Whilst it is important to allocate a significant percentage of your marketing budget on obtaining new customers, I always advise my clients that they should really be spending between 25 – 50% of their marketing budget on their existing customers.

Why?

Because if you look after your existing customer base well, you will hardly need to look for new business; your existing customers will stay with you for longer, spend more with you and be happy to refer you to their contacts.

If you have an unhappy customer base who think badly of your company, you will forever be recruiting new customers.  Every customer who leaves you for your competition will take with them their harsh words and resentment.  How much better is it for your business to have kind words and repeat business?

Consider This: A client calls your business, the call is handled poorly. Perhaps the enquiry is for a simple job – it isn’t worth much. You, or your receptionist, are busy and the caller doesn’t receive the attention they deserve. They decide to go elsewhere and use one of your competitors.  You already have plenty of customers anyway, so it’s no big loss.

How much has that cost you?  £100? It’s no big deal.

Here is another way to look at it.

Imagine that call is handled well and the customer orders from you.  Because you did a good job, they then continue to order from you again – say on average, twice a year.  This pattern continues for the next ten years.  Let’s also assume that, because of the good service they receive, they recommend your services to just two people a year who also become customers.

The first year, this totals £200 from the original, customer plus £400 from the other two new customers – £600 in total.  Not quite so easy to shake off. Perhaps a few more minutes on the call would have been justified?

The second year, the customer still spends £200, and recommends you to an additional two customers, plus the two recommended from the previous year. This now comes to £1,000 worth of business.  By the end of year ten, this now totals £4,200 worth of new business generated by that one original customer. In fact, over the ten year period this works out at an amazing £24,000 worth of business. From one neglected phone call.   

The following 37 tips  will aim to assist you in

a) Keeping your customers for longer
b) Making customers keen to spend more with you
c) Making customers want to refer business to you

37 Ways To Create Happy Customers

1. Encourage feedback at all stages so that you can discover what the customer is really thinking.

2. Keep in touch.  Most customers leave because of ‘perceived indifference’- that means that you didn’t necessarily do a bad job, it just means that you didn’t keep in touch enough.  You might not have the time to call every customer personally, but you do have enough time to send out a newsletter, an e-mail newsletter or even a postcard to customers on at least a bi-monthly basis.

3. Web site and information – added value.  If you are good at what you do, the chances are that you know things that are useful to your customers. By keeping all that information to yourself, you might think you are being clever, but in fact by sharing at least a portion of that information with your customers you do two things in their eyes.  First of all, you demonstrate what an expert you really are and secondly, you appear generous.  Newsletters, seminars and websites are all places where you can share that knowledge with your customers and potential customers to enhance your reputation.

4. Avoid misunderstandings.  The quality of your verbal communication is very important in keeping a customer happy by making sure that everything is understood.

5. Value for money.  You may be expensive, but if you represent value in the eyes of the customer, then they will be happy.  Take a restaurant.  We expect to pay one price for a lunch in a burger chain and quite a different price in an exclusive restaurant.  Both experiences of eating are very different, but both can represent ‘value for money’ as it is the overall eating experience we pay for.

6. Listen to what your customers tell you.  People value being listened to very highly.  If you can be one of the few people who will listen carefully to what your customer wants, and show that you understand by delivering their request, you will stand out amongst all of their suppliers.

7. Really care about your customers.  Take notes about when their birthday is, who their children are, hobbies and interests etc.  This creates a far deeper level of communication and shows that you are interested in them as individuals.

8. Encourage complaints.  Do you know what most people do when they hear a customer complain?  They think of a reason why the complaint is not valid.  When a customer complains, they are telling you that they want to keep using you despite the problem, but would prefer to do business with you if you could sort it out.  For every customer that TELLS you about a problem, 10 customers may have experienced the same problem and gone elsewhere or are getting progressively more annoyed by it.  When a customer tells you something is wrong, listen and then ask them if anything else is wrong.  Most people treat complaining customers with contempt, when in fact, they act as an early warning system alerting you to the majority of customers who will sit in silence and then quickly leave you ‘for no reason’ one day.

9. Avoid confusion. If you have a contract, make it so simple that it can be explained in a paragraph.  If you are doing work on a customer’s behalf, make sure that they understand exactly what you are doing and when.  Don’t do anything that you think will confuse or frustrate your customer – just keep things simple and clear.

