5 customer retention strategies that really work

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Getting the first sale. That's the easy bit. Getting repeats. That's the tricky bit. That's the Holy Grail. Well, in this video I'm going to show you five tried and tested strategies to build repeat business, including one killer step right at the end. Before we do anything else, hit the subscribe button. I'll put new content on my channel every week, and I'd love to be able to tell you about it.

And secondly, if you've not met me before, let me say hello. My name is Paul. I'm an accountant. I'm a CFO. I'm an entrepreneur. And I’ve spent over 25 years helping businesses to grow profitably, including running three of my own. Okay. So let's get back to the question of repeats. So why is it important to build repeat business? Well, you might say it's obvious, but I do think it's worth spending a second just thinking about it.

The reality is repeat customers are much cheaper than new customers in terms of getting them to spend and actually repeat customers, in general,  tend to spend more than new customers because they know you and they trust you. So it's really, really important to focus on them. Time and time again, I speak to business owners, who only focus on getting new customers in and all of their marketing efforts are about getting new customers. But once they’ve that customer through the door when they bought something, they forget about them. And that's crazy. And that's why we're going to show you some good strategies to really get them spending again and again because those people are really the engine room for your business as it grows. 

The other good thing about driving repeats, profit aside for a minute, is that repeat customers tend to be the biggest advocates for your brand.If they've bought from you more than once, then they love you. They'll be telling other people about you. So the more you can look after those customers, the more likely you are to get referral customers and more business down the line. In short, you're getting more money for less work. So those are two big reasons to focus on repeats.

So before we dive into some strategies to get more repeat customers, I'm going to ask you a quick question. Do you know how many of your sales currently come from repeat customers? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to know. And if you don't, please don't worry, because most of the businesses I speak to don't really have much of a clue.

Okay. So with that in mind, I promised you five strategies. So let's dive in. Strategy number one, to build in repeat business is all about understanding the data. To my point above, you need to think about understanding what your customers are doing, their buying behavior, how many people are coming back to you, and buying what? How often are they coming back? How much are they spending? Because that's really the starting point. If you know where you're starting from, that's a metric you can then use to track going forward to see if you're making any difference.

Are you getting more repeat customers? Are you getting them to spend more? This is something that you should be tracking ideally on a monthly basis. So something to think about before we start. It all starts from the data. And if you've seen any of my other videos, you'll probably get an idea that I'm a very data driven chap because I really believe that understanding the data behind your business performance is the key to growing your business quickly and profitably.

Okay, so that's point number one. Strategy number two, and this one sounds really obvious, but you'll be surprised at how many businesses don't ever ask the question is that if you want to build repeat business, you've got to make sure your customers are happy!  And what do I mean by that? Well, it means giving them a great product or service, giving them something that they actually want, giving them a great buying experience, giving them excellent customer service.

In short, getting it right first time and also getting feedback from your customers after they bought from you. Asking are they happy? Does your product do what they wanted it to do? Is something not working for them? Do they have any issues? The more you can engage with your customers, the more you'll learn about your business and you'll also have a much better chance of keeping them happy.

English people are really, really bad at giving feedback. So many times people in the UK will buy something and think ‘I'm not very happy with that. That wasn't a great experience so I just won't buy from them again.’ What a lost opportunity! If only someone had actually reached out and asked them how was that experience…..You have a chance to make sure that customer is happy and if they didn't have a great experience, you've then got a chance to turn that around. And actually if you do that, those people will be singing your praises..

The third strategy for building repeat business comes to having regular contact with your customers. Make sure that you're front of mind when they're thinking about buying whatever you happen to be selling. And to do that, it's not just about sending them sales emails. You want to make those customers feel special; give them something which other people don't get. You might give them, for example, sneak peeks to new product launches. You might want to give them exclusive deals. You might want to run a loyalty program. You know, you might want to ask them for feedback about new products that you're developing.

Anything you can do to have regular contact with your customers and make them feel special means they’ll be much more likely to come back and buy from you again. And they're also much more likely to talk about you with their family and friends and everybody else. 

Point number four -  keep an eye on your competitors and be one step ahead.Now, I know you're thinking -  why is that relevant? Well, your competitors are going after the same customers as you. And if you're not keeping your existing customers happy, they're going to go elsewhere. So you need to hone in on what the competition is doing. Registering for a competitor’s mailing list is a good start. Keeping an eye on what's going on in their shops, on their websites, what kinds of adverts they're running and where they're running them. Whatever intelligence you can gather on what your competitors are doing means that you'll be able to assess what you're doing compared to that and make sure you are one step ahead.

Which brings us to step number five. When I first heard this, I thought this is never going to work. But having done this in several businesses, I was blown away at the impact it had on repeat business. And that is  - when you're talking to your customers don't always sell.  What you need to be doing is adding value, giving customers something they want every time you speak to them. We all expect, when we sign up to a retailer, that we’re going to get emails with a 20% off deal every now and again. And, our inboxes are full of these kinds of emails and they are so boring that most people just delete them without opening them..

Actually, if you add value, i.e. don’t just sell to people, then they will engage with you much more. So what do I mean by that? Well, talk to them about other things. Tell them about your company story or your growth plans, where your products are made, or give them interesting lifestyle articles or advice about other things which might be of interest to them or even entertain them. Tell them something funny, give them a reason to engage with you and read your emails rather than letting them just think “Oh, they're trying to flog me stuff again”. In short, you're trying to get them to love your brand because the more they love your brand, the more they can come back and buy.

Well, that's my five tips and I hope you found those helpful. And actually, if you want to think about those, I have a free factsheet below which just summarizes what we've talked about. Download it below and start thinking about how you might be able to apply some of these steps to your own business. And also before I go, I also have another free factsheet, which I’d really like you to download, and it's all about turbocharging your cash flow in your business and doing so without selling a penny more.

So if that's interesting as well, click the link below and download it. And if you've not done so as yet, as I mentioned earlier, please subscribe because I'm posting new content every week and I'd love to be able to share that with you. Well, thanks very much for listening. I appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.