I’ve heard it said that business owners are addicted to adrenaline…and lets face it most of us are! But how does this pan out in business – specifically in the area of getting and keeping customers?

Ask most managers and business owners how they would make more money and most will say “get more customers…” well yes, that’s one way.

If you ask the same bunch which is most expensive, getting a new customer, or getting an existing one to come back and try you again, most will say that getting new customers is more expensive…and they’d be right (it’s about 6 times more expensive!) But that’s where most of us are focusing our energy!

And yet think for a moment…what would your business look and feel like if you’d kept every customer who’d tried your service at least once? My guess is better that it looks right now…a lot better!

Getting new customers is generally more exiting! It involves such things as identifying the target market, segmenting them, agreeing a marketing strategy, executing the strategy, meeting potential customers, convincing them that you’re going to make their lives easier, getting their commitment and closing the deal…thrilling stuff when it works.

Keeping existing customers is generally less exciting than getting new ones BUT it’s more profitable in the long run. If you’re constantly losing them you’ll have to be constantly getting new ones which as we know is more expensive etc etc…

Remember, your customers are always getting promotions, special offers and enticements from other suppliers. If you’re not reminding them that they did business with you before and were happy with the result, sooner or later they’ll try someone else!!

So how do you keep them? There are lots of ways but essentially you need to make sure that you’re remaining in contact with them regularly. How regularly? It depends on what business you’re in, but at least once every three months is a pretty good benchmark to begin with.

So what do you do now? Look at all the ways you could keep in contact with your past customers:

- newsletters
- industry relevant information on a regular basis
- regular talks relevant to your customers
- new promotions
- re-assessments of their situation
- free audits

……the fact is that there are lots of ways when you put your mind to it.

Once you’ve decided on what to do, then devise a system to regularly execute to make sure you don’t miss out on the regular communication. This can (and is) easily overlooked and forgotten about if you don’t have a system for it.

So when you’ve got your new customer…do all in your power to keep them! It’ll pay you big bucks in the long run!