Last updated October, 2004

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Every Client Counts

Customer retention is important in today’s business world because it affects the bottom line of every company. Once marketing invests their time, money and resources into getting a new client, keeping them as a customer is important and financially prudent.

The first step in keeping or retrieving customers is being aware of client activity and staying in touch with all clients. Always review client activity, keep records up to date and create a list of key customers that have not been doing business with you for a while. Know who they are and what you did for them. Both large and small accounts are important. Losing large accounts may be more noticeable but losing a number of small accounts can also negatively impact the bottom line.

The following are a few ways to rebuild relationships with former customers:

• Be aware of former customers. Keep an updated list of clients that stopped doing business with your company.
  
• Personally contact each former customer. Know the history of the work done for the customer and any glitches that may have occurred in past work.
  
• Ask each former customer why they stopped doing business with your company. Be prepared for any type of answer and give only positive responses (you may think you know why they stopped business relations with your company, but you may not be correct in assumptions.)
  
• Offer an apology if appropriate and ask them what would it take to get them back as a customer.
  
• Offer an incentive to work with your company again such as 15% off their next order, free delivery for three months or a set amount of free consultation.
  
• Follow up with customer immediately after a project and send personal note of appreciation.
  
• Discuss all customer complaints immediately and work to make every working relationship stronger.
  
• Continually build relationships with customers to retain, rather than rebuild lists of company accounts.