Every business loses customers, but not many do much about getting
them back. Here's what that means in practical terms..
Studies show that the average business looses 20 percent of its customer base each year. For example, let's say your business has 700 customers that buy repeatedly from you during the year and each customer spends an average of $300 a year. If you loose 20 percent of them ( one hundred and forty), you'll loose $42,000 a year. That's a lot of money to make up with new customers.
The longer you keep a customer the more he or she is worth to you. In
part, because it takes a lot more money to acquire a new customer than
it does to keep an existing one. In fact, businesses that are able to
consistently keep the majority of their customer base are usually the
ones that have increased profits year after year. Loyal customers spend
more, they refer new customers, and it costs less to do business with
them.
Before you can effectively put a plan in place to provide the highest in
quality service and market to your existing customers, you first have to
know the lifetime value of your customers. When you know the lifetime
value of your customers it helps you budget more effectively. You know
better how and where to best use your marketing dollars. This is valuable
information that every business needs to know if it is going to be
successful. And the only way to get this information is by knowing the
lifetime value of your customer.
Once you know how much each customer contributes to your bottom line,
you will begin to understand the value of hanging on to them. To do a
better job of keeping your customers, you need a system to gather
information about them and how they feel about your product and
services. One of the best ways to do this is through using questionnaires
on a regular basis. Ask questions such as: Why do you buy from us?
How well do we meet your needs? How can we improve what we're
doing? What are we not doing that you'd like us to do? What do you find
valuable about us? What's valuable about our competition?
You can ask these questions through a mailed questionnaire, e-mail, or
by having one of your employees call them. Beside the obvious value in
knowing the answers, you get a few bonuses as well. First, your
customers will be happy the you bothered to find out what they want.
Second, you'll learn about specific problems that could cause you to
loose them. You'll get ideas for your products or services, and you'll find
out some valuable information about your competition.
When you know you've lost a customer, try to bring them back through an
interview. If you don't get them back, at least you can get valuable
information that will help prevent you from losing additional customers.
But, you first have to find out why they have stopped doing business with
you. And the way you do this is by asking questions such as; Was it a
question of price or quality? Was a better offer made by our
competition? Was it inadequate responsiveness? Were promises not
kept? Were complaints not resolved? Was it overall dissatisfaction?
Whether you are sending a questionnaire, using e-mail, or interviewing
them by phone always use open ended questions that require an active
response. Use questions that start with What? When? Where? Who?
Which? How? You'll find that open ended questions help narrow down
and specify their reasons for leaving.
Businesses loose customers due to poor service more than for any other
reason. When you make a service mistake and a customer complains,
you have an opportunity to win back that customer and gain long-term
loyalty. Here is a five step plan you could implement when a customer
complains:
Apologize and acknowledge the error.
Take urgent action. Quick effort shows you have the customer's interest
at heart.
Show empathy. Customers want to know you care about their feelings.
Compensate them in some way. (It doesn't have to be monetary)
Follow-up. Make sure you've satisfied the customer.
To transform your business into one that is committed to retaining as
many customers as possible, you need support at every level. Provide
customer service training for all your managers, frontline customer-
service people, and everyone else in the organization. Teach your lower-
level employees how important it is to keep customers, and show them
how to be on the alert for unhappy customers. Give them a system for
identifying unhappy customers, and reward them for using it.
Make it easy for customers to bring their problems to you so you can see
where you need to improve. Make sure you have an 800 number that is
designated solely for customers. Have a special section of your Web
site designated for customer comments. You could even offer a modest
gift of some kind for customers who alert you to a problem. And always
offer some type of satisfaction guarantee on your product or service.
Most businesses can do a much better job keeping their customers.
Write down your goals for keeping all your customers. Make sure
everyone in your organization is aware of them and is working to achieve
them. Identify the customers who have left you or are about to. Then,
bring those customers back by working to solve their problems and
satisfy their needs. And finally, use the feedback you get from both
former and current customers to put customer-friendly policies and
procedures in place.
Copyright(c) by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights
reserved worldwide.
