Always listen to your customers. Embrace or commission some quality market research and find out precisely what your buyers want to purchase. If it does come to the crunch and you realise you are not providing what your customers want, consider repackaging or even redesigning your product range to meet their exact needs. This should be reviewed regularly to ensure your small business product relevance.
Focus on your existing customers. Research has found that it costs 5 times more to find new customers than it does to keep your existing ones. They are by far your highest potential for revenue so pamper and nurture them, working tirelessly to build the relationship with one off clients to try and gain their repeat business. Spend far more time on current clients than sourcing new business.
Encourage customers to refer your business to prospective new clients. This is by far the most potent and certainly cost effective way of marketing yourself with the objective of gaining new business. Follow up on referrals fast, politely and with relentless focus to maximise the return from the exercise. Consider incentivising the referrals for both parties if it leads to a sale.
A simple and effective way of rewarding your customers is to send them an expression of your gratitude and let them know exactly how much value you put in having their business. This has the added effect of reminding them of your services, and if it’s sincere it should generate great loyalty and possibly new business too. You could also offer discounts as a reward for loyalty.
The classic eighty to twenty rule is one to bear in mind and conduct analysis of your business with relevance to it. In the context of product range it implies that eighty per cent of your profits will be generated by twenty per cent of your products.
If this applies, streamline your business to capitalise on the results. Make sure you leave small clients room to grow!
Make sure you resolve complaints issues promptly and without reticence. If you object and are negative towards a client with a complaint however invalid it is, they will decimate their business with you and spread the word around that you give poor service. The flipside of the coin is that if you don’t quibble, you could end up gaining new business as they recommend you as a business that provides an excellent experience for the customer.
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