Believe it or not, it’s a lot easier to turn off a customer than to keep one. Unfortunately, it costs a lot more to gain a new client, than to keep one. Therefore if you really want to keep clients once you’ve gained one, you better not engage in any of the titles below. Instead, do the opposite, which is described beside each topic and your small business will become even more successful.
1. Take Customer Relationships For Granted — If you want to turn off your customers fast, do this! But, if you want to create valuable long term client relationships then you need to develop a way to do so. There are many ways to make clients feel valued such as offering client only sales, free upgrades to paying clients, and customer appreciation days.
2. Don’t Market Your Business At All — Believe it or not, marketing budgets are often the first to go when here is a money crunch. Wrong answer! Don’t skimp on marketing in tough times, instead market smarter. Go right where your target audience is. This will take some study of who exactly consists of your target market, but it will be more than worth it in the long run.
3. Don’t Care Who Your Target Market Is — As previously mentioned, your target market is something you should know. You should know exactly who they are, their sex, their age range, their likes, their dislikes, whether or not they went to college, how many children they have, and what is important to them. If you don’t know this information, creating a profitable marketing campaign is impossible.
4. Do Not Ask Clients What They Think — You’d be shocked at how many businesses never even consider sending a survey to current clients to find out what gets them excited and what they think. You have a vast source of information at your fingertips that have already purchased from you. Why not ask them questions that will help in future improvements, product creation, and marketing?
5. Never Follow Up With Clients — That’s right, many companies with poor client relationships never follow up after a client purchases from them. It’s like the client doesn’t even matter at all. If you start following up and asking clients how they feel about their purchase you’ll garner information that can be used throughout your company, from sales, to creative, to billing and more.
6. Transfer Client Calls Multiple Times — How many times have you, yourself called to get help for a product or service and been transferred multiple times and still not got the answer you need to fix your problem? I bet it’s happened more than once. With the age of outsourcing and off-shoring, it is possible to be transferred more than five times and still not get the right department. This has to stop. Try implementing a rule that no call be transferred more than twice. See how fast client satisfaction climbs.
7. Hire Rude Staff Who Are Not Trained — If your staff is rude or short with clients, blaming them for everything (even when it is in fact the clients fault) you’ll end up with a very bad reputation. Sales staff, and customer service staff need to be trained to be polite, listen, and then offer solutions to clients no matter what. Staff need to be trained to call the client by their name, to ask the client the right questions that will lead to solution, and to listen without judgment. This will take some training as well as implement and train staff to use important Help Desk Application to guide the staff.
8. Never Update Your Technology — As time moves forward it’s important for small business owners to keep themselves apprised of technology developments that directly affect their business in both good and bad ways. Is there a killer technology that could affect your business? Is there a fabulous new technology that could help your business? If you don’t know about these things, you could put your business in jeopardy. Stay educated, and informed and you will stay ahead of the game.
