We all want customers who come back and spend more. So, here are 10 ways of achieving just that.
Vouchers
Include a voucher with every sale, where your customers get something in return for coming back to you. It may be a discount, a free gift, or something completely different. You’ll want to put an expiry date on the voucher, and a good tip is to relate the expiry date to the typical lifecycle of your products, in other words a date in the future when you think your customer will need your product or service again. This type of promotion is great for businesses where people are likely to come back reasonably often – if there is too far between purchases, the customer will forget about the voucher and it will lose its value and effectiveness to both of you.
Something to remember you by.
Give a gift, a free give-away of some description, that will help the customer remember you. This is a good one for products or services that tend to have a long life-cycle, in other words people don’t go shopping for them all that often. If you sell cars, there isn’t much point in handing someone a voucher, since by the time they will want to use it, they’ve probably lost it or forgotten all about it! If instead, you had given them a classy, high quality key ring with your logo and contact details on it, there’s a greater chance they’ll remember you. When choosing giveaways, remember that no one likes to be a walking, talking billboard. So make your advertising discrete and classy, so it gets used just as it was intended to. Also, consider what quality give-away you offer, and link it to the quality of products or services you offer. If you differentiate yourself by having high quality products or services, you want your give-away to be consistent with this image of your business, so choose something of a high quality that will last.
Loyalty schemes
If you run a business where customers come to buy from you frequently, a loyalty card or a point system is a great option. This is ideal for businesses like hairdressers, coffee shops, news agents, restaurants, clothes shops, window cleaners, mechanics etc. The simplest option is to print up a little card, which you stamp at every purchase. You can condition it upon being above a certain amount, or being for a specific product in your range, in order to protect your margins and profits. When the customer has 6 or 10 stamps, they get something for free, or a discount off another product in your range. The more complex option is to do a point program, where you have a system that tracks how much each customer buys for, and when they reach a certain limit, they get benefits of some sort.
Stay in touch
There are lots of ways to stay in touch with your current customers. Sending out a newsletter is a common tool for keeping in touch. If you opt for this, bear in mind that your customers will be receiving several of these from other businesses, so you will need to make yours different and valuable to them in order to grab their attention. Don’t make it all about selling; add some free advice, some interesting facts or some humour to turn your newsletter in to something they want to read. You can also stay in touch with your customers by phone if your product and its life cycle warrants it (a friendly phone call a few weeks after the purchase, just to check that everything is running ok, for example).
Use your entire range
Customers may not necessarily know about everything you offer, so find a way to inform them about your full range, and suggest other products where this is relevant to them. Make package deals or use sales displays and signage to inform customers about all the different options that are available to them. If you run an online business, suggest similar or complementary products on your website.
Target the best customers for repeat business
You may not necessarily want all your customers to come back! Once you’ve segmented your customer base, you’ll know who your best customers are, so consider whether you want your loyalty initiatives to be offered to all customers, or whether you want to do it exclusively for the A-grade customers.
Run a competition
Running a competition of some kind is a great way to get in touch with customers, who you haven’t heard from or seen in a while. You can communicate your competition through your newsletter, signage, on hold message, website, or even through the local paper. Make sure everyone knows about it, and encourage customers to come in and take part. In order to gain promotional value from a competition, you’ll want to structure it in a way that requires people to get in touch with your business in some way, either by visiting your shop or your website.
Offer a workshop or webinar
Use your expertise in your field to offer your customers information and advice, delivered through a workshop or webinar. It will remind them that you are still there, and it will build your credibility.
Arrange a closed door sale
A great prompt for bringing people back to your shop (whether it’s a physical or virtual one), is to arrange a closed door sale. It is an “by invitation only sale”, where your customers and maybe their friends (if you want referrals too) are invited to shop at discounted rates for a limited period of time. It’s a great way to kick off seasonal sales, allowing your current customers to get the first pick amongst the sales items.
Throw a party!
Perhaps your company has a birthday or some other special date. Maybe there is something happening in the local area that you want to support and celebrate. Rarely is it hard to think of a reason for throwing a party, so market it to your existing customers and plan a great experience for them and their families. It’s a great way to remind people where you are and what you do.
