First sales are always more difficult than repeat sales. For this reason, owners of small businesses constantly look for ways to keep their customers happy. Regardless of what you sell, there are a lot of ways you can maintain a loyal customer base. Here are some tips:
Stay an Expert In Your Field
Never stop learning about what you are selling. It’s critical for your customers to think of you as an expert in your industry. With the Internet making it easy to do research, customers are becoming more and more informed. You don’t want a situation where your customer knows more than you, the perceived expert. That is why it is so important for you to commit to ongoing training and doing what you need to do to stay up to date with your industry. Your customers will reward you for your commitment to constant growth.
Solve the Problems Fast
It is rare that you will hear about a customer problem up front, so you need to use your intuition in many cases. It would be well worth it to ask your customers directly on occasion how the relationship is going, and what you might be able to do to improve the experience for your customer.
Most important, when you hear of a problem never give in to the SODDI defense (some other dude did it). As the owner of your business, all problems end up with you, so take the blame up front gracefully. Then solve the problem fast. Customers are more used to excuses than fast action so your commitment will be noticed. Instead of the error being foremost in their minds, the amiable resolution will keep them returning as repeat customers. As a matter of fact, often a customer that started out as a problem case will end up referring more business your way in the long run.
Remind the Customer Why They Chose You in the First Place
This is no time to be humble; continually point out your advantages over your competitors, and praise your customer for being so perceptive and astute to choose you. There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t like to be praised, and its the perfect opportunity to help them recall your competitive advantages at the same time.
The ultimate goal when creating loyal customers is to give them service that is so good, everyone else pales in comparison. When great service comes naturally, customers begin to expect it year after year. That’s customer loyalty.
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