Nurturing Current Client Relationships
When running a small business, one thing is certain – nurturing your current client relationships is essential to the longevity of your company. While expanding your market by bringing in new clients is also necessary, it is most certainly futile if you don’t retain the clients you’ve won.
Per outboundengine.com,
- Acquiring a new customer can cost five timesmore than retaining an existing customer.
- Increasingcustomer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-95%.
- The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.
Maintaining long-term clients and vendor relationships can carry a business through challenges and tight deadlines, while also bringing about new business. When your clients are nurtured, they’ll tell their clients, colleagues and friends about the great service they receive from your organization. This word of mouth referral leads to new business and helps to strengthen your current relationships.
Here are a few tips on how to strengthen current client relationships:
Maintain a database or spreadsheet where you keep track of all clients. Include the client’s name, the project description, and client contact information such as e-mail address, telephone number, social media accounts, and a “client notes” column.
- Research everything about their business. Learn where the client has been, where the client is going and what a normal day looks like for the client. You’ll be in a better position to solve their business problems if you do this.
- Keep in touch with your clients. Send handwritten notes. Pick up the phone to call or send a brief email. Contact them through social networks, preferably LinkedIn.
- Make it easy for clients to receive updates about you and your business. Maintain a company blog, create a newsletter, or stay relevant with company updates through social media platforms.
- Consider sending gifts/cards during the holidays, birthdays or on special occasions. A gift is a thoughtful gesture and your client will remember you when a business opportunity arises.
With these tips, you can generate more business and profits by nurturing and taking care of current client relationships – it goes a long way!
This blog was updated by Sandi Webster, in 2021, to reflect current statistics.
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