In spite of all your efforts to hold onto existing customers you are bound to lose some of them over time. There are variety of reasons they leave. Some are under your control; while others are not. Some customers leave because they received bad service. Others become tired of same products they are getting. Still others leave because you have not been in front of them through marketing.
While you will not be able keep every single customer all the time what you can do is try to bring those customers who have left some time ago. Depending on their reasons for leaving; this may be somewhat easier to do than trying to acquire the customers who have never tried your products.
So what can you do to make this happen? Below we have highlighted several techniques you can use.
- Understand why they are left in the first place.
As we mentioned earlier customers leave for a variety of reasons. You should try to understand to see if there are any systemic problems you need to fix. There are several free survey tools you can utilize to find out. Amongst them are surveymonkey , Free Online Surveys and many others. Also, if you have a physical store location you can have a brief survey that customers can fill out while they are waiting. - Keep track of customers.
Most of the POS systems allow you maintain the customer database including their names, address, phone number, order history, etc. They can also produce reports showing which customers have not order in the last 30-60-90 days. Use these reports to contact those customers. Many times all these customers need is a small nudge from the business to remind them to visit again. How about sending special coupons to those customers? I recently experienced this first-hand when I received a reminder and special coupon from my haircut salon. I had not visited them for the last 3-4 months due to travel. It was a pleasant surprise to find that they still remembered me. - Provide incentives.
Some of your customers may have left because they have been lured by your competition with a better price at some point. You need to make sure you don’t lose them for good. To do this you need to provide similar incentives yourself through coupons, customer appreciation days, etc. - Stay in touch.
Taking steps to build a long-term, ongoing relationship with your customers will go a long way towards stopping them from leaving. Out of sight equals out of mind! You should spend sufficient money on marketing that keeps your business in front of customers. Make sure you deploy both traditional as well as online marketing techniques. - Pay attention to your operation and customer service.
None of the techniques mentioned above will work if your customers have left because your business operations and customer service had deteriorated. Even if you are able to bring them back one more time they will not return for a long time if they experience the same problems that made them leave earlier. Before you spend money to bring them back make sure your house (business) is in order that will make them stay.
Last word of caution! It is bad enough to lose any customer; it will be even worse to lose your best customers. That is why it is paramount to pamper them with extra special perks and attention. Our advice to all small business owners is this – DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO TO HOLD ON TO YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS.
What other techniques do you use to bring back the past customers?
