The best customers are the ones you already have. Don’t take them for granted.
Instead educate them on what you do. Tell them about your successes. Tell them what else you can do for their business.
Better yet, start doing it even though they’re not yet paying you for the service. If they like it, believe me, one thing will lead to another. That is how good businesses differentiate.
Here are five quick suggestions to keep customers happy and grow your footprint with the ones you already have.
1. Set up tangible metrics from day one
Establish SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Here’s an example:
“We want to increase visits by 50% (1000 per month to 1500 per month) for our new product launch by March 10, 2015.”
SMART goals are effective because they give you something quantitative to evaluate your performance against.
Now when you deliver 2000 monthly visits you can say to your customer: “We increased your visits by 100% and beat our goal by 100%. Here’s what’s next!”
2. Network with your clients
Bring them into your social streams.
Utilize the big four: LinkedIn, Google +, Facebook Company Pages, and Twitter. Post about your client’s success.
This is free marketing for them and free content for your business. Chances are good that Client A will see something new you’ve done with Client B.
This can lead to new business from your existing customer base.
Social networking and internal promotion is the best way to upsell or cross-sell without a megaphone. You don’t want your customer to bring on another firm for something they didn’t know you do. So tell them about it.
3. Report regularly
Use software tools like Google Analytics and Hubspot’s reporting software.
Compare your results to your SMART goals. Are you overachieving? Emphasize it!
Data is ubiquitous. Provide value through intelligent analysis. Identify trends. As we’re all human, show them where you’re coming up short. Explain your plan to do better.
Correlate data anomalies to marketing campaigns and high-value deliverables. Add events to your timeline. What did you do right to get a spike in interest? Dig through the data and provide concrete conclusions. It should some something like this:
“We used your Technology Tim campaign as a series of guest blogs starting on March 30th (see below). From April 3-7 we received a large spike in traffic from referral sources (your guest blog). Of these new contacts we used inbound best practices on your landing pages to convert 15% to leads and 3% to new retainers (2 new customers from inbound marketing).This campaign cost you $5000 and returned you two customers.The customers are worth $10,000 each to your business ($20,000 profit total). Your total return on investment for the Technology Tim campaign was 4:1 (400%) within a week of being launched. Congratulations! Oh, by the way that content is going to keep working for you for the next ten years. Here’s what we have up next …”
4. Highlight successes and present solutions for failures
Set up processes for monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting.
Take the time to explain what you do. Make personal phone calls. Utilize “joinme” and show your customers how you do what you do.
Show the value you’re providing for their business!
5. E-mail nurture
Keep your clients in the loop periodically.
I recommend monthly updates. Too much email is overbearing.Treat it judiciously. Make them count. Include original, high quality content. Educate your customers.
If you provide value they will want to hear from you. If not, they may not be your customers much longer.
Keeping customers happy is a simple process.
The good news is that a lot of businesses don’t put in the extra effort to do it right. This is an opportunity for you to differentiate. Follow our five inbound strategies and make a positive impact on your reputation and your revenues.
