With those statistics in mind, your ability to keep clients happy and engaged can clearly save (and make) you a huge amount of money in the long run. This is particularly relevant in industries that have regular or repeat clients, like accounting or marketing.

To save on expenses and increase your revenue, it’s important to learn how to read your clients. Being able to spot the warning signs that a client is unhappy gives you a heads-up that they may be thinking about leaving your business. To improve your retention rate, keep an eye out for the following five behaviors that may mean a client is on their way out the door. In these cases, you’ll need to act fast to retain their business before they leave for good.

1. Radio Silence

Rather than deal with an awkward breakup conversation, many clients will go completely silent as they start to distance themselves. This might mean failing to respond to your emails, not picking up your calls, or even skipping meetings.

Sudden radio silence from a regular client is a huge red flag that indicates a dire need for client re-engagement. You should reach out quickly to attempt to address the client’s concerns and restore your working relationship. Simply opening up the lines of communication may be enough to restore dedication to your company. If not, you may need to offer other incentives, like discounts or package deals, to rebuild your client’s loyalty.

2. Decreased Spending

Clients who are on the fence may start to slowly test out offerings from your competitors before leaving your business altogether. This gradual replacement process allows them to confirm that other options will meet their needs just as well as your solutions do.

One way to detect this behavior is to keep an eye out for spending decreases among your regular accounts. For example, you might notice that a client who used to employ your agency to run their blog and social media accounts has suddenly stopped requesting new blog posts. Upon identifying accounts that are spending less, focus on promoting the ways in which your services can benefit those clients specifically.

3. Contract Disputes

If your client is suddenly asking a lot of questions about the terms and conditions on your contracts, it’s a sign that all may not be well in your relationship. Contract concerns may seem innocuous at first, but they can indicate a deeper problem with client commitment.

Whether the client has concerns about project scope, service value, or timelines, don’t just dismiss them with a canned response. Instead, dedicate some time to truly understanding and addressing whatever is causing their hesitation. If your client doesn’t feel that their voice is being heard, they may begin researching alternatives to your services.

4. Discount Inquiries

To be fair, everyone loves a good discount, so it’s not unreasonable for regular clients to inquire about them from time to time. However, these requests can indicate that your client is questioning the value of your products and services. If a client asks for a discount, they may also be trying to divert some of their budget toward testing new options without impacting their current operations.

While discounts can be a great tool for client retention, it’s better for them to be offered rather than requested. In cases where the client is asking for a price reduction, note the request as a potential red flag and look for other opportunities to build brand loyalty.

5. Payment Snafus

Beginning to question the value of your services can result in financial mistakes such as missed payments or canceled checks. Whether they’re intentional or not, these slip-ups suggest that your business is no longer top of mind.

Although there may be a simple explanation like a vacation or an expired credit card, check in with the client to see if there are any underlying issues. If so, allow the client to voice their concerns and strive to resolve the problem as soon as possible. Once you get your relationship with the client back on solid ground, the payment problems will likely disappear.

How to Optimize Your Customer Service to Win Clients Back

If you notice any of these warning signs, you’ll want to respond quickly with your best client retention tactics to preserve the account. Using client management software is an excellent strategy for salvaging relationships, not to mention building strong ones in the first place. With this software, your team can:

• Maintain a 360-degree view of each client’s history with your business. This allows every employee to provide superb customer service even if they’re not personally familiar with the client.
• Document any client issues by creating detailed records of every meeting, phone call, and email.
• Identify clients who have not made any recent purchases.
• Schedule reminders to follow up with clients who are waiting on updates or resolutions.
• Use past purchase data to identify other products or services that may better suit the client’s needs.

And even as you use technology to help manage your client relationships, keep in mind that your clients are people and want to be treated as such. Empathy, listening skills, and willingness to admit mistakes can all go a long way towards fostering lasting relationships with your clients.

Take a Smarter Approach to Client Retention

While client management software can do some of the heavy lifting involved in maintaining client relationships, it can’t do everything. Watching for the five warning signs above will help you determine how your clients are truly feeling about your business. In the end, it all comes down to tracking and responding to each client’s unique needs in order to keep them satisfied with the value of your services.

The post 5 Signs That Your Client is Unhappy (And How to Keep Them Around!) appeared first on Method.

Yet did you know that focusing your efforts on retaining existing customers is far more cost-effective? Studies show that it costs about five times more to attract a new customer as it does to keep a current one. In fact, increasing customer retention by just five percent results in 25 to 95 percent higher profits! So while landing that new account may yield immediate satisfaction and excitement, focusing on retaining current customers can have a much larger impact on your bottom line.

Read on for four simple strategies that any business can use to improve their customer retention rate.

Build Relationships with Customer Management Software

Reducing customer attrition and increasing loyalty is all about improving customer service and building relationships. Personalizing each customer’s experience is key. But how can a small business with limited resources create a highly individualized experience for each customer?

