Most businesses rely on clients to survive as it is the clients’ money that pays salaries and all the other expenses involved in the running of a business. Selling your product to new clients may be a breeze, regardless of the quality of what you’re selling, if your salesmen can speak the lingo and seduce clients. However, retaining clients is not as easy because they won’t continue to buy your product if it doesn’t meet their expectations. Here are five tips on how you can keep clients.
1. Promises and Delivery
Only make promises you can deliver on. If you set unrealistic expectations by exaggerating what you or your product can do for clients, you may succeed in making the initial sale but subsequent sales to those same clients will be much more difficult, if not impossible, if you fail to deliver what you promised. It’s a much wiser policy to under-promise and over-deliver as this will leave clients feeling that you have gone above and beyond the call of duty for them.
2. Don’t be a Stranger
Regular communication with clients is essential if you wish to foster a strong, long-lasting relationship with them. Pick up the phone or send clients an email every now and then. Keep them updated on the progress of your work for them so they know you’re delivering on your promises.
3. Constructive Criticism
Asking clients for feedback is a great way of showing that you actively care about them and their business. Plus, feedback allows you to nip any possible complaints in the bud, keeping clients happy with your product or service.
4. How to Treat Clients
You should always do your best to make your clients feel well looked after. The 80/20 rule states that most businesses make about 80% of their revenue from 20% of their clients, so you should treat this 20% particularly well. Good treatment could involve anything from good quality snacks in business meetings to Christmas cards to executive cars being sent to collect from the airport. These touches make clients feel special and will not go unappreciated.
5. The Right Attitude
The attitude of you and your staff should always be positive when dealing with clients. Your belief in your product or service should communicate itself to clients. Plus, positivity is infectious, so if you’re positive with clients, they’re more likely to see the positive side of things and be positive in return.
Clients should always be a top priority for any business and, by treating them well, you should see an increase in renewals as well as more referrals by satisfied customers, allowing you to both retain your client base and bring in new customers, thus expanding your business and increasing your profits.
This article was written by Glen Jones, who runs his own exporting business and always hires executive cars for clients.