One of the greatest thrills in business is acquiring new customers. Many businesses are so caught up in the excitement of acquiring a new customer (the chase/hunt) that they don’t spend enough time or money on unlocking the value of their existing customer base. It’s surprising how often business owners fail to recognise their existing customers as one of their most valued assets.
There may not be the same excitement in getting orders from existing customers, but this is where the real profits are generally made. It’s generally accepted by marketing experts that it costs at least five-to-six times more to acquire a new customer than it does to get an order from existing ones. There are many ways you can unlock this value so we’ll explore some of those ways.
The first thing an owner needs to do is develop the mindset that their customer base is their most valuable asset. Customers need to be treated like gold because that is what they are to your business. Responding to the needs of your existing customers must take priority over prospecting for new customers.
To unlock the value of your customers requires you to have a range of products that will fulfill their needs. As such, your products should be carefully chosen to ensure they are of the right quality and will meet or exceed your customer’s needs. They will often tell you what their needs are…if you listen to them carefully and with respect. This can save you a lot of the time and costs associated with market testing of new products.
Maintain regular contact with your customers. There are many ways to do this with the Internet providing perhaps the most cost effective means of doing so. A regular customer newsletter providing useful information is the most common way. However, you need to know what your customers actually want or need to make this truly effective.
Survey for your customers preferences and monitor their buying habits. This can provide very valuable information. To get meaningful ideas, consider the many marketing approaches Amazon uses. For example, allowing people to subscribe to automatic updates on specific categories of books. That way, The Amazon team is able to provide information on a regular basis that their customers have expressed interest in.
Amazon also has an author update service. This lets the reader tell them who their favorite authors are and, in doing so, whenever anything new is published by that author, or there are interesting articles, the registered reader will receive an e-mail notification. They also have a “suggestive selling” facility, where suggestions based on what other people who bought the book you are considering also purchased.
Do these features generate more sales from their existing customers? Absolutely! Now consider how you might use these concepts to unlock the untapped potential of your customers?
Consider ways that you can make it easy for your customers to reorder. Simple things such as not having to fill in all their details again on the order form will certainly help. Customers will only need to advise you of changes to their details and, as such, the order process is a lot quicker.
Regularly review your customers’ buying habits. This can provide useful insight on offers that you can make that will meet their needs. Providing them with a solution to their challenges will lead, not only to further sales, but also better goodwill.
Customer service can be one of your strongest weapons in the battle to retain your customers. Make every effort to personalize responses to customer inquiries. Don’t send standard form e-mails if you can avoid it. While personalizing will take more time, the rewards will be far greater.
Be quick and unconditional in honouring your guarantees. This will demonstrate that you mean what you say and will strengthen your credibility with your customers. All too often, tardiness and slow responses lead to lost credibility, and the inevitably to the lost future value of a customer. When you’re treating your customers as the most important people to your business, they will find the experience rewarding and will return often.
Each business is different and has its own specific ways that can generate greater value from their existing customer base. Begin to think more about how you can unlock the value of your customers.
Remember, the more you put into looking after the major assets of your business, the more profit you will derive from it. A further benefit is found when your customers refer their others to you, creating a steady flow of new customers with a very low cost
Have a great week!
