Keeping Customers for Life

As a small business, you must cultivate relationships with your clients in order to ensure their continued patronage. Studies have shown that it is much easier to continue a customer relationship than to cultivate a new one. The first step to retaining customers is to keep your word. Do what you say you are going to do in order to make your business worthy of a customer’s repeat business. Expect that clients will return. Many businesses look to the customer to prove that they are worthy of their attention by returning on a regular basis instead of cultivating a relationship from the very beginning. Once you establish a good relationship, make it a policy to go above and beyond.

The customer should remain your focus – not your bottom line. Your bottom line will only come into play if you can establish a business based on long-term customers. Make sure that you are treating your employees as well as you are treating your customers. You want lifelong employees in order to provide a stable, consistent environment for your lifelong customers. Offer incentives to repeat customers. Consider promotions such as “Buy 10 – Get the Next One Free” or “25% off on your next visit” to lure customers back into your establishment. Finally, be choosy about the relationships you cultivate. There are customers who are not worth keeping around for the long-run. If a customer is a troublemaker, don’t worry about letting him move on to a competitor.

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