The answer lies in customer relationship management software. As any sales rep knows, excellent customer service means so much more than simply looking at a customer’s last QuickBooks invoice. Utilizing CRM software allows you to take a deep dive into a customer’s history, giving you the ability to determine which products or services are most likely to meet a customer’s individual needs. Plus, using a CRM makes it easy to predict not only what a customer will need but when they will need it. This ensures that nothing gets missed or overlooked.

Your customers will appreciate receiving detailed and individualized service. These positive, personalized interactions build that all-important relationship which, in turn, increases customer loyalty and boosts your bottom line. When customers feel as though your business makes the effort to know and anticipate their needs, why would they want to look elsewhere?

Keep In Touch with Your Customers

Don’t let your customers forget about your business. Stay on their radar by sending email updates about promotions, special events, new products or services, or any other exciting news about your business. While you want to avoid inundating your contact list with pointless messages, sending regular and relevant updates will keep your company on their minds.

The key lies in personalizing your communications, and that’s another area where CRM software comes in handy. Here, you’ll find a goldmine of information that’s ideal for customizing those emails. You may simply choose to use first names rather than “Dear Valued Customer,” or you could use names and cities to personalize subject lines.

Take further advantage of the power of your CRM by segmenting your email campaigns. Use custom tags to tailor your emails to customers’ locations, interests, age groups, or other personalized data. This helps to ensure that your email messages are relevant, making customers more likely to open them.

Never Miss a Sales Opportunity

You just made a sale… now what? Take advantage of this golden moment when a customer is feeling positive and excited about their purchase! Now is the perfect time to cement their loyalty by offering a discount on their next purchase.

For example: after a sale, send an email offering 10 percent off their next purchase within a certain time period. Alternately, you could include a discount code with each product purchased. Offering a small incentive may be enough to prolong the glow that comes with making a purchase and extend those feelings of goodwill into another sale.

Explore different times when customers may be likely to buy again. Consider using marketing automation software to create a lifecycle marketing campaign that triggers emails when customers take (or don’t take) certain actions. Ideas include:

• Offering free shipping when an online shopping cart is abandoned
• Notifying customers when an item comes back in stock
• Sending “We miss you” emails to inactive customers (those who haven’t made a purchase within a certain timeframe)
• Sending “If you bought this, you may be interested in that” emails after a purchase

The options are endless, but the goal is to take advantage of any and all selling opportunities. There are a number of software options that can automate lifecycle marketing campaigns, making it hands-off for your team.

Engage Through Social Media

Social media offers a great way to interact with your customers. Use your accounts to not only give your brand a voice but allow your customers to have a voice too. Responding promptly and authentically to customers on Facebook and Twitter puts a human “face” on your company, which builds customer trust. When customers know they’ll get a response from a real, live person, they’ll be more likely to reach out — and they’ll feel heard and appreciated when they do.

You may want to monitor your social media accounts to identify especially engaged customers and reward them with discount codes or special deals. This will help to build loyalty and drive repeat business. Encourage your happy customers to continue engaging with you through social media, as satisfied reviews can go a long way toward building your customer base.

Conclusion

Acquiring customers requires an investment of time, effort and resources. Why not take advantage of the work you’ve already put in and focus on retaining those existing customers? Utilize the tools available to you, like CRM software and social media, to maximize your results and make your life easier.

Remember, it costs less to retain current customers than it does to attract new ones. By personalizing your communications and interactions, you’ll build loyalty and increase customer retention, giving your bottom line a boost.

The post From Casual Buyer to Loyal Fan: 4 Ways to Improve Customer Retention appeared first on Method.

In order to generate repeat business through email marketing, you need to write emails your customers want to read. Luckily, you can make this process easier by leveraging the power of your QuickBooks CRM. Between the wealth of customer data and handy features like email campaigns, your CRM is a valuable tool in your email marketing strategy.

Keep reading for four tips on how to increase customer engagement and drive new sales through email marketing.

1. Personalize your messages

If you’ve ever received an email that started with “Dear Valued Customer,” chances are you didn’t feel valued at all. It’s the email marketing equivalent of buying a picture frame and leaving the stock photo in it — it’s pretty impersonal.

Your CRM contains plenty of valuable data, from customers’ names to their purchase histories. Take advantage of this information to create personalized subject lines and messages that speak directly to each customer. It’s harder to ignore something that feels like it was intended for you, which is why personalized emails have a higher open rate than emails without personalization.

Method CRM users: Use merge fields in your email templates to automatically insert personalized data, like the customer’s name or city, into each message.

2. Address specific audiences

When it comes to email marketing, one size usually doesn’t fit all. If you offer a variety of products or services, you likely have different customer segments with unique characteristics. For instance, a tutoring company may have students ranging in age from elementary school to high school.

To maximize customer engagement, prepare messages that specifically address the needs of different groups. Consider the tutoring company — this could mean sending college prep information to parents of high school students, while promoting after-school activities to parents of younger students.

Considering that segmented emails generate 58% of all revenue, it pays to ensure that your offers are relevant to the recipients!

