Are you an agency owner? What keeps you up at night?
We are sure that you might be juggling between multiple things and that days never seem to end for you. You have a hundred things piling up for you.
However, the show must go on. Right? How do you ensure the survival of your business? What is it that will help your agency survive.
Along with dedication and commitment to work, you need to take care of your biggest and most valuable assets, i.e your clients/customers.
Unfortunately, most business owners are quite active and obsessed with lead generation, but they fail to pay attention to customer retention.
That is where they are lacking. Wondering, why?
- Several studies have found that 68% of sales come from existing customers.
- Acquiring new clients is 10x more expensive than retaining your existing clients.
Do you see? Customer retention is extremely essential for businesses. Happy clients means more and consistent business.
How do you expand the profitability of your business with client retention?
At Clientjoy Agency Summit, for a session powered by eChai ventures, Khalid Saleh got together with us to discuss the best client retention strategies.
Khalid says that “In order to retain your clients, it is very essential to keep them happy.
How do you ensure that? We’ve got you covered:
7 Rules For Keeping Your Clients Happy
1. Understand Why Clients Hire You:
Why would I choose either of these bars from my refrigerator? Do I like nuts? Do I like the packaging?
Of course there’s something specific. Similarly, clients choose you for a reason.
There are many other businesses out there who offer the exact same services as you. You need to figure out what is it that differentiates you from others. Pay attention to the points that matter the most to your clients. Find out what they are looking for.
Apart from your services, what is the one persuasive point that pleases your clients?
Is it your pricing? The proposal? Or the experience?
Consider what is the ‘conversion point’ for the decision makers. Your marketing mix should not be centred around your product, your company or your customers. It should be focused around your customers’ needs and wants.
Khalid discussed that when you know why your clients are coming to you, you can focus more on offering what they are looking out for. As a result, you make them happy.
2. Land The Right Client:
While framing the best client retention strategies for your organisation, it is important to acquire the right clients. Here’s how you decide on the right fit of clients for you:
- Analysing The Numbers:
- Hone in and understand your client’s budget, annual revenue & the sales volume they generate. Set criteria for onboarding a client based on numbers they generate. When you analyse these numbers, it might actually help you in figuring out if what they are seeking is possible to achieve.
- Industries To Cater To:
Your company has a niche. After you experience working with clients across multiple segments, you will eventually figure out where you can deliver the best. Don’t jump in and try to be everything for everyone. Develop your own niche market and focus on catering to clients from that specific industry. - Personality Traits Of Clients:
When you are looking forward to working with somebody, it is very important to be in sync with them. Think of it this way: Even in our personal lives, there are a certain kind of people we can gel well with and certain people who just cannot get it right. When it comes to work, it is very important to analyse the type of clients you would be able to do well with. Every client has a different level of knowledge. They also have different set of expectations. Have a mental checklist of what kind of client you want to work with. In order to deliver well, you would require to be on the same page with your clients.
3. Set The Right Expectations:
Agencies today do not put much thought into setting realistic expectations for clients, they focus on just getting the client converted. While this strategy might work in the short term, the agency will eventually be unable to meet the unrealistic expectations clients have, and this would lead to disappointment and conflict between both. If you feel that you will be able to generate a 30% monthly revenue increase for a particular client, don’t end up setting an unrealistic expectation of 60% increase. Honesty will surely pay off.
4. Deliver An Experience Of A Lifetime:
When we talk about the best client retention strategies, we can definitely not miss out on this one. Come to think of it: What is the fondest thing that holds a dear place in your memories? Is it the newly bought set of television or the time when you went to the amusement park with your friend and experienced the most thrilling roller coaster ride?
Most certainly, the experience. In order to make your clients happy, you want to deliver an unforgettable experience to them. Goods and services have been commoditised now. The experiences that you deliver will set you apart from other agencies.
For doing so, you need to focus on your sales process, contract sign-up, on-boarding process and the on-going relationship with your client.
5. Deliver Results:
Creating an experience and talking it through with your client is good. But, in order to make them really happy, you need to show and deliver the results. Remember, empty promises don’t work well for client retention. You need to set the right expectations, promise realistic results and deliver them timely. When you give commitments to your clients, it is important that you do justice to those.
Remember, why the client came to you. They really felt that you will be able to achieve what they are seeking for. Among all the other alternatives out there, your client choose you. You earned their trust and led them to believe that you will work the way out. If they do not end up with the expected results, they might consider you as just another agency. In order to retain your clients, you need to give them a rigid reason to stay with you.
6. Show Results:
You need to keep showing the results often and consistently. Show results that they can recognise and won’t question. Project a comparison to your clients of the before and after of your services. Don’t expect that the client will know without you making things clear to them.
When you are delivering accurate results, prepare the reports and show them to the right people. Khalid suggests that you always document your results. Pay attention to who should be seeing the results delivered by you. It is great if you can show the dollar impact and brief your clients about the value for money of the results delivered by you.
7. Be A Trusted And Strategic Advisor:
When you want to retain your clients, you need to do more than just work for your clients. Maintaining a lasting relationship with your clients is very important in order to retain them. Khalid recommends that you should be a trusted advisor for your clients. Give a thought to what your client needs or what advice is suitable for your business.
Help the clients in areas of your expertise or if required go out of the way to help them. If you need to, put in additional hours to be there for them. Show that they matter to you.
When you do so, you extend a helping hand to your client and do something that they did not expect from you. This helps very greatly in building a personal relationship with them.
Get Ready To Flourish:
Khalid feels that one shouldn’t worry about expanding their business. When you take care of your clients, they will take care of your business and ultimately will help you to keep going. Follow the above mentioned best client retention strategies and put your A- game into your work. We bet there’s no looking back then.
Check out what the audience had to discuss regarding client retention strategies:
How to ask your clients for deadline extension?
Khalid discussed that the best way to do so, would be to have a honest conversation with your client.
Before that, you need to develop a good relationship and earn their trust. Later, when you ask for a deadline extension, your clients will know that you are genuine here because they trust you.
How can existing clients help you get new clients?
This will be possible when you ask for referrals. In order to do that, you will first need to deliver and show results.
Later, you can approach your clients and tell them “Do you know anybody who might be looking for similar services”? OR “Can you recommend us to somebody”?
Referrals from clients work really well. When they are happy with your work, they become advocates for you.
Check out the full video of the session here:
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