Retaining Clients in Trying Times
Loyal customers can boost your profits substantially. Taking up the challenge of retaining clients relies on proactive and genuine interactions that build your company up as one that clients can trust for transparent service and expert advice. Customer retention and business development are central to successful management.
However, times are tough and COVID-19 has changed the way we do business. We discover ways to keep clients in trying times, and get professional advice from the pros to see how you can keep your customers coming back for years to come.
Expert Number One: Terry Levin
Terry Levin is the CCO at BizCommunity and the founder of OFF the SHELF Marketing. Terry is passionate about building legacy African brands as a means of maximising human and natural resources, growing economies and trade in Africa, product and brand development and line extensions that can compete globally. Her position at Bizcommunity has seen the company grow from a start-up to Africa’s biggest online B2B media.
We asked Terry about retaining customers and she replied “Funny enough I was just thinking of this today! I visited the Facebook page of an automotive repair shop and saw they had put up a post during lockdown when nobody was driving, and obviously business was very bad for them”.
The post read: “We do more cars with stripped or broken cambelts now than ever before, due to the lack of regular maintenance and for the same reason, throw away more front brake discs because they’re unskimmable”.
Terry continues, “As an existing customer, if I had read the post, I might have responded. If they had contacted me with a special lockdown offer, I would definitely have responded. Instead, they sat empty and nearly went out of business during lockdowns and remote working. Car repairs were the last thing on my mind during lockdown, but the right communication could have made it the first thing”!
This set me to thinking that by identifying what service or purpose your organisation is serving, especially “during trying times,” any sector could apply this thinking. Asking, do the people that might make use of our services know about them? How and where can we communicate these to them? Personal calls, social media, other media? The above post showed that there might well be opportunities that are being missed”.
The lesson, Terry says is this: “You know your business, your customer does not. Keep communicating and do what it takes to stay top of mind”!
Expert Number Two: Reuben Louw
Reuben Louw is a successful entrepreneur, visionary and creative. HOMEMAKERS Media Holdings, one of Reuben’s companies has been going for almost 40 years. If there’s one thing he knows about, it’s retaining customers.
Reuben’s short and powerful advice is this: “Every business should ensure that the majority of their business is either return business, referrals or a combination of both. This is achieved through honest values, excellent service and reciprocal loyalty”.
Expert Number Three: Noelle Nelson
Noelle Nelson is a career and workplace expert and author of “Make More Money by Making Your Employees Happy”. In her experience, retaining clients and loyalty can only be achieved when organisations show strong employee loyalty.
“Organisations that treat their employees with respect, give them the necessary tools to do their job and continually demonstrate that they are appreciated will see a workforce that will go the extra mile for the customers they serve. Unhappy, frustrated workers have little reason to put in the effort. Why should they? If employees don’t feel valued, work becomes drudgery and customers are seen as just part of the daily grind”.
