How to Retain Lifetime Customers
By leadership author and keynote speaker Ross Shafer
In this How to start a small business series, I’ve talked about cash flow management, how to find your customers, and today I’ll describe how to KEEP your customers coming back. It’s one thing to do clever marketing to attract customers but you want to sustain your business so you need return customers Here’s the First tip.
TIP#1: Treat every customer like a celebrity – like somebody famous. Your customers have a lot of choices and for some reason they chose YOU. So, give that person your full attention…whether you see them in person, on the phone, or through an email exchange. Customer Care has become so atrophied today, if you can make them feel special – they can’t wait to come back for more.
TIP #2: You don’t have to WOW your customers…you just have to Eliminate the POW moments. There is a tendency to think customers need to be bribed with free gifts or special discounts. But WOWs don’t build loyalty. What builds loyalty is NOT making mistakes. NOT breaking your promises. It’s the elimination of those POW moments –and consistent reliability that creates a lifetime customer.
TIP #3: Reduce the friction in every transaction…which just happens to be the title of my newest book NO MORE CUSTOMER FRICTION – a Bold Blueprint for Raising Customer Scores. This is the evolution of what customers expect from you TODAY. Your customers have fallen in love with friction-free experiences from Uber, Amazon and the Starbucks Mobile App…so much so that they assume YOU can be just as fast and efficient. A Friction-Free experience means that you don’t make customers wait. You minimize paperwork. You say YES! I CAN TAKE CARE OF THAT RIGHT AWAY instead of “I can’t do anything until I check with the manager.”And you allow customers to return an item without a re-stocking fee or some other penalty. If you are friction-free, your customers will go out of their way to buy from you again…and they will tell their friends.
Let’s review, #1 Treat customers like a celebrity. #2 No Surprises. No POW moments. And, #3 Reduce all friction from the transaction. Wouldn’t YOU want to buy from a business that?
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Ross Shafer is the author of (9) popular business books and (14) human resource training films. In a former career Ross won (6) Television Emmy awards for his work as a TV host, writer, and producer. Today, Ross is a sought after keynote speaker and consultant for Fortune 500 companies worldwide.