How Do You Sustain and Grow Your Customer Relationships?

How to grow customer relationships

Money can’t buy you love, but you need to feel (and keep) your customers’ love to make money. We’ll provide recommendations to help your small business flourish and maintain the client relationships you’ve worked so hard to build.

Continually evaluate your market and network.

Research your customers’ markets, needs and goals. Big data tools and data analytics processes should be part of your sales team’s arsenal. Market trends shift often, and you must understand the right strategies to increase shares or enter new markets. Engage customers in product development and enhancement via beta tests, focus groups and pilot programs. Learn their business habits, purchasing patterns and requirements for effective, proactive solutions.

Additionally, reconsider who makes up your overall network, including stakeholders, vendors and advisors. Does your network span various industries? Have you artfully incorporated relatives and friends into your network? Does it include community leaders? Expanding your network can increase your client base.

Use a CRM system to enhance customer relationships.

While some businesses handle client relationships organically, others require a framework for success. Fortunately, excellent CRM software benefits businesses of all types and sizes by organizing customer relationships and facilitating interactions.

A CRM system stores prospect, lead and customer data in a digestible format that your team can analyze and act upon. It also monitors customer satisfaction and provides overviews of sales and other metrics. 

Stay in constant communication with your customers.

After you meet a contact, take measures to stay on their mind. Never assume you made such an impression on someone that they will recall you a month, a week or even a day later. Additionally, you must maintain contact with existing clients. Here are a few tips: 

• Start building a relationship immediately. After the initial contact, send an email to keep the conversation going. The content should be friendly, open and encouraging but not overbearing. Building meaningful relationships takes time, so trying to rush it may push away a viable client; learning when to back off is a fine art.
• Personalize your outreach. If possible, incorporate a unique detail from your initial discussion into your follow-up email. One of the greatest strengths of small businesses is the ability to connect with clients more intimately. Emphasize this by personalizing your communications. 
• Communicate regularly with existing clients. Communication with existing clients is vital. Consider sending well-timed, targeted emails and email newsletters. Update customers on industry trends that could affect them, and give your take on upcoming issues. Share your vision for their success (and yours), and explain your views on achieving it.
• Use social media to connect with prospects and customers. Social media is an excellent platform for connections, so use it wisely to keep communication channels open. However, a person-to-person connection means much more. Be a human being, not a talking head on a website. Humanity trumps digital every time.

Be accessible to your customers.

Talk and listen to customers to maintain a dialogue and build a trust-based relationship. Make it easy for them to reach you. When they contact you, return calls and emails promptly. Your goal is to go beyond customer satisfaction to achieve a customer delight level of service. 

Consider implementing a customer satisfaction policy that provides a way to resolve and remedy problems and issues. Focus on providing support, service, advice and information. Train team members on efficient and effective call management so customers’ concerns are addressed no matter whom they reach at your business. 

Become the go-to resource for your customers.

Develop skills and knowledge that make you an authority for your customers. A reputation for expertise means the ability to provide valuable resources, especially your knowledge, that clients can’t find anywhere else. Look for ways to add value, be a real partner and help your customers achieve results. Provide guidance even when there is little chance it will mean any immediate business gain for you. Doing so almost always pays off down the road.

Redefine your concept of “client” and “customer.”

Customers and clients are much more than a roster of potential purchasers of products and services. Retaining them requires fostering long-term relationships, not pursuing short-term money-making possibilities. Recast your customer and client relationships as extended partnerships, and be prepared to meet their needs by adjusting your business services as necessary.

Take care of customers at all levels.

To retain your clientele, you must include all team members in the effort. Ensure that employees have the same commitment to clients’ care as you do. All it takes is one bad experience with someone in your office to send a client looking for services elsewhere. Invest in employee training beyond individual job functions; include training on how to properly greet, treat and deal with customers.

Customers of all levels should feel appreciated by every person they interact with at your business. Never let your clients think you take them for granted. Underpromise and overdeliver, especially with deadlines. Imagine how thrilled your clients will be when you consistently have things done a day earlier than expected. It shows dedication and attentiveness.

