5 Ways to Stimulate Repeat Business
Almost two thirds of all lost customers leave because of perceived
indifference to them. Here's another way to look at it... over 5 years businesses are likely to lose over 50% of their customer base. Here are a few simple tips that you can implement right away to avoid this situation: 1. Know your customers. Take a few moments, look into your database, accounting books and see the 20% of your customers that bring in 80% of your revenue. Yeah, it may seem boring, but we challenge you to take the time to go through the list. It may surprise you! We've been in the Materials Handling Equipment business and when you add in the parts and services in addition to the equipment sales, you may see some folks that employees swear are not important customers! Take a look at this list and see who you may have not been paying attention to, it could change the way you perceive some of your customers.
2. Segment your customers. It's good to put your customers in various buckets based on their profile. For example, if they are a Grocery or Food Distributor, make sure that you have them marked as so, your products and services may change and you can provide a more all encompassing solution, rather than just selling them a few lift trucks here and there. They may want an overall picking/ slotting solution and as a supplier, when you can team up with other partners in the industry to truly provide them with a true storage solutions... you will be one of their favorite vendors. So again, segment your customer list based on who they are so you can provide them with more solutions that will have them coming back to you for more.
3. Keep your customer database up-to-date. Take the time to categorize make sure that the contact information is correct. I once read a story about a big Chief Marketing Executive that came into a large fortune 500 company that did an amazing marketing campaign. They sent out expensive scooters with a great message to their customers, but they didn't check on the integrity of the database... so what happened? About a million dollars worth of marketing expenses went down the tube. The costs of the scooters, shipment and marketing research and efforts all wasted simply because most of the list was BAD. Bad names and addresses. Take the time to put together a good list of customers and ideal customers for your materials handling business to maximize every marketing dollar.
4. Thank your customers. In writing. We all know we should take a few minutes to do it... but just as Monday just started, it's already Friday. Here's a tip, if you leave a stack of Thank you notes and stamps on your desk, just take 15 minutes a day to get a few written and sent off. If you don't have time to send a card here and there, your customers may forget that you're around and find another vendor.
5. Keep in front of your Customers. Instead of calling "just to see how things are", it's also great to put together some valuable information that your warehouse customers would like to see. If you have some customers that you have helped dramatically improve their operational productivity, have a story on it and share it with others. The more helpful the information you provide to your clients, the more likely they'll remember you when they on considering a new warehousing solution. A classic example is the forklift dealer that is seen as only the "Forklift Company", in addition to lift trucks you provide other services that they don't relate you to and you need to let them know. If your business has connections in WMS, let them know. Remember that warehouses and distribution centers are all crazy busy trying to serve their customers and sometimes the obvious solution isn't so obvious. Let them know by sending out quarterly newsletters.
As they say "a little goes a long way", and with a little planning and effort you can keep your warehouse and distribution customers happy. Loyal customers not only mean more business from them, but perhaps referrals to others. Take the time to show your customers some love, because at the end of the day, they are your boss, they help pay for your salary and keep your business running.
