Loyalty lives forever

Customer retention should be your number one focus in business regardless of being a service or product company. Service based businesses such as carpet cleaning, pest control, lawn care, house cleaning, dog walkers, etc.  really have to pay close attention to retention. Your customers have so many options to choose from so be aware of how you treat them.

There are four tips to keep in mind when trying to retain a customer. You must continue to get them excited, take fault for any mistakes, know your customers, and let the customers know you.

1.       Get them excited

Everyone likes gifts, free, something funny, or something memorable. When you are trying to retain customers you must have some or all of this. If you have a repeat customer, sometimes you have to throw in something extra. Give them a little something for a referral.  Say something off the wall to them and they will say that to you every time they see you for years to come.

2.       Take the fault for any mistakes

It’s okay to say “I’m sorry.”  I don’t always agree with the saying “the customer is always right”, but as an owner we have the ability to right the wrong. Is fixing, re-doing, or refunding really going to make or break your business? Probably not. If so, you have some other issues going on. Once you fix it, a few days later follow-up to make sure all is well with the customer. When you see them don’t avoid them, go up to them and say hello. It obvious when a person is being avoided.

3.       Know your customers

Building rapport and knowing something about your customers goes a long way. First, they will be surprised you cared enough to remember. It keeps an on-going dialogue to where if there is an issue they will overlook it or they TRUST you will take care of it. Also, once you know your customers, you will have an idea how to approach them. Will your customer be receptive to jokes? Do they know pop-culture lingo? These are things you find out during conversation.  In an online environment, you have more control over who may see your content.  Those customers tend to gravitate to those that are like-minded.

4.       Be authentic

Seriously, people buy people not products. As I said before there are tons of folks you can get service from. For example, my father owned a business for 30 years.  He did well, never grew. They had one truck. How did they survive? Their customers loved them!  When my father passed, his customers came to the service, sent cards, food, etc. He was loved. They only accepted cash and check, no square or Paypal. They just started using a scanner in 2015. So keeping customers has nothing to do with having all the software and technology. It’s about you!

Once you put these four things together you will have repeat customers, referrals and increased profits. You should always put first is serving your customers. Take care of them. Don’t  treati them like a number, but as people. If you do things the right way and treat people the right way, growth will come.

No time for the one time.