October 14th, 2015
When you are starting up a small business, perhaps working from home and using a virtual office provider, your main focus will be on gaining new clients or customers. But, as your business grows, it’s equally vital to keep the customers you already have coming back for more. In fact, research has found that gaining a new customer can cost a business up to ten times as much as retaining an existing one. So how can you go about building customer loyalty?
While cost is obviously a key factor for most customers, small companies can also really score over larger competitors by giving a more personalised service. This means working closely with clients and taking their priorities on board, as well as communicating with them at every stage of a project. It’s important to ensure your staff are trained up to deal with potential problems, since getting back to people fast and sorting out any difficulties will impress them.
When making arrangements for a project, the best approach is to be realistic and not to promise more than you can deliver, which only sets you up to disappoint customers later down the line. In any field, customers are impressed by reliable providers who stick to budgets and timetables, without needing to be constantly chased up.
Accessibility
A key part of customer service is being easily available to get hold of when needed. For instance, just having a mobile phone number isn’t really good enough, as customers often prefer to use landlines and are also reassured by the security of a business mail address. This means, if you are home-based, there are advantages in choosing virtual office solutions which include phone answering and mail services. It is also helpful to have an address which is easily accessible for clients and to offer good facilities for meetings.
Research New Services – But Don’t Forget the Basics
Marketplaces are constantly changing, so it is essential to keep an eye on whether new services or products are needed. Part of this involves watching what competitors are doing and, depending on your sector, you may also need to keep an eye on any regulatory changes and new official standards. It is also helpful to ask for customer feedback and suggestions, which will give an idea of any related services they want which you aren’t currently providing.
However, while no business can afford to stand still, it’s important not to let your original products or standards of service slip. For instance, companies in many sectors are building up a social media presence, but to add to customer satisfaction this needs to be additional to other ways of contacting you such as via phone and email, not a substitute for these other channels.
Reward Customer Loyalty
Repaying loyalty doesn’t necessarily have to be through a formal scheme. But, depending on the type of business, there may be potential to offer incentives after a certain number of orders have been placed, or give gifts or add-ons for placing orders above a certain value. For a loyalty scheme to be successful, you need to work out how much it will cost you and to be sure that cost can be recouped within a reasonable period of time. At the same time, however, any incentive needs to look worth having. Offering a very small reward for a large order could just be counter-productive, and risk making your customers feel you don’t appreciate them.
Another way to repay loyalty is to make sure your existing customers are the first people to know when you add new services or products. There is a balance to strike here and you can’t afford to bombard people with too many emails, which could be seen as spam, but you do need to keep them up to date when there is a new development.
Basepoint Business Centres offer a number of services which help small businesses to provide higher levels of customer service. As a virtual office provider, we give new and home-based businesses a more professional appearance, offering business address services and mail collection. Depending on the virtual office package you choose, you can also benefit from a local phone number rerouted to your own phone and access to a phone answering service.
Our centres are in prime locations, in towns including Exeter, Shoreham and Basingstoke, with break-out areas which both tenants and virtual office customers can use for informal meetings, as well as serviced meeting rooms. All this helps to make you more accessible to clients and present a professional image, so building customer satisfaction and loyalty – and getting them to spread the word to others.
If you are looking for a virtual office provider click here for details of our services.
