Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Benefits of Following Up with Your Customers

Author: Annetta Powell (Your Professional Success Coach)

In today's aggressive marketing techniques, the act of following up with a customer is perhaps the most desperate attempt to win over a disappearing client.

Although many small business owners and entrepreneurs still use this marketing technique to increase their sales, it turned out to be that this method remains to be very effective.

For many successful businesses, however, their focus is on customer retention rather than allowing them to disappear only to be followed up at a later time.

In fact, in other business sectors, acquiring a new customer is actually five times more expensive than maintaining an old client. That is why as business owner or entrepreneur your main objective is to retain customers by giving them satisfactory services.

The following are three of the most important benefits of following up with customers:

1. Customer satisfaction is the name of the game, if you want to have a solid clientele. In fact, it is actually cost effective to follow up on old clients than to scour for new prospective customers. Once you lose a customer, it will take you time, energy and resources to look for new customer.

That is why is crucial in every business to satisfy the clientele from customer service to product satisfaction. It is also good to maintain a healthy relationship with existing clients by showering them with all the necessary attention that a customer needs.

In fact, when you lose a customer, you will also suffer from revenue loss. You many not feel the pain when one or two customers are leaving, but when you are talking about a magnitude of customer loss it may have a bad impact on your business.

To maintain a good and solid customer following, it is important to give them what they need as it is cost effective to maintain customers than look for replacements.

2. The second most important benefit of following up with a customer is that it reduces customer dissatisfaction. In reality, however, customer dissatisfaction occurs right at the very moment you are having a business transaction with a client. That is why it is important to develop a personal relationship with every client, not just seeing them as potential sources of revenue.

As a business owner, it is your duty to develop a personal interest in every client rather than seeing them as mere numbers on your balance sheet. It is also good to remember that when a client is dissatisfied, it is more likely that he will share it with other customers which may cause a problem for your business.

To prevent this from happening, it is always wise to view your customers as people that have helped your business grow and not just as profits to you.

3. The last (and certainly not the least important benefit of customer follow up) is that it makes them feel very important. This is one of the most of effective strategy of customer retention. When they feel that they are treated very well, they will return a very good favor, and that is, by continuously getting your services or products.

There are countless tricks to do an effective follow up, such as by giving your customers 'Thank You Cards,' follow up calls or surveys, Thinking of You' cards.

Look at one cost effective (FREE) way of doing this

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Finally, it is good to know that little acts of appreciation can make your clients feel very special. These are actions beyond your duty as a business owner, but it can give you countless opportunities to maintain a long-lasting relationship with your customers that will ultimately be a great success to your business.

I appreciate your efforts for reading this post.

Thank you.


SOURCE: ANNETTAPOWELL