A company’s largest asset is its clients. They are the driving force. Without them, businesses would not be around. The retention of a client is your goal. Sure, one-time clients are great, but getting a person who without fail chooses you for their services is what brings home the bacon. Sometimes it can be a chore to build that returning clientele, but they say the best things in life aren’t easy. This case is the same. The key is to make every client feel appreciated. The following strategies can be used by any industry to help take that regular customer experience to customer service excellence. When you have the customer on your side, it will flow into not only an easy relationship to maintain, but it will also inspire loyalty. It should lead to customer referrals. Good word of mouth can spread like wildfire. At That! Company our client retention strategy is summarized under R.A.D, Relationship, Attitude, and Dependability. Using these tips can help you create your own strategy for retention.
Listen to Customers and Take Them Seriously
Stay Calm and Apologize When You are Wrong
Foresee and Distinguish Needs and Suggest Action Plans
It’s easy for the client-company relationship to fall victim to a stagnant routine. Everything is moving. You know what type of work the customer desires, and you know what will work to reach their objectives. This can get boring. It’s easy for the client to wake up one day and realize how dull and bland their choice of company is. As the relationship grows, you’ll begin to feel more comfortable taking the reins. It’s easy sometimes to take the customer is always right to an extreme. Nevertheless, it is good once that client feels the trust with you and your services to look ahead and see how you can assist them in either avoiding a problem altogether; or if not, creating a plan to solve the problem. Most client problems are emotion-based. As a result, the more you get to know them, the better you will be to foresee issues before they arise, or even handle a situation to avoid the problem altogether. Your client will start to see how you do have their best interests in mind, and this will keep them coming back. No one wants to start over when they are already comfortable with a company who truly does the right thing.
Say Yes When You Can, But Acknowledge Your Limits
There really is power in the word “Yes”. It makes doing business simpler. So, you should always look for ways to help your clients. When they ask for something within reason tell them you’ll handle it and figure out how to after. More importantly, always do what you say you’ll do. This builds the client-provider relationship. However, don’t set yourself up for failure. This is where dependability plays quite a bit in our strategy. Our clients know we will go above and beyond for them when possible. They can count on us to give our best in our services, as well as our relationships. We set clear guidelines that we will always do more than warranted, but less then damaging, because we want to be here long term for them.
Get Regular Feedback and Give It too
Client retention programs work to create a client experience that encourages loyalty, confident reaction, and makes customers more willing to continue investing. By keeping a client, companies can help them obtain more value from a service or product, encourage them to share feedback and stories of using the product or service to influence potential new clients, and begin to build a community of compatible clients they can connect with. After all, keeping a client is less expensive than gaining a new client. Hence why including a simple strategy for companies to use, such as these 5 tips above, will help achieve what is most important for our companies to succeed. You won’t be able to keep all of your clients all of the time, but you can give it your all to increase customer retention by implementing and following a retention strategy. After all, what is better than a one-time client? A client that uses your services over and over again.