The Best Customer Retention Tips For Small Businesses In 2023
Table of Contents
UpCity partnered with Pollfish to conduct a survey of how SMBs prepare for the possibility of a recession. It was discovered that many businesses were focusing on staff expansion in order to increase their ability to engage with customers and focus on relationship building. This expansion of the customer base and increased engagement with existing customers was designed to increase client retention rates, a proven method for shoring revenue streams against an anticipated economic downturn.
With conditions still pointing to some level of economic recession to be in the works for 2023, UpCity turned to our community of expert B2B service providers to provide insight into what they were doing operationally and strategically to increase client retention rates. We’ve organized their responses according to the five ways business owners are focusing their efforts to retain customers:
- Maintaining clear lines of communication
- Creating sincere personal connections
- Adding value to the customer experience
- Treating client acquisition and client retention equally
- Establishing Trust Improves Retention Rates
Maintaining Clear Lines Of Communication
In building a strong relationship with your customer base, one of the most effective tactics is to ensure your team maintains consistent and reliable lines of communication. Customers want to feel that their concerns are heard throughout the course of a customer engagement and that your team will be available when changes or updates need to be conveyed.
They also expect that your team will be in regular contact with them to provide project updates. Our experts agree, providing details about how they’ve structured their client engagement practices around maintaining open communications channels with their customers.
“We hold regular account reviews to inform [clients] of progress and challenges. We also communicate regularly through phone, email, in-person visits, and newsletters.” —David Murphy, founder, Nvent Marketing
“Communication is key. We communicate with our clients weekly via email and monthly via a stand-up marketing meeting. Being able to communicate on a regular basis ensures that nothing is being missed and that expectations of performance are clearly aligned and defined.” —Robb Fahrion, Partner and Co-Founder, Flying V Group
“We foster customer retention by communicating and connecting with clients. Upfront, we make sure that we understand the client’s expectations. This makes it far more likely that the client is satisfied at the end of the project. We also reach out to obtain customer feedback once we’re finished a project. If there is a problem, we look for a solution to ensure the client understands that we care about improving. If there aren’t any issues, we ask for a review which will help us secure new clients.” —Paul Bies, Partner, Mystique Brand Communications Inc.
“Customer retention is so much easier and cheaper than finding new customers. I am often disappointed to see big companies offering specials to new customers and ignoring their existing customers. For us, customer retention is achieved with great service and aftercare. Too often, people in our industry do their job and then abandon the client. We nurture our clients by offering a comprehensive handover, access to some of our help documents and answering simple inquiries free of charge. Once the client knows you’re on their team, they will keep coming back.” —Alicia Potts, Owner, Pymble Web Design
“Providing high-quality service is the best way to foster customer retention. But as quality is subject to opinion, especially when it comes to design, what we’ve found most important is good customer communication and constant updates.” —Christopher LCP Mendes, CEO, 2Leaf Web Development
“It’s important to build a team of skilled professionals who care about your business and the clients they serve who also have great communications skills. This is especially important for your account managers or retention team. You want individuals who are able to listen to client concerns, create, and implement changes to assist your customers while keeping in mind company procedures. In addition to listening, your team should be comfortable performing multiple check-ins with your clients throughout an engagement. Your clients should know their representative’s name and feel comfortable contacting them with any questions or concerns.” —Hugh Owen, President & CEO, MacRAE’S
Creating Sincere Personal Connections
It’s not a secret that sales personnel often seek to create and maintain personal relationships with clients. Throughout the pandemic, however, marketers have noted shifts in consumer purchase research habits, with many customers becoming more reliant upon reviews and more concerned with the culture and integrity of the brands they choose to consume. With this increased focus and scrutiny, brands are starting to lean into creating personal connections with their customer base.
