So you have a new customer. Congratulations! Now how do you turn them into a recurring client instead of a one-time customer? We know clients are the best for our company. They are where we make most of our revenue and where we get the best referrals from. We should strive to turn every customer into clients. But how? And if you are still confused on the difference between clients and customers, click here to learn what the difference is between the two.
Suzanne Kearns, full-time freelance writer for numerous business and financial publications for 20 years, has the answers in her article How to Convert a New Customer into a Repeat Customer. You can read her entire article here, but for this post, we are just going to provide you with Kearns’ three tips for converting a new customer into a repeat customer.
Tip #1. Provide stellar customer service. According to KISSmetrics, 71 percent of customers leave a business because they receive poor customer service. I know this is true for me. I have stopped going to a particular restaurant after I not only received poor service, but also did not receive even an apology after I took my complaint to the manager. Go above and beyond just typical customer service. Respond immediately whether it be a complaint or a request. Think of how you would like to be treated as a customer and provide that same level to your own customers.
Tip #2. Stay in touch. Plain and simple. Customers, heck people in general, appreciate knowing you care. Call after the original sale or after the first visit to their property. Check in to see how things went and to also see if you can schedule any future appointments. Also, call and keep new customers up to date on special offers or discounts on services you know they need. They will appreciate that you think about their needs and want to help them out!
Tip #3. Rethink your customer-loyalty programs. Kearns suggests using “artificial rewards.” She brings up the example of a customer-loyalty experiment using “artificial rewards.” In it, two sets of customers were given loyalty rewards that would earn them a free car wash after a certain number of paid car washes. One set of customers was given the opportunity to earn a free wash after eight paid washes; the other group was told that they needed 10 paid washes but would get the first two boxes on the card marked off for free. Both groups had to pay for eight washes before they received a free one, but the group that was given the “artificial reward” — or head start — of two “free” marks had an 82 percent increase in completion over the other group. The researchers say that this kind of offer only works when customers think there’s a legitimate reason for the reward, such as a “new customer bonus.”
Getting new customers is half the battle for businesses. The other half is getting the customer to come back and eventually become a client. Repeat customers mean repeat income; pretty logical stuff, right? It will vary between businesses but these three tips should at least get you started on your way to gaining clients!