Help that is above and beyond
10. Source new suppliers.  Does your customer have problems with some of their suppliers?  If you know of a good alternative, pass those details on.  Make a habit of collecting details of reliable and good value suppliers who you can pass onto customers if the need arises.

11. Be easy to do business with.  Do people have to spend ages chasing you down?  Does everything have to be done in triplicate?  Are your opening hours restrictive and your staff suspicious?  Break down all barriers and make it as easy as possible for anybody to do business with you. Make them feel significant and wanted every time they want to part with their hard earned cash.

12. Take action.  If you are asked about something that you don’t know the answer to, say you will get back with the answer and make sure you do.  Get known as a person who follows up words with actions and results.

13. More is more. One of the reasons we love going on holiday to Crete is that when you go out for a meal, you often receive more than you bargained for.  Puddings will turn up without being ordered or a bottle of dessert wine will arrive with 2 glasses.  In Greece it is a sign of friendship.  How lovely to receive a little something extra that is unexpected – try treating your customers to more than they bargained for.

13. Demonstrate care.  If you care for your customer, show them.  If you don’t, perhaps a competitor will.

Staff
14. Employ good staff.  If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys as the old saying goes.  Your staff are your company in the eyes of many customers.  What are your staff like?  Would you be proud to have your company represented by them?  Do they have an excellent attitude – always keen to help and sort out a customer’s problem?

15. Sort mistakes FAST.  We all make mistakes and errors happen.  One of the ways that a customer judges your business is how quickly you accept that you have made a mistake and how quickly you sort it out.  If you have got something wrong, it is down to you to correct it as quickly as possible, minimising its impact on the customer.

16. Don’t worry, be happy.  Do you like your customer? If not, what are you doing talking to them?  If you know you are a grumpy, backroom boy then spend as little time talking to customers as you can and put somebody who loves dealing with customers in the front line.

17. Be honest.  Be honest with your customers at all times.  If you ever try shading the truth or telling an outright lie it will come back to haunt you in the end.  If you can do something, tell them, if you can’t, tell them, if you are too busy to do a proper job, tell them.  Your customers will appreciate your honesty and admire your integrity.

18. People buy from people.  Remember that you don’t really buy from companies. You really buy from the people who work for that company.  If a customer leaves, it is often because the person (account manager, shop worker etc.) just wasn’t giving them the service they required.

19. Be positive.  We’ve all got problems, but if your customer asks you how you are, don’t use that as an excuse to talk about all your problems or badmouth your other customers.  I have stopped using companies because (even if I didn’t ask) the owner seemed to use me as an agony aunt for all the wrongs in his world.  It wasted my time and left me feeling depressed every time I called him!

20. Be good at what you do.  At the end of the day, you have to be good at what you do if you are going to retain customers for the long term.  Every piece of training you and your staff undertake will help to retain customers.  Don’t short change your customers by skimping on the constant training or re-training of your staff.  Invest in the best systems, equipment and people that you can afford to make sure that when people come you, they are getting the best and can be confident that you will do everything you can to stay the best.

21. Innovate.  Earl Nightingale said that “it’s not good to get into a rut because a rut is nothing more than a grave with the ends kicked out.”  If you are not constantly looking for new, faster, cheaper, more exciting ways of doing things then the chances are your competitors are.  And if you look at what happens to companies without competitors, you see what unwieldy, slow moving, bureaucratic organisations they become – until competition comes along and offers a better service for half the price.  Always be looking to innovate and give your customer a better deal.

21. Customer care manager.  Do you have one?  I know of companies with only three staff who have a customer care manager.  Even if it’s not a full time role, it shows your customers that you take their concern seriously.

Being OK is not enough
22. Be innovative and different. In today’s crowded marketplace it is important to stand out from the competition.  Make sure your customers remember you for being the company that is always changing, always improving, always coming up with great new ideas.

23. Exceed expectations. It is no longer good enough to be OK.  If possible, always aim to exceed your customer’s expectations.  Promise to deliver by Tuesday, but deliver by Monday lunchtime. Deliver extra items with no charge.  Drop off personalised gifts such as mugs or calendars.

24. Thank you.  Every time somebody gives you business, make sure you say thank you – and mean it.  These are two words that everybody likes to hear.

