Gain & Retain Customers
With today’s changing business environment, you may notice a decline in revenue. Many customers are just struggling to make ends meet and do not have the funds to devote to businesses. Still, there are things you can do to improve your chances of success.
In this article, we will look at the different ways to gain & retain customers during a recession/economic downturn. While we cannot control a recession, we can control how we respond to one. This means improving product offerings and long term relationships with existing customers.
Reach Out to Customers
Contacting your customers to see how they are doing is a critical task that you should take the time to do. See if they need anything and how they are using and enjoying your product and/or service.
If they are frustrated because they don’t know how to use the products properly, it’s crucial that you know this so you can do something about it. After all, you want them to have the best customer experience possible.
Calling Your Customers
If you have a relatively small number of customers, you can do this by calling them to make sure they’re getting the most from your product and/or service. If you have a large number of customers, consider reaching out to the top 10% of your customers.
Create an Email List
This is a popular way of reaching out to clients, vendors, and customers. Collect a list of email addresses of those you wish to contact and use this opportunity to tell your subscribers about the latest offers, products, coupons, discounts, and more. What an awesome way to improve your customer relationships!
Develop a Customer Newsletter
Create a newsletter for customers that lists the latest news regarding your company. Plus, include tips and advice on how they can best use your products and/or services. You may also wish to add information about how your business is handling the crisis going on in the world. This will show them that you have taken an active role in the company’s social responsibility.
Improve or Create a Blog and/or Website
Having a website and blog is especially helpful in today’s environment. With more people shopping and working from home, it’s important to reach out to your customers in a real way – a way that’s convenient for them. Want more reasons to create a blog? Check out this post that lists the top reasons to have a blog, the benefits of creating one, and what it can do for you.
Creating a New Blog or Website
Creating a blog or website doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, you can hire a web specialist at an affordable rate, someone who will create your blog or website for you in the blink of an eye. Doing so is their specialty, and an SEO (search engine optimization) specialist knows how to make your blog or website search-friendly so that it can best attract new customers.
Existing customers can benefit from a blog or website as well. A website can strengthen your brand awareness and make your business more credible in the eyes of your customers because you have established your authority and reputation with your company’s website.
A blog is a great way to inform your clients of the latest information regarding your products and services. Plus, blog posts give you more information that you can share on social media.
A blog also establishes yourself as an expert in your field. Don’t have time to write blog posts? There’s a simple solution – hire a freelance writer to do it for you!
Improving Upon an Existing Blog or Website
If you already have a website or blog, it may be time for an update. Hire an SEO and/or web marketing specialist to make some improvements. A specialist knows the best way to attract people to your blog and can upgrade your blog to inform new and existing customers of who you are, what you do, and how you can best improve their lives.
With a blog, you are also providing customers with a means to regularly see new updated blog posts that they can read and learn more about your business or the industry in general. You may want to add a “Contact Us” page and/or a “Meet the Team” page, so they know how to best reach you if they have any questions, concerns, or just want to talk about making a purchase.
Inform Your Customers
Informing or teaching your customers about your products is crucial. If they don’t understand how to use your product, they will most likely not use it again. So, how can you best remedy this issue? One way to do this is to provide your customers with a community forum so they can talk to each other or to an expert in your company about their concerns or frustrations.
Videos
This is probably the most popular way that companies are reaching out to customers regarding ways to best use their products and services. You don’t have to be a video pro to do this either. There are plenty of free programs that can help you make a professional video in less than an hour.
People are visual creatures and love watching videos; it’s the fastest and easiest way for them to get the information they need. Just keep your video short; less than 5 minutes is ideal.
Articles
If this is the easiest method for you to educate your customers, make sure your articles are interactive and interesting. Again, if you do not have the time or talent to write them yourself, hire a freelancer to help you out. Here are some ideas of ways you can make your articles more interactive and fun for your readers:
- Questions
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Images
- Memes
- Links to useful resources
- Graphs
- Tables
- Quotes
- Videos
- Short text blocks
Slideshows and/or Presentations
This is another interactive way to connect with your potential and current customers and clients. Show them how to use your products and services by providing a basic slideshow presentation. If you have a small customer base, consider reaching out to them individually to teach them the best ways to utilize your products and services.
Education Resources
Many websites have educational resources. For example, you may find on a tax accountant’s website there is free access to a tax deadline calendar, a tax calculator, and/or important tax forms. This type of information is very useful for clients who don’t want to search the web to see if they can find it on their own.
How-to Guides
This is a great way to educate your customers on the best way to use your products and/or services. wikiHow is an excellent example of how to create one. Include some graphics with your explanations, and the information you provide is gold! Customers will love you for helping them understand what you have to offer and how to use your products and/or services effectively.
Make Improvements
The first thing you can do to make improvements is to improve the quality of your products and services. Add greater value to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Second, introduce a help desk if you own a relatively large company. A great help desk can provide exceptional customer service and valuable technical support for your customers. They will thank you for adding this.
Finally, provide bonuses for customer loyalty. You can do this with loyalty rewards. For example, offer additional services for free upon the referral of new customers or implement a free shipping or delivery option.
Changes like this will motivate your customers to help you gain new customers while keeping your existing customers excited about your products and services, especially with the changes you are offering.
Respond to Your Customers Ever-Changing Needs
For those who are struggling financially, there are many things you can do to help retain them as customers, helping them adjust to the ever-changing world around us.
Create a customer loyalty reward program with bonuses like a point system which they can redeem for additional products and services. Provide your customers with many options when they purchase your products. For example, offer a bulk purchase discount for those who wish to buy a large quantity.
Also, offer discounts or price cuts (some cost-cutting may be necessary) based on how much your customers spend or how long they have been customers. You may also want to offer payment plans or other kinds of help for those who are going through a financial hardship right now.
Ask your existing, loyal customers for feedback through reviews, surveys, tests, focus groups, and customer testimonials. These marketing strategies can help you out by providing you with market research that will help you with customer retention and customer satisfaction.
Emphasize that you want their honest feedback so you can provide the best service to them and create products and services with more value-added to them, but you need to have their opinion. Customer testimonials are very effective ways to build rapport when attracting potential customers.
To Sum Things Up…
Bear in mind that retaining customers is much easier than developing new ones. If you can keep your existing customer happy, you will be miles ahead of the game. As the world around us changes, watch the trends in your customers’ buying behavior. This will help you achieve the highest level of success.
