My friend Aaron likes to tell the story about how he arrived at a hotel and how they greeted him at the car and then shortly after said "Aaron, you are a Manchester United fan aren't you? Manchester is playing tomorrow morning and we will have the game up live for you."
What hotel will always be the standard for high service in Aaron's mind? When we do little things that show that we care for our customers, we will remain in their hearts forever.
Think about how much money you could save on trying to get new customers to buy from you if only you focused on getting your current customers to buy more often. These people have already developed a relationship with you. They obviously trust you because they have purchased from you already.
Here are some ideas on how you can get them to buy more often.
Special events for preferred customers
Every business has its best customers that it wants to continue to do business with. By treating these customers as special and recognizing their value to your business you can enrich the relationship by inviting them to special events.
These events should be fun, timely, and personable. You may wish to introduce new products, services or have special pricing.
The best thing for your business is that when done properly everyone wins! Your customers are recognized by you as important and as a result often end up purchasing more of what you have.
Follow up on sales
One of the lost arts of selling is the follow up. How often do you get a call after you have made a purchase from the vendor just checking in to see how you are doing with it?
Follow up calls can be huge in terms of building loyalty, trust, and making customers feel comfortable with you and what you have sold them. You are reducing their risks because they know you care and thus are more likely to buy from you in the future, and recommend you to others.
Loyalty programs
Loyalty programs seem pretty common place now and many customers expect a loyalty program when they are buying from you.
But think about your loyalty program - are there ways that you can make it extra special? It might be in the delivery of the program; it might be in the wording.
Loyalty programs don't have to be complex, in fact they might be as simple as a punch card. The key is to give your customers a reason to come back and buy again from you.
Next step recommendations
When we are dealing with our customers we built a relationship as we provide our products or services. Often, we can see what the next steps are that they need to take to get to where they want to go.
In order to help them achieve their goals, it is in their best interest and ours to suggest what that step is and to start the process of selling that step to them. This not only gives our customers reassurance that we understand their needs but keeps us top of mind when they are really ready to take that next step.
Put your customers in autopilot!
While many businesses wait for customers to contact them, smart businesses put their customers in autopilot.
In other words, their customers are locking in for service or product for longer periods of time. This can be done by offering automatic shipping, automatic billing, lifetime service contracts, or service agreements that make it easy for your customers to stay with you.
When your customer understands the value to them of entering such an agreement the benefits can be mutually beneficial.
Keeping your customers happy can go a long way to keeping your business healthy and profitable for the future. Perhaps its time that you invested in that future and those customers.
Dave Fuller is a business coach that loves his customers. He can be reached at [email protected] or 250-617-7467.
