Getting Customers, Keeping Customers

One of the top challenges for many business people these days is getting new customers. Finding new clients takes a significant amount of time and energy, not to mention monetary investment. And to keep that pipeline full, you’ve got to be consistent and creative in your efforts.

There’s certainly no shortage of information out there on how to attract new business. Some sources make it sound like getting more new customers is as easy as turning on the water faucet. That’s not exactly been my experience. Has it been yours?

You might be interested to know there is an easier and more cost-effective way to build your business. It’s called customer appreciation. Focusing on keeping the customers you have is a far better investment of your limited resources.

How does it work? Good question.

When you put your efforts into building stronger relationships with current clients, they stay with you longer, they buy more from you, and they recommend you to more of their friends and colleagues. Those factors equal more money in your pocket.

Think about it. Someone who is already a customer is already sold on your product or service. She already likes and trusts you. He already knows you’re reputable and deliver value. You’ve got an established relationship going, so it’s a good bet she will take or return your call. Someone you’ve never done business with before is going to be harder to reach and more skeptical of your pitch when you do get through. The sales cycle is naturally going to be longer because you have to lay the groundwork and establish the rapport.

What happens when you’re the consumer? How do you make your buying decisions? You probably turn to friends or colleagues who’ve bought a similar product or service for recommendations and advice. You likely search online for reviews and comparisons. Your prospective clients are no different. They want to make sure they’re making the right decision and will take their time to do so.

Just yesterday I needed to replenish a product I use in the business frequently. There’s no reason for me to spend time going online to search for another vendor and seeing if I can find a better price. I’m comfortable with the supplier I’ve been using recently. Even if I could save a few cents somewhere else, I’d rather buy from a reliable place where I know the guy and already have an account. In fact, I used to buy this product from someone else, but she was hard to get hold of and wasn’t very good at returning calls or emails, which made it difficult to order. She was probably always out chasing after new customers instead of taking care of the ones she currently had.

No matter what your business, look to your existing customers as one of your best sources of new revenue. The longer they stay with you, the more they spend and the higher the likelihood they will refer you new business. Sounds like a good investment to me.

Saying Thank You to Clients on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of what I consider a “Hallmark Holiday.” However, I do see this holiday as an opportunity for savvy business people to tell customers how much they love doing business with them. Reaching out on Valentine’s Day and saying thank you to clients works for a few reasons.

1. Hardly anyone else is doing it. I’m a strong advocate for going against the grain when it comes to marketing. If everyone is sending client appreciation gifts at Christmastime, then I recommend NOT doing that. The whole point of marketing is to stand out so you can catch your audience’s attention and get them to take action. So, first you have to do something noteworthy and showing up at their doorstep with Valentine’s cards or gifts is memorable.

 

1. You can have fun with this. It’s Valentine’s Day, no reason to be all serious or traditional. Remember we’re talking clients here, not romance, so use some humor. If you’re feeling creative, you can take a stab at writing some poetry. I actually stopped as I was writing this post and made my attempt at this genre. Um, it’s not exactly Emily Dickinson or Maya Angelou, but if you are one of my clients, you may have the good fortune to see it when you open your mail in a few days. I’ll share this; it starts out “Valentine’s Day is here…”

   You can certainly go with candy, nothing wrong with chocolate M&Ms, but chocolate kisses might send the wrong message. Go with a message like, “Valentine’s Day means chocolate. It’s also a great time for us to share with you how much we value you as a client.” Or how about a book – “I loved this book and thought you would too. Letting you know how much we appreciate your business.”

 

1. Some people don’t have a Valentine. Okay, I said it’s not a time to be serious, but in reality this day can be hard for people who don’t have someone significant in their lives right now. Some of your customers may not get any kind of acknowledgement of their specialness today and that could leave them feeling lonely. You can remedy that by letting them know they are important to you and they will remember you kindly for doing so.

This Valentine’s Day, make the most of the chance to strengthen relationships with your clients. Let me know what creative ideas you come up with, or what you are lucky enough to receive from one of your vendors. Share in the comments section here or on our Facebook page.

The Cyclical Nature of Life, the Economy & Customer Retention

As Election Day in the U.S. draws closer, I feel the need to address a perspective that I’ve not seen anywhere. People in this country, and indeed the world, have been conditioned to 1. Want everything to be “good” all the time and 2. Delivered quickly. Thanks a lot Apple and Amazon and Zappos. (Hey, I enjoy next day delivery as much as the next person, but not everything in life can be delivered that quickly!)

