One of the hardest jobs consultants have is convincing companies to spend to keep existing customers, instead of putting everything into chasing new customers.
By their very nature, many businesses have a high percentage of customer turnover. Especially in seasonal businesses such as pest control and lawn services.
Most brands in these businesses have up to a fifty percent loss of customers annually. Young, growing businesses usually devote all their energies chasing new customers and make no effort to retain existing customers. Yet, in most cases, the cost to keep a customer is a lot less than the cost to get a new one. If, on average, say, your company could keep every customer for just one month longer than normal, it would amount to somewhere between three and five percent growth, according toI-N-C Magazine.
Some strategies for retaining existing customers that I see work are increasing the amount of customer contact. Calling. E-mailing. Snail-mailing. Also adding additional benefits to whatever is your current level of service. If business is seasonal, you may consider making changes in your pricing pattern to encourage retention during the off-season.
Whatever you do, it’s a fact that in almost every business, it costs less to keep a customer than get a new one.
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