Once you have accomplished the tough job of obtaining a client, it would be unwise to let them go. It does not matter what business you are in, a repeat business will not only cost less, but will give you high returns too. Repeat customers can save you precious money. You have already snared the attention of your buyer and there is no more compulsion to spend money again. The trick at this point is to portray yourself as the person to go to when it comes to your offered product or service in the mind of the client.
- Delight your clients — Delighting a client is the easiest way to make them repeat their orders. Delighting, however, is not associated with freebies in this context. It means doing more than the sparse minimum. You must give them exactly what they expect, just in the way you said you would do it. In such cases, the presentation and packaging of your product or service plays an important role.
- Keep talking — You should regularly communicate with your clients. Get them on the email list so that they get periodic updates from you. Go a notch further and send them “thank you” notes after they have paid their invoices. Make inquiries concerning their satisfaction about your product or services.
- Include them in bigger schemes — Your clients have already joined your buyers’ club. Make them feel that they have joined a really cool club. Create a sense of exclusive belonging when they celebrate participating with your company brand. Connect one client with another in an abstract kind of way. Your task is to make them part of a community. To augment the is feeling, you could hold both online and offline events.
Questions to ask yourself
Asking questions is an extremely effective way to increase your business. It also helps to build your relationship with the client as you talk to each other. The basic question you should ask your client is why they need your product. The answers can be surprising and illuminating. To give an example, you may find out that a client who ordered a new website did not need the website to publicise his company, but actually did it to earn more. You can then provide a solution which may result in future orders and – more importantly – referrals to other potential clients. You can also ask the client whether they require extra or supplementary work. This can be easily found if you know why the client purchased your product or hired your services in the first place. The surest way to get client referrals is to over-deliver on what was originally wanted. Such a service compels the client to refer you to peers in the industry. Will this give you lifetime value, and not just transactional value? Will this help your client to get more clients? These are the questions you should ask yourself if you want to increase the number of repeat customers.