Treat clients well, and reward the most loyal ones with something valuable, even if it’s just a handwritten thank-you note. Ensure that every customer knows they’re one of your most important ones, because they all are.

Pay attention to customer feedback.

Bad feedback can be hurtful. However, accepting and acting on constructive criticism graciously is a powerful way to assuage the anger of a dissatisfied client and provide a clear channel of responsiveness. Insightful customer feedback is the most effective and cheapest form of “advertising,” and it’s an easy way to learn what’s working and what isn’t.

Ask for, capture and act on your customers’ input. Questionnaires and evaluation forms can help you gather valuable survey data to improve client relationships. Create surveys with an incentive to gather feedback on what your brand is doing right and wrong. 

Establish a customer loyalty program.

Implement customer loyalty programs that help your customers earn desirable perks, such as discounts and freebies. Rewards programs help you build brand loyalty and foster repeat business. Many of the best point-of-sale (POS) systems include built-in loyalty program features. For example, our Lightspeed POS review explains this platform’s extensive loyalty and gift card tools that can improve the customer experience and boost customers’ connection to your business.

Don’t forget the power of a personal touch.

Remember to value the “personal touch” when you’re building customer relationships. Make an effort to get to know your customer as a person. You’ll be surprised by how much you may have in common. Establishing personal bonds goes a long way toward building lasting relationships. 

Examples of showing a personal touch include sending personalized birthday cards to customers, giving them a framed photo from an event you hosted, following up with a customer to see how satisfied they are with their purchase, and recommending similar products. Your efforts will be rewarded with repeat business, referrals, and satisfied, loyal customers.

The importance of maintaining customer relationships

There is a strong correlation between long-term business success and long-term customer relationships. Successful businesses capitalize on every stage of the customer life cycle (not to be confused with the customer journey), from customer selection and acquisition to retention and growth.

Here are some reasons why maintaining strong customer relationships is vital to business success.

Customer retention

When you nurture and sustain your relationships with current customers, they’re more likely to remain customers. Here’s why this is crucial:

• Keeping existing customers is less expensive than finding new ones. In fact, according to Invesp, it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain an existing one. Keeping your customers means you’ll save on marketing costs. 
• Existing customers spend more. Additionally, returning customers spend up to 67 percent more than new customers. Your current customers are more open to your ideas, suggestions and products and may be amenable to upselling and cross-selling ideas.

Improved company reputation

When customers are happy and feel a strong, positive connection to your company, they’re more likely to leave positive reviews online. Potential customers may see this feedback and decide to purchase from you based on such glowing recommendations. 

Positive customer reviews and a lack of critical feedback and complaints with organizations such as the Better Business Bureau will show your target market that your company can be trusted to deliver on its brand’s promises — and that it appreciates its customers.

Free marketing

Companies with fiercely loyal customers benefit from extensive free marketing through customer reviews, social media posts and personalized recommendations. They are also more likely to record testimonials and post user-generated content that you can use in your marketing. 

The most loyal customers may even be willing to serve as your (free) brand ambassadors, spreading the word about how awesome your company is and why people should buy from you.

Valuable feedback

When customers have a good relationship with your company, they’ll be more forgiving when you make a mistake. They will tell you what you did wrong without making it a public spectacle via negative online reviews. You can learn and improve from their feedback.

Additionally, loyal customers are usually willing to provide honest feedback on current and proposed products, pricing and policies to help you gauge whether you’re on the right track. Market research efforts can be expensive, but a loyal customer base is a free and rich source of valuable data. 

Boosted sales

All of the elements that go into sustaining and growing customer relationships help create a positive customer experience, which leads to repeat business and referrals to new customers. When existing customers know they can rely on your company to provide a high level of quality and customer service, they’ll buy more and recommend you to others. Plus, your company’s stellar reputation will attract new customers, thus helping you increase sales. With time, new customers will continue on the same path as your existing customers, as long as you continue to prioritize customer experiences and relationships.