Unfortunately for those who expect that kind of life experience, frustration and disappointment are inevitable. Let’s take the economy. Yes, let’s delicately go there without getting into which party or candidate has the best plan. The expectation that the economy should always be growing, the stock market always going up and wealth always increasing is absurd.

In nature, everything is cyclical. Ocean waves come in AND go out. While breathing, you must inhale AND exhale. Trees grow leaves in the spring and shed them in the fall. These are not things that need thought or study, they just happen. This is how nature works. Everything is cyclical. Furthermore, everything has a gestation period. On average, human babies take nine months to develop before they are born. Carrots take approximately 12 weeks for full maturity. The Grand Canyon formed over a period of 18 million years. Development takes as long as it takes!

So it seems odd that everyone is freaking out about the down cycle of the economy, its length and severity. I am not insensitive to the people who’ve been affected; I get it, it’s very uncomfortable and a lot of people are in a lot of pain. What I’m saying though, is this experience is part of nature’s cyclical system. Humans have attempted to change and manipulate nature to better suit their needs for thousands of years. Sure, we can make vegetables and animals grow faster (hormone injected and genetically modified foods anyone?). It seems to work out much better when we work WITH the environment instead of fighting against.

Of course in many cases nature can be helped along by such things as pesticides, technology, the Federal Reserve System or such. Again, these aides (experiments?) work better when helping the organism or system do what it does naturally as opposed to working against the “evil” that threatens it.

Customer acquisition and retention are cyclical too. Clients will always be signing on for your service or leaving your practice. It’s part of the natural cycle of business. Recognize and accept that and then take the measures that you can, use the tools available to you, to extend that cycle by saying thank you to clients for business.

Although it would never happen, what if a candidate came out and said, hey, this uncomfortable downturn we’ve been experiencing is natural. Life and the economy are not always going to be happy, pain-free and comfortable. Real growth and innovation are what happen when things are UNcomfortable. Some cycles in life take more than a few minutes or even a few years to turn around. Situations are not resolved as quickly as they are in a two-hour movie. Know for sure though that they absolutely WILL turn around. And they will, no matter who is in office because nature has laws that are not breakable.

I welcome your thoughts and commentary on this concept, but I absolutely will not tolerate any political rants or accusations.

Infusing Humor into Your Customer Appreciation

Today is the birth anniversary of Lucille Ball. Born in 1911, she became one of the world’s best known and most loved comediennes. Who doesn’t have a favorite episode of her wacky adventures on “I Love Lucy,” that when you think about it now, still makes you laugh out loud?!

A sense of humor is consistently on the top 5 list of characteristics people find most attractive in others. Even the most serious person enjoys a good laugh once in a while. Life and business can be challenging and stressful. Humor lightens the mood, makes you feel good and strengthens relationships.

Business guru Tom Peters claims “The number one premise of business is that it need not be boring or dull. It ought to be fun. If it’s not fun, you’re wasting your life.” He says humor in the workplace increases creativity, teamwork and ultimately productivity. People want to work with people who are fun.

Are you infusing humor as part of your customer retention strategy? When you’re looking for ways to say thank you to customers, incorporating humor can be the way to go. I hear all the time from professionals who think their industry is too conservative to allow them to use humor. Yes, I’m talking about you in financial services, insurance and the medical professions. It’s not true! Of course there is a place and time for everything. Customer appreciation is all about strengthening relationships, and since we’ve already established that humor does that, then here is exactly the right place to use it.

No need to dress up in a clown costume or send out rubber chickens. All you need is a little forethought and creativity. Here are few gift ideas you can use to say thank you this month that will surely solicit a laugh from your loyal customers, along with “reasons” why you’re sending this particular gift at this time.

• August 9th is Book Lovers Day. Send a book of jokes (make sure you keep it clean and non-offensive!).
• August 12th is the start of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. Send a shark puppet.
• August 24th is Waffle Day. Send a silly little button that says “I love waffles.” C’mon, just word waffles is funny. You’ve got to do something with that!

Need more ideas or help creating a message to go with your humorous client appreciation gift? Want someone else to find and send customer thank you gifts for you? Not a problem. Give me a call and let’s get started!

Building Better Customer Relationships

There was an article a couple of weeks ago in Forbes.com on “Four Ways Brands Can Build Better Relationships.” The author mentioned that today’s marketer needs to go beyond transactional relationships and expand to interactional relationships. As a business person, selling something is not enough. You have to make a human connection. Even, or maybe especially, if you’re selling online.

Your customers and clients CRAVE personal interaction. Everyone’s spending tons of time online and communicating electronically, but humans are designed for more tactile connections. Remember the old Bell Systems’ tagline “reach out and touch someone”?

