Sometimes business owners are so focused on lead generation that retention is overlooked. This is not good for any business.
So how do you get new customers in without driving your old clients out? James offers some best practices in this quick tip.
It’s great getting all these new customers and focusing on your traffic and conversions. But what about the old customers? How do you keep old customers from leaving while you’re taking on all these new customers? And it’s an often ignored aspect of business.
Hi, I’m James Schramko. And in this recording, I’m sharing with you an answer I gave a member of SuperFastBusiness in a recent members-only Q&A call. My customer asked me how to keep old customers from leaving while he’s been taking on new customers. This is my answer.
Well, you’ve got to have your basics, of course. One thing that I’ve done well with long-term customers is, I meet them. I know my customers. I’ve actually in-person met a lot of my customers. So I know my people because I’ll get on a plane or go and meet them. So if you’re in a local business catchment, try some customer appreciation events where you can actually connect with people face-to-face. That will be a strong card to play.
Secondly, always look after your longest-term customers first. Give them the best rates on a new initiative, early access, an established members-only program, a club of sorts. For example, Amazon prime, the average Amazon prime customer spends $1800 a year and a non-prime customer spends $600 a year. So they make more than twice. It’s like three times more for how much they spend because they’ve got a club.
You also might send them out a Bonjoro video. You might send them a personal card or a letter that’s triggered in a certain timeframe. So when I’m thinking back in the car dealership, we had letters that would go out every 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 months. We would send a letter, and I would actually go up and make the dealer principal sign them in person because I told him nothing’s more valuable than him personally signing a letter for an existing customer. So we would follow them up for five years at least.
So think about how you can do some of those things – events, personal communication, better rates, early access, founder’s rates, lock-in. And you can also do something that I did is I set a trigger in Ontraport to send me a notification when a customer reaches a certain milestone in one of my programs, and I’ll actually lower their rate after X number of loyalty years and I’ll give them a reduced amount as a long-term thing.
So these are things you don’t have to do, and they seem counterintuitive, but you will earn a lifetime customer this way. That’s why my retention is three years.
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