It is impossible to overestimate the importance of customers retention. It makes no difference how big your company is, if it’s a B2C or B2B enterprise, or what industry you work in. Retaining customers is essential to a successful business, and with the holidays quickly approaching, new options are emerging that present business owners with opportunities to go above and beyond.
Naturally, the first step is to give the best possible customer service throughout the holidays, which are historically the most hectic time of year for suppliers as well as customers. It should be noted that some business owners will experience a decrease in the demand for customer service over the holidays, while others will likely find that their plates are more than full—overflowing would be a more accurate description.
However, regardless of how busy you are during the season, you will want to reward your consumers come holiday season. In fact, you might even be in a better position to thank your clients if you manage a tiny B2B business that typically sees very little, if any, business around the holidays.
Don’t Enter Hastily
Should you have been considering diving in headfirst and devoting your entire yearly income on rewarding your clientele, you may want to postpone this for the time being and reevaluate your strategy. Naturally, you won’t be taking any wild chances like that, and you should consider all of your options.
For instance, it matters what kind of business you operate and the number of clients you serve. If you offer some sort of B2B service and you have twelve clients in total, you may want to give them all something as a thank you for sticking with you this year. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, but giving them an occasional discount will help you retain them as clients.
If you have any sort of online store and thousands of individuals have made purchases from you, you should strategize and identify your greatest and most devoted clients.
This will, of course, greatly streamline your process if you have a loyalty program in place. Specifically, you will have examined the data it has collected since installation, and you will be aware of the precise factors that encourage your clients to make larger purchases. Once more, this will mostly benefit retail establishments and other B2C enterprises with large consumer bases that are typically less devoted.
For instance, some businesses discover that their devoted clients spend more money when they receive gift cards, while others would rather use some form of reward program in which they may accrue points that can be redeemed for merchandise. When the holidays roll around, you’ll reward your customers appropriately, allowing them to treat their families to a lavish get-together.
The most crucial thing is to take your time and carefully consider which actions have the most proven impact.
Think Wisely
It may sound nearly cynical, but treating yourself during the holidays should be done wisely, affordably, and with the intention of reaping the full rewards of an expensive reward practice. Additional instances of ingenuity are also appreciated.
For instance, you will not only thank your devoted consumers over the Christmas season, but also make them feel extremely special. Make a special effort to tailor the incentives and offers you have in store for them. If a few of your once-loyal clients have stopped doing business with you, offer them a minor incentive and extend an invitation to return. It’s likely that they have just moved on from your previous relationship. It occurs, particularly on the internet.
You can always find methods to cut costs if you want to do something extra special for your largest accounts and you are going big with your customer rewards (which are typically in the B2B space). For example, you may want to provide a skiing vacation of some sort to a CEO of a company. You plan your entire summer’s worth of travel in advance, and by utilizing a service like Travel Pay, you can make sure that the cost of your trip doesn’t increase as the months pass and you can make the installment payments.
Resuming management of a store of some sort also means running a series of post-holiday sales to clear off excess inventory. For example, you end up with a handful of things that you just couldn’t get rid of. You let your devoted clients know that you are appreciating them with a wonderful post-holiday discount on such items. And you do offer them a lot, actually. It sure beats finding another means to get rid of the excess inventory. You at least receive some money back in this way.
Making your consumers feel important is crucial to keeping them as long-term clients.
Cheers to the holidays!