Life = Relationships. How you interpret that may vary. Some say their business is their life. Others view work as a means to living a good life. Doesn’t matter; it all comes down to whatever kind of life you choose, the most satisfactory ones are built on a foundation of solid relationships. And it’s not likely you can long maintain bad or weak business relationships and still enjoy a good life.

Phone calls, printed newsletters, handwritten notes, gifts delivered to one’s doorstep are all essential tools that will strengthen your connection to customers and thus increase client loyalty. You’ve heard it before – happier customers send you referrals and the combination of those two elements ultimately equate to more profits.

YES, these things “cost” more than sending an email and may take more than 30 seconds to craft, but the investment pays off in multiples. Stop being cheap and employing the short-term, transaction-based mentality that has derailed so many big company executives in the past several years. Get with the 2012 program and become humanly relevant.

Responsive like a Porsche

Andy’s one of the “new guys” in my leads group so he and I met up in a one-to-one last week. About a year ago, he left his corporate job to start his own company and now he’s serving as the IT department for companies that aren’t big enough to have someone full-time in-house.

I asked why his clients like working with him and to his great credit, he did NOT say, because we provide excellent service. (If you’ve been a long-time Rabbit Rouser reader, you know that response is way too overused, means nothing and completely sets me off. Ha Ha.) He said responsiveness. His newest client signed on with him because her previous vendor wouldn’t respond to requests for days. In contrast, he’s been getting back to this client’s employee’s requests within hours. Even if he can’t fix it right away, he at least lets them know he’s aware and on top of it. Not surprisingly, they are thrilled with him.

In fact, Andy told me one of the criticisms his boss had for him in corporate was that he set client expectations too high. Perfect! Now he’s just set the bar higher and made it more difficult for anyone else who comes along thinking they can poach his clients.

Acknowledgement and attention will win you fans every time. Sure, auto-responder generated emails make it easy for requests to be acknowledged, but everyone knows those aren’t personal responses. Technology is great, to a point. Even in the tech industry, people want personal. Clients want to know their issues are worthy of your attention and you will be providing them the service they want and need, hopefully soon!

Even in today’s mostly service-based economy, many clients feel the need for touch. (Get your mind out of the gutter, you.) I mean, they like the idea of personal communication and seeing something physical. This is why face to face meetings are still important, and why sending thank you notes written on paper or gifts that come in boxes make such a huge impression.

Don’t be afraid to set the bar high and make that mark the new standard in your industry or community. Making the new rules means stronger client relationships, happier customers and better client retention. The only ones who won’t look good are the competitors who can’t keep up.

Increasing client loyalty through love for the pets

Connect with your target market via their pets

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate Panther’s birthday. Last week, I got an email birthday card from our new vet. Not just a happy birthday email, a link to a cute (of course) online card. I’ve been a cat caretaker (you don’t “own” a cat) for years and never had a vet send an acknowledgement of any of their birthdays.

From a marketing standpoint, this is a genius idea. Taking it a step further, the vet office could have sent me the email card along with an invitation to stop by and pick up a little cat toy. How many people would tell all their friends about that? So it would be a very inexpensive strategy to garner word of mouth advertising, and as we all know, there’s no better new client than one who is referred by a current client.

According to The American Pet Products Association, in 2011 Americans spent nearly $51 billion on food, vet costs, grooming, boarding, pet hotels, pet-sitting, day care, toys and other paraphernalia. Canadians spent $8.9 billion.

The point is, people LOVE their pets, as much or sometimes more than their children! So even if you’re not a veterinarian or in the business of selling anything related to pets, you could communicate with your clients or prospective clients ABOUT their pets and create a strong bond.

Let’s say you’re a financial planner. You could include in the client intake info a question about your new clients’ pets. What kind of animal do you have, what’s its name, what month is its birthday? Now when the dog’s birthday comes around, you send out a card with a dog treat, or a gift card to a local pet store, or a gift certificate for a pet photography session. THAT will get you talked about more than sending a birthday card to the client herself.

No matter what line of business you’re in, if you have a newsletter (what do I mean, IF? Of course you do, right?!), you can invite readers’ interaction by encouraging them to send in pictures or stories about their pets for publication. Guaranteed, that issue will be one they hold on to and pass along, which means longer shelf-life and exposure for your messages.

I know several people who smartly use their own pets in their print, online and video marketing. Doing so allows you to share a more personal aspect of yourself and helps your target market feel like they know you better and cements a bond. Want an example? Check out this episode of Newsletter Guru TV.

