In any business, keeping your clients happy with you, your services and your support is the quintessential way to build loyalty. At MailGuard we often refer to our Net Promoter Score as a measurable way to judge our customer loyalty (which indirectly tells us about how happy they are with our product). Maureen Pound is a small business expert and she writes that there are 10 focus points for businesses when striving to make their clients happy.
There’s nothing more elating than that feeling after getting a new client, but what about maintaining that happiness in your clients beyond the first win?
One of the cornerstones of my coaching approach is creating a clear plan to keep your clients happy. An unhappy client is not just bad for your bottom line, it also saps your positive energy out of the business as you have to focus on repairing the relationship so they don’t go somewhere else.
If you want lifelong happy clients then you need to think beyond just getting the clients and more on how to maintain the relationships. Here are my 10 tips for how to do it:
Meet their needs - Find out what your customers want and then give it to them. You may get this information on a larger scale through market research, or on a smaller scale by asking individual customers about their requirements. Continue to meet their changing needs over time.
Fix problems - If part of the problem has been you (your product or service), acknowledge it and then do your best to fix it straight away. If you do this well, research indicates that your customers will become even more loyal.
Remain in contact so you are front of mind - This may be through a mail-out, phone call, e-zine, email, customer visit – depending on your business and relationship. However a general rule of thumb is no more than once a week and no less than 3 months in between.
Continue reading to find out the other 7 ways to keep your clients happy >>
