There’s an old business adage that goes as follows: 80 percent of your sales comes from just 20 percent of your customers.
The implications of this statistic are astounding. It suggests that your marketing efforts shouldn’t be focused solely on getting everyone and anyone with two legs to come to your store. Rather, you should be focusing on building a reliable customer base that purchases your products and services on a regular basis.
In other words, you need more than just customers. You need to turn those customers into regulars. Below are 5 proven tips for turning customers into regulars, which I am sure will help you add to your bottomline.
5 Tips for Turning Customers into Regulars
Customer acquisition requires a lot of effort and of course, money. Every time you have to acquire a new customer, the effort only goes higher. In such a situation doesn’t it make sense to ensure that your first time customers are converted to regular buyers. This way, the money and effort can be saved and you will still get the same number of sales. The net effect will clearly show up in your bottomline.
Most e-retailers today use this to full effect. In fact companies like that of Amazon have grown and succeeded solely by ensuring that their customers are coming back for more and more.
And the fact that customer retention doesn’t require anything more than the absolute basics of doing business, makes the entire process simple. Yet, the irony is that most companies tend to ignore these simplest of aspects.
Let us look at the 5 tips for turning customers into regulars –
Be Honest
An essential key to building a strong customer base is getting your customers to trust you. If your customers don’t trust you or your promises, they’re not going to do business with you.
Honesty means that you don’t try to pull one over on anybody just to get your hands on their money. You only make promises that you know that you can keep, and you don’t try to sell your customers products they don’t actually need.
Essentially, your customers need to feel like whenever they walk through your doors, they’re going to be dealt with in an honest manner. They need to know that whatever you tell them, it’s going to be the truth.
This is particularly true in case of affiliate marketing as well. A simple search on the internet will show hundreds of websites and videos that are simply setup to promote products. Everybody promotes everything. But do they really care about what is really working and if they are recommending a product that actually works. Probably not.
The result?
Customers who once get burnt will never go back to them again.
This is where Pat Flynn does a nice job. If you have read his blog, Smart Passive Income you would have found that he recommends a lot of products. But the best part is that he only recommends the products that he has used or, has first hand experience about. Consequently, his conversions are higher and his readers are loyal. This is a classic example of turning customer into regulars
Be Respectful
This seems like a no-brainer, but the fact of the matter is 89% of customers stop doing business with a company because of sub-par customer service.
That means you will lose the majority of your business because you didn’t treat the customer with respect, not because you sold them a shoddy product.
Businesses need to think of their customers as more than just customers. They need to think of them as actual people who deserve respect.
The Golden Rule should be the rule of your business. Treat people the way that you want to be treated.
If you are a customer, you would have realized the pain of not being respected as somebody who put their trust in a product that was sold to them as the next best thing. I still remember a big name in the internet marketing business, not because he was a big internet marketer. But because of the kind of treatment he metted out to me. I had paid for one year of service and as soon as the 60 days refund period was over, his technical support looked at me as if I am a complete stranger. The technical issue was something that I faced from day 1 but they failed to resolve it.
Do you think I will ever go back to him again? Or, for that matter any of the other customers will go back to him as regulars?
Treat your customers with respect, for they trusted in you in spite of you being a complete stranger to them.
Be Friendly
[social_quote duplicate=”yes” align=”default”]Being friendly sounds like it’s the same thing as being respectful, but there’s a slight difference.[/social_quote]
Respect is the base level of courtesy and kindness that we extend to people we don’t know. Friendliness, on the other hand, is more personal. It’s about showing people that you genuinely like and care about them.
We’re respectful with strangers, but we’re friendly with our friends.
That’s why your customer service should be as personal as possible. It’s okay to be warm, compassionate and even humorous with your customers. The more people feel like they’re actual friends of the company, the more likely they are to return.
That doesn’t mean you should be overbearing and invade your customer’s personal space. You need to be able read people and understand the best way to respond to their needs, which leads us to our next tip.
Make Your Customers Feel Comfortable
Your customers come to you because they have a problem. That’s the only reason they’re in your store. They have a problem that they want solved.
That means that every customer or client that comes to you is dealing with a certain level of anxiety or dissatisfaction. You job is to make that anxiety and dissatisfaction go away.
Your customers should feel as relaxed in your store as they would in their own homes. The more comfortable they feel, the more likely they are to come back to you, seeking that comfort.
Be Creative
In our fast-paced society, with new inventions and innovations around every corner, people are constantly looking for the next “new thing.”
You want your customers to feel comfortable and that they’re going to get the same pleasant experience every time they walk into your store. However, you also want to keep things fresh and new. Offering discount packages, prizes and even social events for your local regulars is a great way of maintaining customer loyalty.
Summing it All Up
If you can master these tips, you’ll go a long way towards developing a regular customer base that can sustain your business. Treat every customer as if they’re a prized regular, even if you think they may never come back. If people are made to feel like they’re regulars, they might actually become regulars.
Jessica Kane is a professional blogger who has worked in eCommerce for the last five years. She currently writes for Rakuten Super Logistics and recommends them for all your order fulfillment needs now available at many fulfillment centers.