When compared to selling to existing customers, it costs about 6 – 8 times more to win over new ones. That’s a fact.
You can’t help but wonder though; if it’s that strategic to sell to existing customers, why are most businesses today so gung ho at getting new customers to the point where they’re neglecting their existing ones?
The thing is, the more we nurture our relationship with our existing customers, the more mutually beneficial the relationship becomes. Simply ignoring them because we’ve manage to sell to them one time just doesn’t make any sense.
If you’ve been guilty of ignoring your existing customers and want to look for ways on how you can capitalize on repeat business, then allow me to share with you these 3 time-tested business tips. If you’ll take the time to re-engineer and integrate these to your business, you’ll surely get good results one way of the other.
1) Give them the best customer support experience
The norm is that people tend to have TONS of complaints about the customer support that they’ve been getting from their providers. And of course, these complaints and negative experiences has led them to not just unsubscribe from the company’s’ services, but also to take the time to bash the company all over the internet. Facebook, Yelp, you name it!
However, while the statement above is definitely true, the flip side is just as true as well.
If you provide stellar customer service, you’ll get A LOT of your existing customers reordering from you, let alone spreading the word about your company through word of mouth.
Why, you might ask? Simple.
Because you’re giving them the best customer support experience, they will feel valued, and your company can easily leave a positive impression putting your representatives at a strategic position to up-sell your products.
It’s because of this that having a team of highly trained customer service agents, with impeccable communication skills, is worth investing on. They can be instrumental into taking your business to the next level.
If in case you’re worried about the cost that comes along with providing stellar customer service, you really don’t have to. There are contact center companies from other countries that you can outsource your customer support to.
You’ll be amazed at how high level the communication skills of the agents are from other countries – let alone how professional they sound over the phone.
You’re probably thinking… “I’m sure they sound OK, but I’m 100% sure they’ll have a thick accent which can cause a lot of problems for me and my customers.”
Think again.
Here’s a link to the recording where you can listen to the agents of EBcallcenter.com, a Philippine based contact center.
After having heard the recording, I’m sure you’ll agree how amazing their English communication skills are.
Imagine having a team of professional sounding representatives like them working for you, you can easily resell to your existing customers and double or triple your sales.
But before you jump right into the first BPO company you can connect with, I urge you to first take into heart the advice of Flavio Martins from winthecustomer.com.
The very best customer service comes from organizations that truly understand its customers. Spend time getting to know who they really are, what they really need from you, and then get to work on delivering service in the way that meets the customer’s practice and emotional needs.
2) Add them to your email list
You’ve probably heard people saying, “The money is on the list”
Well. There’s a reason why that old chestnut is still around. It flat out works!
In case you haven’t noticed, the influencers on the web are taking the time to add a sign-up form on their websites so they can capture their web visitor’s emails. And if you’ve already bought something from them, you’ll notice how part of the sales process includes you entering your email to be included in their email list.
Now the question is, if they – the influencers – are capturing their customers’ emails, why aren’t you?
The big idea is, once you’ve captured your existing customers’ email addresses, you can easily nurture your relationship with them by…
- Sending them emails showcasing your expert advice on problems that they are currently facing.
- You can send them discount codes for your products.
- You can send them freebies.
- You can also feature them on your email messages. Everyone loves to be featured since it gives them exposure. You can bet your family jewels that your customers feel the same way.
- Etc…
Note – Out of all the strategies I used, point number 4 (featuring them on your email newsletter) has given me the best results. I’ve experienced this strategy first hand through the guys at secureknow.com.
I received an email from them telling me that they specifically featured me on their email newsletter as one of the go to guys to ask about how to get clients from Linkedin.
Although what they did on their email was a round-up of experts (so I wasn’t really the only person they were talking about on their newsletter), I still felt grateful and honored that they chose to feature me.
Because they’ve managed to establish that level of relationship with me, I ended up contacting them a couple of weeks after for a project.
Once you’ve nurtured your relationship with your customers on a deeper level, it becomes comparatively easier for you to resell to them.
3) Add them to your social tribe
The approach you can use on social media is almost the same as the ones you can implement on your email list.
There are, however, several advantages to using social media instead of you just marketing via email.
- Your customers can interact with you real time.
- Everyone can see the interaction between you and your customers. If used the right way, this can be a very powerful tool.
- It’s very convenient for your customers to connect with you since they’re almost always logged in on their social media accounts.
- It becomes a lot easier for your customers to tell the world about your business. With just them clicking the “share” button, everyone in their network can learn about your business.
- You can make the experience of nurturing your relationship with them a bit more fun and dynamic.
One of the best strategies you can use on social media to get your existing customers to order from you is to run contests.
Depending on the mechanics of your contest and your prize, you can easily grow your sales while having your tribe help you market your business by way of word of mouth.
An example contest would be one where the mechanics is for your tribe to buy one product and to share your posts on their timeline so they can join.
As you can probably imagine, if the price you setup on your contest is THAT enticing, you’ll have tons of your existing customers joining your contest therefore buying from you since it is a requirement for them to join.
And since they’ll have to share your post too, then that can serve as them sharing your business via word of mouth.
Related post: Warning: These Out-of-the-Box Linkedin Marketing Tips Are EXTREMELY Actionable and Effective
Conclusion
Capitalizing on repeat business isn’t just a good idea, it’s common sense.
Considering how cutthroat the competition in business is nowadays, we need to get as much mileage as we can from every customer that we manage to bring on board. The tips I shared above can help you with just that.
If you found the ideas shared in the article valuable, please take the time to hit the button. Thanks!