However, continually chasing new business can be costly and it could have a negative impact on your existing customers. If you’re focusing on following up leads, are you consequently spending less time with your existing clients and will they feel less engaged?
According to figures from Invesp – a company which specialises in conversion rate optimisation - acquiring a new customer is five times as expensive as retaining an existing customer, while 44 per cent of companies admit they have a ‘greater focus’ on acquisition. Crucially, the research also showed that the success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70 per cent, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20 per cent.
Here at Target Ink, we flipped the website development business on its head a few years ago but putting a real focus on customer retainer. We not only create beautiful and bespoke websites but, while other developers are then focused on the next project, we put time and effort into retaining these customers. All our new website clients are given the opportunity to enjoy our ongoing maintenance and support services for the next 12 months at least. In fact, most customers continue to use our services on an ongoing basis after that.
In today’s business climate, which is seeing rising costs and people less inclined to spend money, new customer leads are proving even harder to come by. Arguably then, it is more important than ever to retain existing clients and keep them engaged.
Here are some ways to retain customers:
A strong brand can help differentiate your business from competitors and create customer loyalty. Make sure you maintain a consistent brand image across all customer touchpoints and that includes your website.
It’s also good to ensure your particular product or service is easy for your clients to understand. Target Ink can help you with this. We recently produced a new website for a financial services business. What they offer is quite technical but potential clients interacting with the website don’t need to know all the facts and figures; they want to discover a group of friendly and approachable people who can help them to navigate this marketplace. We therefore worked with the firm to make sure their website was friendly and inviting.
Use the data you have about your existing customers to make sure you are targeting them properly and offering products or services which suit their wants and needs. We can help with this by creating a website which reflects this and they finding inviting and engaging.
You can also build customer loyalty through shared values and reflect this through your website. For example, if your business has a charity of choice, make sure you talk about this on your website and ask us to put the charity’s logo on your home page.
One way of ensuring ongoing client retention is by ensuring excellent customer service. Responding to any questions or issues quickly will help to make sure that clients stay with you.
Key to this is making the process as straightforward as possible for customers. We can help you with this by making sure that the ‘contact us’ button is easy to find on your website and, if you need it, providing an easy to complete customer service form.
You could show your appreciation to loyal customers by launching a loyalty scheme – with discounts etc. You might also offer loyalty scheme holders access to exclusive content on your website and that’s something Target Ink can set up for you.
It is important to keep in contact with your best clients, sending regular communications and perhaps sharing special deals to keep them engaged. If you send out a regular newsletter – then we can add a sign-up to this on your website.
Don’t be nervous about asking your customers what they really think about your products and services. It’ll help you to understand their needs better and enable you to adapt your offering to reflect them. It’s lovely to receive glowing reviews but negative feedback can be even more useful. Use it to make changes.
Here at Target Ink, we can help you to offer feedback forms etc within your website. We can also link testimonial sites into your website, so people can see how you’re doing on sites such as Vouched For and Review Solicitors (or similar).
If you’d like to know more about how Target Ink can help you to retain your customers, then get in touch.
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