September 6, 2022
7 Top Tips to Increase Your Trades Businesses’ Client Retention
We know you understand the importance of leads, and like many businesses, you probably focus a lot of energy, time and maybe budget on getting new referrals and finding customers. But:
studies show that close to 68% of sales come from existing customers.
Loyal customers can drive your business. Although only 12% to 15% of customers are loyal to one company, they are responsible for between 55% and 75% of sales. One of the best things you can do to grow your business is to retain your existing clients.
It is easy to take your customers for granted, but you need to keep them engaged. When they need to do work again, you want to be their first call.
The key is to keep them engaged and remind them how important they are to your business.
Let’s take a look at the following tips that will help with your customer retention.
1) Always Respond to Clients Right Away
A Trades Business’ Customer retention is based in large part on making sure that your customers feel appreciated.
One way to do this is to respond to your clients as soon as you can. If you are always accessible and responsive, your client will keep coming back and recommend you to friends and family.
2) Listen Well and Always Communicate
When you are working with a client, ensure you listen to what they have to say. They may not speak in the technical terms of your trade, but they will tell you what they are looking for and it’s your job to manage their expectations with courtesy.
Customer satisfaction is dependent on your work meeting or surpassing your customers’ goals, so being a good listener will help you learn what your customer wants.
Over the course of the project, you should communicate clearly. Make sure that you listen for feedback so that you know if you are on the right track. If your communication is good throughout the project, your customer will feel very positive about the job. This will help to ensure customer retention for your trades business when they have another project to do or a friend to refer.
3) Don’t End Your Communication When the Job Is Complete
Although the job is complete, you can follow up with the customer. You should check in to make sure that they are satisfied with your work. Let them know it was an honour to work with them and a privilege to have their patronage.
This is a good time to see if they have any questions and you have even follow up with a courtesy discount on future services or ask them to leave a public review.
Be sure to keep them on your mailing list so that they are up to date on what is happening with your business.
4) Engage with Customers on Social Media
Your social media page is an excellent tool that you can use to stay in touch with your customers. Make sure that you get all of your customers to like your Facebook page. Even better, ask them if you can have permission to put pictures of the job/s you completed for them on your page and tag them in it.
By sharing your business’ blog posts on your page you can keep customers and visitors informed about ideas and future projects.
Be sure to include a range of projects ranging from simple to complex to display your versatility and inspire potential customers.
You can also run surveys and polls on your page. Your goal is to keep your customers engaged, and the way to do that is to give them content that they find interesting enough to keep them coming back.
5) Offer Promotions and Deals From Time to Time
Another great way for a trades business to increase client retention is to offer promotions and deals and there are different ways to do that
- You can offer previous customers special promotions as a way to show your appreciation. Think of a service that appeals to a broad range of customers, or you can offer specific services to different customers.
- Your Facebook page can help you determine what kinds of promotions to run. If you have made surveys, you can ask questions about projects and other work to get an idea of what people would like to have done. Your Facebook page will give you ideas because your posts should be designed for engagement. The more people engage, the better you will know what kinds of services they are looking for. Then, you can offer promotions based on this information.
6) Show Your Appreciation
Customers love to feel appreciated and showing that you are grateful for the opportunity to work for a client will go a long way.
Your approach should always come from the perspective that you know that your customers have a lot of choices, and you are grateful that they chose your business to supply the service they needed.
You can give your customer a gift after the job is done, such as a customised mug, thermos or Keep Cup. A little thank you can o a long way.
You will make your customers feel appreciated and they will stay loyal to you in the future.
7) Always Make Time for Your Customers
Your customer might call you just to talk about a future job. They may call you about a project that doesn’t fall within the scope of what your business does. You should still take the time to listen to them and answer any questions.
If you are familiar with anyone who does the work, why not offer a referral? You may not get paid for this work, but it is a part of relationship building and that benefits your business in the end.
Final Words
Customer retention is critical to the success of any business. You want to develop relationships with your customers that keep them coming back when they next need that service you offer. Once you finish the job, stay in touch so that your customers are up to date on what you are doing and if there are any promotions running.
You can find ways to interact with your customers after the job is finished. Get them to like your Facebook page, and provide relevant content to them. Send out flyers and make sure that you remain in your customers’ minds.
Your To-Do List
- Ensure you are active across all channels of communication and respond in a timely manner
- Listen to what your client wants
- Communicate clearly
- Listen for feedback
- Follow up after a job - is the customer satisfied?
- Remind your customer it was an honour to work with them and you're privileged to have their patronage
- Encourage your customers to follow you on social media
- Share your business' blog posts
- Share project updates and inspiration
- Run surveys and polls
- Offer special promotions to previous customers
- Use social media feedback to determine what kinds of promotions to run.
- Send your customer a gift to thank them for their patronage
- Make your customer feel appreciated
- Take the time to speak with your customers, even if it's not about an immediate job
- Provide referrals if they need or ask for one