There is so much competition out there and online businesses need to fight for every single dollar of revenue they earn. Customers have choice and that drives down price and raises the number of hungry competitors who are eager to sell.
For that reason, when you compare the effort to sell to 2 customers – one completely new prospect who has never heard of you and one customer who has already bought from you once – it is considerably more profitable for you to sell to the second customer; the one who has already bought from you. With a prospective customer, it takes time and effort and resources to convince them that you are trustworthy enough for them to give you money. But an existing customer has already been convinced of that truth and should therefore have no problem handing over their money for another purchase.
With this in mind, it’s surprising to learn that most online businesses are completely ignoring their existing customers and, worse yet, treating them like second class citizens. Instead, these businesses are producing tons of free content and helpful ideas and tips to their prospective customers while they let their current customers vanish over the horizon.
The secret is customer service. If you give your customers amazing, jaw-dropping, mind-numbingly good customer service, you’ll have a customer forever and every future purchase they make will be extremely profitable for you. One great concept put forward by Carl Sewell in his book Customers for Life is that you should always keep in mind the lifetime value of a customer. That is, you need to remember not how much they buy this time but how much revenue their loyal repeat purchases will generate for you over their lives.
So, how can you give good customer service? Here are a few tips:
• Respond immediately. Have you ever bought something but then never heard back from the seller for a few days? That has happened to me. Respond immediately with a “thanks for the purchase” and it won’t hurt to follow-up a day or two later with another “we’re working on your order” email. Technology is available to make this an automated action that you don’t even have to do yourself.
• Do a post-game follow-up. After your customer has purchased your product or service, contact them to find out how their purchase was. Many businesses are afraid to do this because they don’t want to hear the bad news that their product or service didn’t provide the value it could have. Schedule time each week to touch base with recent customers.
• Make it easy. This should be the mantra for everything your business does. Make it easy for people to find your business. Make it easy for people to buy. And, in the customer service side of your business, make it easy for people to understand and use the product and make it easy for people to get in touch with you. The nice thing about this step is that it is not expensive or time consuming. Rather, adequate documentation should do the trick.
• Let them know you’re thinking of them. Add value to your customer’s live by touching base periodically with more than a sales pitch. Tell them good news, give them something free, and share with them interesting and relevant information you’ve discovered. They’ll come to trust and rely on you.
Now that is service that keeps customers around for a long time!
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About Warren
Good suggestion. I always find this site very helpful when it comes to getting tips and advises. What I love on the article was the first one and that will be respond immediately since we do want people to respond as soon as possible so that our concern or inquiry will be addressed immediately.
Superb site!
I totally agree! Good Customer service is the way to becoming a successful business.
Customer service is the key to long-term customers and new referrals from the satisfied customers. It is rightly indicated int his article that getting a new client is much difficult but pleasing the current one is not much. You need to take proper steps to serve your current customers better because they have the ability to bring you add-on sales and more customers.