This is the century that has witnessed more competition between business people for customers than for anything else. Customers make a business and the more of them you have, the greater the chances of your business being successful and beating the odds in whatever industry you find yourself. That is why a lot of effort is made not just to get but to retain customers. It matters little whether or not you have a company worth millions of dollars or a startup that is yet to break even. All businesses have to learn the secrets not only to get customers but also to keep them. Like I have sometimes mentioned, getting customers is one thing, and keeping them is quite another. Surely, you will not have as much trouble getting customers as you will have keeping them. To retain customers, you have to put in almost twice as much effort in customer loyalty programs as you did to get them.

Customer retention strategies are all over the place. In books, business magazines and on-line articles. But here you have clear tips on how you can effectively get and keep customers. If you have a crowd of them already, reading this will be just as important for you as it will be for the guy who has none. Even if your business is presently a monopoly, it might not be so for long and it will definitely not remain that way for ever. Others will come into the industry and guess what they will be looking forward to once they do? Getting as many customers to themselves as possible. so brace up, let’s go on this journey together. By the time we arrive, you will be one of the most effective businesses in your world.

First, getting customers. What it takes.

In every industry, there are always more customers than business men can accommodate. However, this does not in any way imply that one is just going to start a business, seat back and watch customers run to pledge their loyalty to it. That is why getting acquainted with customer retention strategies is very important. It is more like rivers. There is more than enough water in every one of them to supply the communities that surround them, but that does not mean that every man is going to have water at his door steps simply because the settlement has rivers and streams nearby. You’ve got to make an effort to get what is already there in abundance. So what is it that you need to do to get as many customers as the business can accommodate?

Are you solving a problem or meeting needs?

When it comes to getting customers for a business, this is the most important place to start from. Whatever else you will be doing may not really make any difference if you do not sincerely answer this question. Without solving at least a problem and meeting needs, other customer retention strategies will be hard to practice. The goods your business is selling or the services you are offering, are they meeting needs or solving problems for people? Customers have to spend money and most times, they are willing to do so on good and services that either solve some problem they may have or meets a need. There is hardly enough money to throw around.

Consequently, if your business is going to get customers, you need to ensure that your goods and services are the answers or solution to some problem. Let this be the basis upon which you decide to start a business in the first place and you will stand a better chance of attracting more customers to your business. You will also have to put in less effort to retain customers.

How effectively are you doing it

The effectiveness with which you are meeting the needs of people and solving problems is very important and plays a great role when it comes to getting customers for your business. It also determines how effective your customer retention strategies will be. This is even more important when you have very fierce competitors in your industry. When you effectively meet customer needs and solve their problems, you will make them instruments of advertisement. And that is about the most effective way to get other customers for your business. Nothing convinces people more than a testimonial of their experience with your goods and services.

So don’t just aim at meeting needs or solving problems. Go the extra mile. Always try to do what your competitors are not doing to meet customer needs. The watchword is effectiveness. Sometimes you realize that even the customers who were once the most loyal to your products and services begin to withdraw. Not because the quality of products or services you offer have dropped but because they have found an alternative that meets their needs and solves their problems more effectively. It does not need to be a cheaper alternative. It just needs to be a better one. A more promising one. Which delivers on the promises made by the business. There is always a better way to go about solving the problems your customers are having. This brings us to product and service innovations.

Let’s take a fast food sales business as an example. Most people buy fast food because they don’t have the time to make something that will serve the purpose. This means their main concern, apart from eating something nice is saving time. It should therefore be the entrepreneurs concern to make sure that in serving customers, he can save them as much time and stress as possible. Most of your customers will definitely be hard working people with little or no time during the day to stop and actually eat. You can get more customers by looking for a strategy to get the food to them rather than trying get them come to your sales point or restaurant. The time it will take for some of these people to get to your place may be considered too precious to let go. So what are they going to do? Find a more time saving alternative so as to get more buyers and retain customers who are already engaged.

What are you going to do as an entrepreneur in this situation to get more of such customers? Well, you can start by making it possible for them to place orders and have meals delivered to their location at the time when they get off work for break. That is a more effective way to meet their needs. In addition, you may want to get suggestions form your customers on what specific meals they may like or what changes they may want made to their meals to suit their personal preferences. This is another way to ensure that you are actually satisfying their desires and will help you retain customers. It makes all the difference in the world to know that those you are serving are actually satisfied with your services.

Making use of effective advertising

There are different ways to advertise your business and that to get more customers than you may have ever dreamed possible. What advertisement strategies are you presently using and how effective have they been in getting more customers? Never hold on to what is not working simply because it seems like the thing to do or because all other businesses around you are doing the same. To get more customers, you have to learn what actually works for your own business, adopt that and hold on to it. Here are few simple but often neglected advertising tools that could bring in more customers for your business.

The Business Name. What impact does the name of your business have in the market? Is it simple enough for people to remember, or enticing enough for them to constantly speak about. Your business name is your business identity and that ID is the first thing that attracts customers. Don’t settle down with a dumb name for your business. It is not going to do you any good. If you perceive that the name you initially choose for the business is not captivating or engaging enough, you need to make changes. Probably rephrase else it is going to be difficult to get or retain customers.

Your Business Logo. Another tool for advertisement that often goes ignored is the business’ logo. Sad to say, but some businesses actually have none. And they are not bothered because they can hardly see how a logo will bring in more customers. Here is the point. People generally like to relate with something they are familiar with or have seen over and over. Even when it comes to advertisements, a logo is an important part of it. Think of all the big and successful businesses with thousands of customers all over the world. How many of them do you know which have no logo? Non I guess. You see the logos everywhere and the more you see them the more compelled you seem to be to join those who are already using the product. These businesses know how powerful logos are and what role they play to get and retain customers. That is why you may be shocked to find out how much some of these companies spend to get the kind of logos they use. But that tells you how effective they are in helping them meet their objectives.

