with your customers can be the best thing for you and them, it makes working together easier and fun. One of the main reasons companies lose customers is because they feel undervalued. That is when a competitor will strike. Your competitors will give your customers all the attention in the world and every reason to start using their product or service instead of yours.
So before it’s too late be sure that you are contacting every one of your past and current customers at least once a month. If you can, use a computer to keep track of your customers contact details so their always up-to-date and easy to access.
It takes a large amount of time and effort to convert a prospect into a new customer. Compare this to the time it takes to sell to an existing customer, who trusts you and the quality of the product or service that you provide.
The lifetime value of a customer should never be forgotten. Next time you are in the process of servicing a request, imagine the value of this person to your business in one year’s time, two years and over ten years.
If you can provide a business experience, that customers will enjoy time after time, then you’re well on your way to building mutually profitable customer relationships that last for a life time.
