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Lots of great advice here. Here’s a couple more.
When used well, satisfaction surveys and other intelligence gathering tools help with customer retention. Without these intelligence gathering tools, business owners are often just guessing at what their customers want.
Know your strengths as well as your weaknesses. A couple of decades ago, Coke failed miserably at this. Repeated blind taste tests showed them that consumers greatly preferred the taste of Pepsi. In a bold move, Coke replaced their traditional formula with New Coke. Even though New Coke was the recipe that performed better in blind taste tests, loyal customers revolted. Coke lost immense market share to Pepsi. They quickly put traditional Coke back on the market, but they have never fully recovered from that error. What they learned the hard way was that Coke customers valued the image and tradition more than the flavor. Good focus groups could have told them that before they irreparably damaged the company. Similarly, small companies including design shops might want to be conscious of their image changes. Knowing your strengths will help you play to your strengths. Coke has since marketed the concept of tradition successfully.
Remind your loyal customers of why they purchased your services or products in the first place. For small businesses, this is typically done by some sort of newsletter. Even the brightest people are amazingly fickle and change core concepts. Conceptual and educational support from their vendors will help keep customers on track. In the case of websites, quarterly e-mails or bi-annual telephone calls discussing how many page views have happened and how many forms have been submitted will remind them of the value of the online presence. In addition, telling them what good search terms led visitors to their site often reminds website owners of the value of their online investment. Website developers can make this information available, but customers rarely check it. Developers need to present the supporting information to clients and take credit for their accomplishments.
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