Then there is social media advertising which so many people have ignored to the detriment of their businesses. One of the most effective ways to get people informed about your goods and services these days is by making use of social media. It may sound obvious but there are several businesses out there which are not getting more customers because they are not adequately taking advantage of social media. For one thing, you can properly tailor your adverts at particular potential customers to ensure maximum effect and response. Facebook for example provides customized advertisement strategies that target specific groups of people. Creating a page that attracts only interested persons is an outstanding way to keep this specific group of people informed and updated about your business and will surely get more customers involved.

Consider your pricing

In most cases, the price you place on products and services speak of its value. But you must remember that giving value at the least possible cost is a more effective way to get more customers to your business than most other strategies you could think of. One thing customers are usually very sensitive to is the price of a product or service. It is also probably the reason why most of your potential customers are yet to join in on your products or services. How much are you charging and how much less can you receive from customers in exchange for your goods and services and still be on the profitable edge? It may not be possible to drop down the price of your products and services and still be profitable. It is usually a difficult decision to make but if you check the odds and see that you can make even the least decrease in price, it will be a great move to get more customers.

Business men have to be courageous with every new step that has to be taken. Especially when it has to do with getting more customers. While price reduction may be a risky, you can take the step now, even if it means just breaking even. Believe me, when done cautiously, it will turn out to be one of the best decisions you have made concerning your business and getting customers. In the long run, you will actually be happy you did make the choice.

One thing customers are very attracted to is lower prices. The instinct is usually to choose lower prices over higher quality. This means that with a lower price you have a greater chance of attracting more customers. So if you are offering a higher or same quality like your competitors, you can be sure that more customers will be joining you pretty soon.

Promotions, a bait for more customers

Like fishes, customers too need a bait. Something that will draw their attention away from competing brands to yours. And one thing that works to your advantage is the fact that they are actually looking for the baits. Even if you were the only business in the industry, a time will come when making use of a bait will be an absolute necessity. So what enticements are you going to introduce with your goods and services? Well, let’s look at a few of them.

One of such techniques you can make use of is giving away free samples to customers. If your business has the capacity to, it is going to be an effective way to convince customers to buy or at least to attract them to your goods and services. With samples, customers get free goods and services which they would not buy but are willing to use. This exposes them to the advantages of using your products and may very well be a means by which they keep buying.

Another means by which you can get more customers through promotion is by making use of free trials. With this method, customers get goods they can use for a period of time after which if they do not like it, they can return the product and have their money refunded in full. This method of attracting customers to buy your products actually gives them the confidence that you offer quality and are proud of it, hence they are more willing to trust your brand over others. Like the name suggest, most customers will actually just be interested in trying it out, then they will fall in love with it if it is a great product. An example is an ice cream producing company that sends free trials to a desert shop. The aim in such circumstance will be to consider very closely the reactions of the people as you entice them to get engaged in buying the ice creams when trial is over.

In addition to the above two, you could include free gifts which entails adding some other thing that serves as a bonus to entice customers to either buy initially or to buy more. Here you can make it even more enticing by giving away more bonuses for those who buy more. For example, those who buy toothpastes from a particular producer could have a pair of toothbrush that accompanies it or those who buy shoes from a business could have a shoe horn as a gift for each shoe they buy.

Then lastly there is special pricing. Your business could decide to offer goods and services at a reduced price over a period of time to boost sales and attract customers who otherwise would not make the purchase. You can increase the impact by making intensive advertisement of the price reduction before the commencement date and for as long as it goes on. It is an easy way to get people talking about your product and consequently get more people to buy. While all these can be used to get customers, you can also make them part of your customer loyalty programs.

So after you’ve been able to get customers how do you then keep them?

The question of getting customers, like we already established is not nearly as easy as keeping them. However, the steps to keep customers are quite few and easier to understand though not as easy to put to practice. The reason is that you will need to put in a lot of practice, patience and resources to get good at keeping customers. Again most of the above tips to help you get customers will actually do a great job at assisting you keep them too. So let’s consider a few tips that are necessary for keeping customers and how you can apply them to your own business to get the best results.

Use customer loyalty programs or reward system

Customer loyalty programs or rewards system is the type that makes your loyal customers know that you value their loyalty and entices new ones to pledge their loyalty to your brand as well. One way you can do this is by affectively separating those long standing customers from new ones. Create a club that offers special services for customers who have been loyal for a specified period of time. They could have a club card for example which allows them make all purchases at a discount.

Or such customers could be included in your delivery program. This will mean that when they need anything from the company, they simply need to call and place an order and it will be delivered right at their door steps with no additional cost incurred.

Develop and keep a good customer relationship

When finally, you are able to get customers, this is the single most important thing that is required to keep them. We can say this is the anchor for all your customer retention strategies. If you get too comfortable with the fact that you have been able to get customers, you might become careless with the way you treat them. so how are you going to build relationships with your customers? Well I don’t know a better way to summarize it than this; that you continually regard the customer as king. If you understand what importance a king holds and decide to treat your customers as such, you will make the necessary efforts to keep them pleased. Always listen to their complaints and make sure you follow up to solve whatever problems they may have with your products or services. This should be an essential part of your customer loyalty programs. Make it a priority and you will be the only option to your customers.