25. Don’t create a product and figure out a way to sell it.  Find out a need and work out a way to satisfy it.  What do your customers genuinely need?  Ask them what it is and then work out a way of either adapting or creating a product to fill that need.

26. Customer charter.  Create a customer charter or guarantee that sets out to any customer and member of staff exactly what should be expected.  Set your standards high and do everything in your power to stick to them.

27. Introduce a money back guarantee scheme.  If you do business by post you need to offer a 30 day money back guarantee anyway.  Smart businesses do a lot with this.  Most companies try to bury it in the small print.  If you are selling something that you are proud of, you shouldn’t want people to pay for it if they don’t want it anyway.

28. Exit survey.  Why has that customer stopped using you?  What did they like, what did they hate?  When most customers leave we have no idea why they went.  If you take the time to ask them, there is statistically more chance that they will one day come back (if only to see if you have smartened up your act) and you will stop others going the same way. You should already be doing this with staff who move on, so why not find out why customers are too?  You might uncover some uncomfortable information, but it could be key information that could turn around your company.

29. Keep your word.  If you say you are going to do something, then do it.  Become known as the person who keeps their word. Ask customers what they want from you.  Do they want more contact, less contact, more / less information etc.  It’s always a good idea to be led by the customer; because what you think might be a useful regular update might be time wasting junk as far as the customer is concerned.

30. The golden rule – do unto others as you would have done to you.  If you stick by this rule when it comes to customers, you won’t go too far wrong.

31. Speed stuns.  It is said that in restaurants, the speed and quality of waiter service is rated as more important than the food.  That’s quite interesting if you consider why people go to a restaurant!  The speed of your response will make a big difference to the experience and opinions of your customers.  If you can solve problems swiftly, you will win over any customers and win new friends.

32. Take responsibility.  Things will go wrong in life – have you noticed?  Most suppliers and most of your competitors will blame everybody and anybody instead of themselves, but because you take responsibility when something goes wrong, you will tell the customer the words they want to hear.  “I will take complete responsibility for sorting this out.  Let me look into it, find out exactly what the situation is and I’ll get back to you with an answer by X o’clock”  And even if you don’t know everything you hoped you would by that time, call them back when you said you would.  Would you like to deal with a company that says that when things go wrong? I know I would!

33. Encourage referrals.  What gets rewarded gets repeated.  If you send a thank you letter and voucher when a new client is gained as a result of a referral, do you think your customers will do it again?  By making it clear that you appreciate the effort they have made to refer business to you, you are making it much more likely that you will continue to receive business in this way.  It is not so much the gift; it is more the fact that you have taken the trouble to acknowledge the kind referral from a customer.

34. The most important people in your company are your customers.  Accept this, believe it and make sure everybody else in the company believes it too.  In some companies, customers are viewed as an inconvenience that gets in the way of getting the job done.  There would be no job, no wages and no company without them so remember who pays your mortgage, for your holidays and puts food on your table. Thank them and be grateful for them every day.

35. Get together with customers at social events, restaurants or other places away from the office or factory floor.  This change of scenery help you to be seen as more of a friend than a supplier and helps to foster deeper, more productive long term relationships.

36. Avoid silly mistakes.  When we rush it is all too easy to make simple mistakes.  These reduce your credibility in everybody’s eyes.  We all make the odd slip, but concentrate on making a great job of everything you do.  Don’t accept mistakes as inevitable, many of them can be avoided with some thought, preparation and attention to detail.  Remember, in most cases, the quality of the job will be remembered longer than the time it was delivered in.

37. Aim for consistency.  There is a large telecoms / cable company I deal with that is 90% bad and 10% OK when you call them up for service. The few times I get my hopes up, only to be dashed when the promised delivery never arrives or the scheduled repair man doesn’t turn up.  As customers, we like to know where we are.  That’s why we like dealing with one person organisations – if that one person is good.  We know that we will get a good level of service from them.  If you have a good attitude towards customers, it’s important that any new staff you take on are briefed and trained in this.  Wouldn’t it be great if your customers felt that ‘no matter who you talk to, someone will help you out?’  There is nothing worse than playing Russian roulette with a company’s call centre.  One day you get a little star, the next you get somebody who would clearly rather be elsewhere.