Customers today, eh? Not only are they still absolutely convinced that they’re right – even when they’re absolutely wrong – they’ve also got far too much choice.
Make them angry and they’ll easily destroy your hard-won reputation with a seething Facebook comment or TripAdvisor review – and then they’ll happily skip off, turning to one of your many competitors instead.
As much as it would be nice to pretend that you don’t need those difficult customers, there aren’t many businesses that can afford to miss out on putting money on the till.
Your only tactic for protecting profits and guaranteeing your pool of customers doesn’t dry up is to continue winning over new ones.
It’s a mammoth task, so to help you manage it we’re sharing three top tips that’ll soon have you queued out the door. Take a look.
#1: treat current customers right
Word of mouth is the most useful tool for growing awareness of your business, but also your biggest enemy if you’re accidentally sending out the wrong message – in the age of social media, negative reviews spread quicker than ever before.
Make sure your current customers have only good things to say about you and they’ll help you build a strong reputation for quality others won’t be able to resist.
Train all staff to provide stellar customer service, ask for feedback, offer loyalty schemes and run event nights – basically, do everything you can to guarantee people leave your business happy.
#2: be innovative and engaging
It’s not rocket science – to keep attracting customers you need to give them something new and exciting.
No matter what the nature of your business, always invest in product or service development so that you constantly have updated ranges to offer customers. It’s how some of the most successful companies out there maintain their hold over a market.
Take Tensor, for example, an international glue manufacturer which – whether an environmentally friendly marine glue or high-performance adhesive – regularly releases fresh, innovative products that speak to the needs of their clients.
#3: market yourself properly
Until people know where you are and what your business does, they won’t become customers – that’s why you engaged in marketing when you first launched your startup and it’s also why you need to continue investing in promotion and advertising.
First, you need to do some market research – use online surveys or third-party research – to identify new audiences and targets.
And then you need to figure out how to grab their attention. And with a variety of tactics like social media, blogs, SEO and PR events at your disposal, you’ve got plenty of opportunities to do so.
There you have it, our top three tips for winning over new customers and keeping your existing ones happy too! Do you have any other advice for boosting sales? Leave a comment and let us know.
