5 Customer Retention Program Ideas That Work For Any Business
Are you maximizing the revenue possibilities in your business? Well, if you aren’t actively and purposefully retaining your customers then more than likely you are bleeding profits.
In this article we are going to talk about five customer retention program ideas that you, and any business no matter what the size, can implement right now to see massive revenue increases from the people that matter the most to your business.
First Things First – Why Worry About Customer Retention?
With just about every business I work with one thing comes up over and over again. It may sound shocking, but they don’t love their existing customers. That’s right, they spend the majority of their time chasing after people they don’t even know rather than focus on the people that love doing business with them.
The big problem with this is that you spend way too much on acquiring new customers than you do by keeping your existing customers happy (4 to 6 times more). It’s far easier to sell to your existing customer base than sell to brand-new people.
Utilize your auto responder
Of all of the customer retention program ideas out there, one simple way to keep your existing customer based engaged is to send them regular emails. It doesn’t matter how often you send them as long as they’re within a certain range. For example with The Online Empire Academy we send out an email every day for the first few days and then once every two weeks for the next year or so. The result is a continuous warming up process of everyone that has done business with us in the past or is likely to do business with us in the future.
Start small and then go big
Make sure that you have a sales funnel. Rather than having wacky customer retention program ideas that revolve around loyalty cards and other things you’re customers need to have in their wallets, by simply taking them down a path that not only hopes and get to know you, but continually builds a relationship is one of the easiest and most profitable ways to sell to your existing customers.
Reward your customers for taking action
People love to be recognized and feel important. In Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People he shows how feeling important is one of the most powerful human needs we have. Even if they aren’t doing something that results in revenue, any chance that you can get to show your appreciation for an action that your customer completed can be worth a lot of money in the long run.
Reward your customers with emails or text messages
Going along the same lines as the previous customer retention program ideas, the simple act of sending an email or text message on somebody’s birthday or other special occasion can be extremely powerful. Not only is it powerful, it’s extremely easy when you’re using something like Infusionsoft to make it happen automatically.
Reward your customer with gifts in the mail
Out of all the customer retention program ideas, this is definitely my favorite. I love to use infusion soft to send gifts in the mail like cookies, books, and other fun stuff. You wouldn’t believe the reactions that I get when I do this in the cool thing about it is that it’s all on a minute based on how much the customer has spent, when the last time they bought was, and how many items they bought in general. Once it’s all set up it set and forget.
There are tons of other great customer retention program ideas out there
The purpose of this article is not to be an exhaustive list of all of the things that you can do to make your customers feel happy am a appreciated, and want to buy from you over and over again. It’s meant to show you the importance of customer retention program ideas and why you want to make sure that you are implementing them. The sky the limit, but one thing is for certain, doing any type of customer retention is very profitable.
Well said Dean! Most business are spending their marketing budgets on getting new customers, the most expensive part of the sales process, versus providing value to the customers who already know, like & trust them.