If you’re a freelancer or small business owner, you understand the importance of repeat business to the growth and survival of your company.
Converting just 5% more of your customers to repeat customers will generate an average of 25% – 100% more in your profit per customer numbers.
The cost of acquiring new clients is about 500% more expensive than the cost of servicing existing clients.
So what’s the number one thing you can do to generate more return business? Provide consistent and valuable communication.
But consistent, valuable communication is actually desired by most of your clients. Hoping that a previous client will call when ready is not a game plan.
You’re awesome at what you do. You may be the best vendor they’ve ever worked with.
But guess what, they don’t think of you very often (if ever). Why?
They’re busy. They have other things fighting for their attention and you’re currently not one of them. The less you insert yourself into their path, the fewer of them will actually call you back.
And when they do need the service or product you provide, many of them will select from one of your competitors who are reaching out to them and asking for a shot to impress.
When a client hires you for a project, it’s easy to assume that they know about all of the services you provide along with how those services can benefit them. Your services are listed on your website so your clients should be aware of them. Right?
“If they need it, they’ll ask about it,” is a common phrase among those without a lot of repeat business.
No they won’t. The reason your clients haven’t purchased one of your other services is that they don’t think they need it.
When you wait for them to reach out to you, you’re hoping that they’ll do your sales work for you by diagnosing their own need, selling themselves on the idea, then contacting you just to close the sale they’ve made in their minds.
Don’t count on that happening very often.
If I hire you to do something for me and, when the project is over, I never hear from you again, I assume that you don’t much care if you hear from me again. So you probably won’t.
We continue to do business with people we like, trust, and have a relationship with. But that’s a two-way street. Meaning you need to communicate with me!
If you don’t, I’ll shop around the next time I need someone – even if you’re good. After all, I may find someone who really values me and wants a long-term relationship.
I’ve alluded to it before, but this is huge. I’ve worked with a number of different companies that would get a list of the competitors’ clients and reach out to them with better services and offers. They got a ton of business this way.
People want to be impressed. Contacting me and letting me know how you can impress me in a non-pushy, non-sleazy way will impress me. I may just give you my business over another company or person I’m using if they’re not making the same effort.
When competitors reach out to your clients and help them understand how their services can help, your clients will immediately have it in their minds that you’re somehow inferior (even if you’re not). Once that happens, it’ll be nearly impossible to salvage the client.
Email newsletters can be a great, inexpensive way to keep yourself or your business near the front of your clients’ minds. A monthly reminder to them that you’re there along with new services or highlights of stalwart services can go a long way toward driving repeat business.
One rarely used tactic that can set you apart with your personal emails is to send someone an article or blog post about their industry or a topic they’re interested in. Just a quick note that says, “Hey Jane, I came across this article and wanted to share it with you. I know how much you love waterskiing and thought you might find it interesting.” Do that on occasion and your previous clients will think long and hard about switching to someone else.
My email inbox generally frightens me. I get way too many and I don’t like checking it. But I’m like a little kid when it comes to checking the snail mail box. What’s even better is when I receive a handwritten thank you note or letter from someone. So infrequent is this type of communication anymore that it screams for my attention and appreciation.
A few months back, I took to Twitter to complain about a horrible experience I had with Sonic. I received personal phone calls and a hand-written note from the store manager along with a few gift cards. Needless to say, I’ve continued to give them my business. Had they not done that, I would have never gone back.
There are plenty of other ways to do this. Which method(s) you choose will depend on your type of business and what information you have about your clients. The most important lesson is to be consistent. Find ways to cut through the noise without being obnoxious.
If you want more information on how to setup some automation for some of this, check out one of my previous articles: 4 Free Tools for Business Relationship Development.
Do you have a follow up strategy for your business? How do you keep in contact with previous clients?