Method CRM users: Use advanced search to filter your list of email recipients based on location, keyword tags, or other criteria.

3. Inspire action

If you’ve ever purchased furniture from IKEA, you probably recall the overwhelming feeling of opening the box and seeing a million disjointed pieces. Similarly, people can become overwhelmed while skimming dozens of emails in their inboxes.

Make life easier for your customers by writing actionable subject lines that make it clear what to expect from your message. This could mean using action verbs (like “buy” or “save”), announcing a special offer, or even asking a question. The point is to inspire customer engagement by letting customers know what they can do with the email.

For example, compare the subject lines of two emails I recently received from food delivery apps:

I’ll let you guess which one I clicked on immediately. (Hint: It was the one that promised me discounted food.)

Method CRM users: After crafting the perfect action-oriented email, use it as inspiration for future campaigns. Save the email as a custom template and share it with other users in your Method account.

4. Don’t be afraid to experiment

Every business is unique, and so are its customers. To determine what types of emails drive customer engagement for your business, experiment with different strategies and see what succeeds. In email marketing, this is called A/B testing.

The premise is to run two nearly identical versions of an email campaign and compare the performance of each version. The campaigns might differ on variables like subject line, layout, or email send time. Once you learn which factors lead to higher sales, you’ll be able to create more effective campaigns in the future.

Method CRM users: Use Method’s free integration with Mailchimp to improve your email campaign performance. Upload your Method contacts to your Mailchimp account, then set up and manage A/B tests within Mailchimp.

You’ve already done the hard work of acquiring customers — now the goal is to maintain customer engagement. With these tips in mind, you’ll be well-equipped to write effective emails that capture attention and drive repeat business.

If your email marketing strategy still needs a boost, Method CRM is here to help. Sign up for your free trial today!

The post 4 Ways to Increase Customer Engagement Through Email Marketing appeared first on Method.

Why? Well, all the heavy lifting is already done – you’ve established a relationship, shown them how great your product or service is, and earned their trust. Why not build on that existing relationship to create further business?

Here are a few ways you can help to foster new business from existing customers.

1. Anticipate Customer Needs

What kind of product or service does your company offer? Chances are it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  We’ve talked before about anticipating the needs of customers, but there are plenty more ways to consider.

For example, as a single dad of a toddler I don’t have much time to clean to my standards, so once a month I employ the services of a local cleaning company. However, the company doesn’t deal strictly in cleaning: they also employ repair personnel, plumbers, and even provide furniture-building services if you don’t feel like putting together that IKEA shelving unit. The company gets the word out to existing customers about these additional services by leaving pamphlets at the end of cleaning sessions and through regular email blasts to existing customers. This is a great way for them to position themselves in the long term by anticipating their needs in advance.

Pro Tip:

If your product performs best when serviced after 4 months of use (e.g. an appliance), schedule an activity for the customer in Method when that product is purchased to make sure you anticipate the service needed ahead of time.

2. Provide Loyalty Incentives

A customer that feels important is more likely to provide return business (and also to recommend your product or service to potential leads!). Don’t feel bad about providing some preferential treatment to your loyal customers.

Here’s one you’ll be familiar with. Many coffee shop chains offer a variety of “keep coming back” promotions, like “buy nine coffees and the tenth is free”.  Also consider the popularity of “members-only” reward clubs wherein customers earn points towards future purchases – long-term rewards can often translate into consistent return business!

Pro Tip:

Create a custom field in the Contacts Table in Method to document when a contact has referred a new customer. After your contact has referred three new customers, send them an email via Mailchimp offering a complimentary service! (Tweet this)

3. Be Accountable

Ultimately, what keeps customers coming back is their satisfaction with your company. However, even a bad experience can be spun into return business if it’s handled properly. As a customer, my impression of a business isn’t just determined by how well they do their job – it’s also how they deal with screw-ups on their end.

A few years ago I bought a pair of boots from MooShoes in New York. The store wasn’t the manufacturer of the defective product, but when I emailed them to request a refund, their

team made themselves accountable for my issue. Their turnaround time was exemplary, and they guided me step-by-step through the return and refund process – even comping the shipping costs for the return! I won’t buy that brand of boots again, but I definitely recommend MooShoes as a retailer because of the way they turned a frustrating experience into a satisfying conclusion almost overnight.

Pro Tip:

Track customer concerns as Cases in Method. This makes it easy for your support team to quickly prioritize customer service activities, and keep everyone in-the-know about every customer issue. (Tweet this)

It might be tempting to think of generating additional business from existing customers as milking a stone, but that’s just not the case – instead, you should think about it in terms of the old fairy tale about the goose who laid golden eggs. If you treat your customers the way you always have (with respect, with great service, and with products and services they can rely on), they will continue to support your business for a long time to come.

What are your strategies for bringing business back? Leave them in the comments, or drop us a tweet!

The post 3 Ways to Generate New Business from Existing Customers appeared first on Method.