How well do you know your customers?
It’s easy to fall into the routine of constantly marketing to find new customers. But the customers you already have are actually the key to sustainable and profitable business growth!
Their experience is also invaluable in supporting improvements to your product or service.
Focusing on Customer Retention and Experience and turning those people into your raving fans will continue to drive your growth and profitability, whilst they help you develop ideas for cross selling opportunities.
And, if they feel valued they will want to buy more stuff from you (and they’ll bring their friends to buy too.)
Reasons why you should be focusing on your current customers more than the new shiny objects
Customer Lifetime Value – retained customers spend more money with you and help you identify more ways to develop your product or service. Milks way more out of your cost per acquisition for each customer you bring on board.
More Effective Marketing – knowing your current demographic well allow you to target more people like them in your marketing – aiming for a higher quality more engaged pipeline.
Improved Offering – The feedback you get from this high quality customer base will support profitable innovation and help you stay ahead of your competition.
Advocacy – Happy engaged customers tell other people like them about your offering. If you turn them into raving fans and ask them to help you find more people like them they totally will… and bring you a steady stream of high quality new customers for as long as you keep making them happy.
More money – stands to reason that if you can sell to people who really resonate with you and what you do and what to take full advantage of cross selling opportunities then you’ll make more money! And the spend per customer will also go up.
Beat the competition – By building relationships with your customers you’ll have incredible intel of how they want you to innovate and you’ll stay more relevant than your competitors who are innovating for the sake of it.
Data – You’ll take all the guess work out of growth when you’ve gathered relevant data straight from the horse’s mouth.
If you’re spending all of your marketing budget on finding ‘new’ customers then you might want to think again. Allocating some of your spend to customer retention and advocacy will not only make the whole thing more enjoyable, but it will definitely make a difference to the bottom line!
Saying ‘hi’ and ‘thank you’ will support your business growth
So, don’t forget to say thank you to your happy customers and maybe engage them with a gift or tantalising offer for special customers. Don’t save all the big discounts for ‘new customers only’. Speak to them. Find out ‘how’ they are using your product or service.
How many of your competitors are using this approach for their business growth?
Further Resources
Keen to explore the right networking options for you? Why not have a read of some of our other blogs in our library.
Identify the right networking format for you
How to get the most out of your 121s
Ways you can build trust with your connections
Learn more about Growth Community member only meetings
Why member only meetings add value to membership
Try some Growth Community relaxed but very purposeful networking?
Find a location that suits you. And don’t forget you can visit us up to SIX time a year for free!
Small Business Podcast
or if you are looking to expand on your small business knowledge then check out the Everyday’s A Business School Day Podcast.
