Tips On Customer Retention To Boost Financial Returns

As a business person, you have to understand that the future of your business is primarily based on your customer-base. Of course, you are not the one to use up all your good and services, they are meant for the patronages of others so as to bring you profits. However, getting customers is not the only thing that is necessary but how to also retain them and make them patronise you repeatedly - this is what matters to any business. Here we shall take a look at how a business person can retain their customers and secure their continuous patronage.

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The first and very important customer retention tip is to give them what they want. If you buy something for example, and when you come back, you discover that you did not get value for your money, or the product was below the quality you expected, will you buy from the business again? If people patronise you just once and then they will go off into the thin air, then you should ask yourself if you are giving them what they want - the quality they paid for. A few months back, I saw a particular product advertised on the media for sale, so I chatted with the vendor and requested for a few pieces of it. I had intended to buy a lot more of that, but I decided to just get a few and see them first before I buy more.

When the products were delivered, I was not only disappointed about the low quality but I was also angry that I had to spend so much for it. Well, after that, I did not patronise the vendor again, and I found another place where I got good qualities for lower price, so I took my patronage to them. If you want to get new customers and retain the old ones, then you should not compromise quality. I once listened to Elon, in one of his media messages about what inspires his design at Tesla. He simply explained that when they build, they do it for themselves. When you build something that is worthy to be used by you, you will do the best out of it. If you know that you will not be satisfied with your own product if someone sells it to you, then do not sell it to your customers.

The next tip to get handy with in order to retain your customers is to be prompt with your service delivery. Imagine if someone tries to get your product but wastes the entire time waiting for what should be delivered in lesser time, do you think they will come back to buy from you again? I remember when a friend of mine gave some materials to a tailor to sew clothes for him for a party he was going. By the day they agreed, he was surprised that the tailor has not even finished the sewing. In fact, he had to make another arrangement for what to wear. That was the first and last time he had anything to do with the tailor. If you do not want to lose customers, then be prompt with the delivery of your services.

We shall also be looking at good customer relationships as a way to retain customers. Imagine if you enter a business premises and the way and manner they talked to you sounded so rude, will you want to visit there again? You have to learn how to effectively communicate and relate with your customers. They may have some flaws but you are not a character police. After all, what you need is their money, not their good character. So even when you are right and they are wrong, you can still employ diplomacy and sentiments to diffuse the situation without sounding offensive. Trust me, if a customer is happy with you, not only will you gain their continuous patronage but they will also refer you to others.

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As you are relating effectively with your customers, also try to get feedbacks from them on how you can serve them better. Do not assume that you know what they want, it will be a good idea to enquire from them how you can improve on your services to suit them better, or how you can serve them well, what they need in a product, etc. All these can be gotten when you take feedbacks from your customers. This is the reason why some organizations have "suggestion boxes" placed at strategic positions in their workplaces to collate suggestions and feedbacks from customers. This will help them to focus more on meeting the specific needs of their customers.

The last point we will consider that will facilitate retention of customers is organise promo, giveaway, discounts, and incentives for customers. There was a time when one of the major competitors of a particular soft drink brand in this part of the world did a major promo. In few weeks of the promo, their customer-base almost doubled and their profit margin went up by more than 100%. This shows how incentives can draw customers to your business. There may be more than one business doing exactly what you are doing, but by incentivizing your patronage, you can get and retain more customers.

Thanks for reading