In what other brilliant ways can you incorporate pets into your marketing strategy?

It’s Easy to Make More Money from the Clients You Already Have

Looking for a way to increase your client retention? How would you like to double how long clients stay with you? Zen Rabbit client Jim Palmer, known worldwide as The Newsletter Guru, recently created a program called Double My Retention. In it he shares how he dramatically increased his business, keeping clients for more than twice as long and boosting the lifetime value of a client from $423.75 to $1569.00.

One of the key strategies he implemented is Zen Rabbit’s Gratitude Program. And I’m excited he’s talking about how he works with Zen Rabbit in his program! Jim is regularly sending Gratitude Cookies to his clients and to the people who send him referrals. Showing appreciation throughout the year (not just in December) for their support of his business is more than just good manners, it’s netting him profitable returns.

If you pay attention to your business stats, you know at what point clients drift away from using your company. One thing you can do to proactively prevent that from happening is reach out to them a month or so before that time and let them know how much you value their business. Send them a token of your appreciation. Now you’ve given them a reason to feel indebted to you. See if they continue working with you longer. I can pretty much guarantee they will.

Of course Jim’s not the only one getting these great results. Zen Rabbit has a long list of enthusiastic fans. And pretty soon everyone who listens to the Double My Retention audio and implements Jim’s strategies will benefit too. So ask yourself, what would it be worth to you if you could double the retention of your customers?

To see more about Jim Palmer’s Double My Retention program, just click here or go to http://tinyurl.com/DoubleMyRetention.

Getting New Customers at the Expense of Current Ones

Are you a fan of “new customer only” promotions? An email showed up in my inbox from someone promoting a system for generating cash flow. One of her ideas is to use “become-a-new-customer offers.” That may be a great way for businesses to entice new business through the door, but I also think it’s a great way to alienate the clients you already have. And as you know, no one is more valuable than your current clients!

Here’s why I don’t like most new customer only offers. As a consumer, if I’m already doing business with a company and I see they’re offering new customers a better deal than I’m getting, I feel ripped off; what am I, chopped liver?

I’m reminded of the story about the man who was finished with life on earth and was deciding between eternity in heaven or hell. He visited heaven and it was beautiful and peaceful. Harps were playing and everyone was laid back and mellow – just like he’d always heard it would be. Then he visited hell and it was an all out party with dancing and laughing. Everyone was enjoying fun adventures and he was treated like a rock star. Not at all the horrible place he expected! He goes back up to heaven and tells the angels he’s decided that hell looks like more fun and he’s going to go there. He returns with his commitment to hell and finds the scene desolate. He’s sequestered in a hot, musty cell where loud screeching sirens go off every two minutes. What’s going on here, he asks. Yesterday was a big rockin’ party! Where’s all the fun? And he’s told, well, yesterday you were a prospect; today you’re a client.

There’s nothing inherently wrong in creating “check out our service” offers to entice potential clients to give you a try. The problem is when you’re not concurrently making efforts to let current clients know how valuable they are. If you’re able to balance the two, and your existing customers feel confident they’re getting the best service, value and deals, then continue on with what’s working. If you’re seeing a revolving door of people taking advantage of the new customer offer and leaving shortly afterwards, you might want to put a bit more investment into strengthening the relationships you have with your current customers.

Why Smaller is Better

My friend works at an executive level for a very large financial institution, one that just merged with (okay, acquired – they’re very sensitive about how that’s worded) another very large financial institution. I was recently listening to her talk about their efforts to integrate systems and I came away thinking I totally do not see how this benefits customers in the least.

Click here to see this survey I came across the same day I was writing this.

There’s certainly no shortage of big companies in our landscape. And traditionally the philosophy has been “the bigger the better.” Bigger allows for economies of scale and greater efficiencies. I don’t agree. Maybe it’s better for shareholders, but customers and employees rarely win here.

The good news is the inability of these big companies to serve customers properly creates a fantastic opportunity for smaller companies to come in and shine. Without the bureaucracy, you can implement systems and programs quickly to meet customers’ needs as you see necessary. There’s no figuring out how to get different computer systems to “talk” to each other so one department can get paid for referrals made to another department. You can be flexible and make decisions based on creating the highest good or best outcome for your client.

Sure you may not have the marketing budget a giant corporation has, but you also don’t need it. They need to keep recruiting new clients because they continually piss off the ones they have. You can deliver outstanding customer service and maintain a high level of client loyalty. Plus, I bet you can make the whole experience of working with your company a lot more fun (think Southwest Airlines vs. any of the other, bigger airlines).