About the Author
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals
and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve
total success. A former ad agency executive and marketing consultant,
Joe's work in personal development focuses on helping his clients
identify hidden marketable assets that create windfall opportunities and
profits, as well as sound personal happiness and peace. Reach Joe at: joe@jlmandassociates.com. www.jlmandassociates.com
译文:
每个公司都在流失客户，如何挽留客户？
每个公司都在流失客源，但是没有多少公司在想办法挽回，今天我们就来说说这样下去会有什么后果…
调查显示一个普通公司每年流失20%的客源，比如，假设你的公司有700个老客户，每个客户平均每年消费300美元，如果你失去20%的客人（140人），那么每年损失42000美元，这些都要靠新客户来弥补。
客户和你合作时间越长，那么他/她的价值就越大，因为争取新客户的花费比维系老客户的花费要大。实际上，有能力维系大多数客源的公司它的盈利通常是逐年增加的，因为老客户的消费金额越来越多，于是开始挖掘新客户。
在向现有客户提供高质量的服务和市场之前，你首先要了解顾客的终身价值。了解顾客终身价值可以帮助你更有效地做出预算，让你知道行销预算该如何使用，用在哪里，这是每个希望成功的商人必须知道的宝贵信息，获得这些信息的唯一方法就是了解顾客终身价值。
一旦知道客户对你的贡献有多大，你就开始懂得紧紧抓住他们不放的价值。如果想要更好的维系客户，那么就要建立一个收集客户信息及客户对产品和服务反馈情况的系统，最好的方法就是按照惯例进行问卷调查。问题可以是：为什么购买我们的产品？我们满足了你的需要吗？哪些方面需要提高？哪些方面您希望我们做到，但我们却没有做到？我们的价值体现在哪里？我们竞争力体现在哪里？
你可以通过邮寄、发邮件或打电话的方式进行调查，除了一些显而易见的作用之外，你还得到了意外收获。首先客户很高兴你能花时间了解他们的需求，第二，你会了解一些可能会导致客源流失的问题所在，然后知道如何提高产品和服务质量，同时发现你的竞争优势。
当你知道自己失去了一个客户时，设法通过谈话来把他们争取回来，如果没法挽回，那么至少得到了如何防止失去另一个客户的重要信息。但你先要搞清楚为什么他们不再愿意与你合作，可以通过询问以下问题来找到答案：是质量或价格的问题吗？是不是我们的竞争者提供了更具吸引力的价格？是不是我们的反馈不充分？是不是我们食言了？有投诉没有解决吗？是不是整体都不令你满意？
通过邮件、打电话所做的调查是否都采用开放性的问题？每个问题都用什么、何时、哪里、谁、哪个、如何来开头，开放性的问题可以让客户有耐心把调查问卷做完。
企业失去客户的主要原因是差劲的服务，而不是其他，当你犯了错误或受到客户投诉的时候，其实你是有机会再把客户争取回来的，赢得他们长期的忠实。这里向大家介绍面对客户投诉时使用的五个步骤。
道歉，并承认错误
采取紧急措施，快速解答说明你把客户的利益放在了首位。
移情作用，客户需要知道你在乎他们的感受。
用些方式来弥补他们（无需金钱补偿）
跟进，确保客户满意。
如果希望公司变成效忠于维系客户的公司，那么需要各个阶层的支持，让所有的经理、客服人员和公司中其它人员接受客户服务方面的培训，告知公司底层员工维系客户的重要性，并指导他们如何注意到客户的不满，教会他们识别不满意客户的方法，如果他们发现了客户的不满，可以给与奖励。
让客户很容易就能把问题反馈给你，这样你就能知道哪些方面需要改进，官方网站上可以特别留出一块地方用于客户反馈，甚至可以给那些提出建设性问题的客户一些小礼品，同时在产品或服务上做出满意保证。
很多商人在维系客户方面能够做的更好，写下维系客户的目标，保证公司每个人都知道这个目标，并为之奋斗。找出那些你已经失去或将要失去的客户，并通过解决他们的问题或满足他们的需求来挽回他们，最后使用从以前和现在客户那里收集到的反馈信息来制定适当的以客户为中心的政策和程序。