“We focus on customer experience and over-delivering. This may mean we need to communicate outside business hours via email, phone or text at times. We also thank our customers with thoughtful gifts. We focus on building relationships with our customers to such an extent that we treat every new sale as not just a transaction, but as an opportunity to foster and grow a new relationship. We’ve found that our focus on their success has been what makes us successful.” —Peter Berson, Marketing Consultant, Aveli By WSI
“We work hard to retain our customers. One way we focus on those relationships is to foster interactions that create the feeling of a partnership with the client. Clients can tell when they are an inconvenience or just a number versus whether you actually care for them. For example, the day after Hurricane Harvey slammed our area, I called all my clients to see how they did and if any needed help. If word comes to me that someone had an auto accident or is sick, I visit them or send a card. Not only does this foster retention, but they will genuinely refer your business to others.” —Robert Williams, Owner, Williams Web Solutions
“We focus on making our customer interactions more productive by connecting with clients on a more personal level to show that we care about them as people, not just as customers. This helps us to remain top of mind, so when we communicate the launch of new products, services, and promotions, they’ll be more responsive.” —Jose Gomez, CTO & Cofounder, Evinex
“We make an effort to send our customers handwritten thank-you notes. In an age of email marketing, receiving a handwritten note is rare, which makes it even more impactful. My clients get a thank you note at the end of every project, when they provide a referral, and at the end of the year. A few extra minutes of personal outreach goes a long way. In conjunction with personal outreach throughout the year and seasonal gifts, our outreach efforts are intended to always make my clients’ lives easier. Whether we are trying to teach them how to market their businesses more efficiently and effectively or providing that service for them, we are proving our value to them each time we work together. This ensures that even if they don’t need our services for a specific project, when they do need marketing guidance and assistance, they always come back to us.” —Channing Muller, Principal, DCM Communications
“We give personal, 1 on 1 service. Our clients’ needs are always top of our to-do list. Holidays are a great way to show how much you appreciate your customers, so send them some custom merch! Use this season of thankfulness to get those customer reviews and remind them how much you appreciate the working relationship.” —Anna Ritchie, Co-Founder, jo leigh marketing, LLC
“While most digital agencies don’t even meet with their customers, we take them to lunch, fly out to visit them, send holiday cards, and spend time just getting to know them. If you want customers to feel comfortable working with you and stay around, throw your churn metrics away and be honest, be transparent, and most importantly, be bigger than business.” —Austin Lee, MBA, Founder, ORB Solutions
“We periodically check in with our existing clients as well as follow up and engage with them on social media. It’s a quick, easy way to stay in touch and top of mind! We also send our clients annual holiday gifts that are meaningful to their business and brand. Whether it’s custom-engraved coasters with their logo or a box of delicious, locally-baked cookies, it’s the personal touch that goes along way with building and maintaining client relationships.” —Meg Mothershed, Co-owner & COO, Mothershed Design Co.
Adding Value To The Customer Experience
Around 40% of consumers were exploring new brands in 2020, a trend that continued into 2021, as consumers strove to find brands that resonated with their values and needs, but also offered high quality experiences as well. The customer experience plays a huge role in improving your client retention rates, as research has shown a direct link between purchasing behaviors and positive experiences.
The customer experience can be manipulated in a number of ways, such as adding gamification in the sales funnel or ensuring you have established processes for customer onboarding once they’ve decided to make a purchase. Our experts provided some ways that they’ve enhanced the customer experience for their own clients.
“We are a full-service digital marketing agency that aims to guide our clients through the entire marketing process. We do this by staying in constant contact with our clients to create meaningful engagements and proactive strategies that drive growth. Additionally, we understand our role as experts and work to deliver new and fresh ideas that can maximize existing investments in their marketing and overall business.” —Brandon Klayman, President, Conscious Commerce Corporation
“There are many ways to keep customers coming back to your business. Some businesses do a good job of keeping in touch with their customers, others have great customer service, and others still offer customers access to special loyalty programs or discounts. No matter what you do, make sure you are constantly trying to improve your customer retention rates! Customer retention is key to the success of any business!” —Navneet Kaushal, CEO, PageTraffic
“I build one-to-one relationships with my clients and provide flexible services that are custom tailored and unique, with mentorship ideals.” —Jessy Savage, Marketing Strategist and Owner, Jessy Savage
“Customer retention is a vital part of any business’s success. As a service-based business, we are proud to have a customer retention rate of roughly 80% in our first three years, with ongoing contracts maintained throughout. One of the most important things to do to retain customers is to ensure they feel like valued customers. Offering loyalty programs is also a great way to reward customers with incentives for repeat purchases. A successful method used in our business to maintain relationships is to discover innovative processes which drive results for the client’s bottom line.” —Aidan Payne, Chief Operating Officer, Yesterday Design Co.
“Between the golden business triangle concepts of quality, service, and price, choose two of them to score 100, and outperform your competitors in those two areas. No company in the world can score 100 in all of these 3 areas, but doing your best in two selected areas can give your customer extraordinary experiences, and thus increase retention.” —Henri Cheung, Marketing Director, LRDG Toronto Marketing Agency
“We take care in building relationships, as we truly want the best for our clients. Our business fosters customer retention by providing services each month with specific goals for our clients. We have a four step process that we introduce our clients with from day one. The first step is to build them a website to provide an online presence. At this time we also help them with their branding and logo design if needed. The second step is to provide SEO services. Thirdly, we built a reputation management system that focuses on receiving 5-star customer reviews for our clients. And last but not least, is additional monthly marketing. In short, our customers know that we work with them each and every month and if they follow our process, they will continue to see an increase in leads and profits.” —Steven Speckman, Owner, Speck Designs
“If you want to keep your clients forever, why would you falter on adding value to your services and give customers the chance to stop seeing your brand as a stand out in your industry? Which is why as a corporate video production company, we’ve always been bold with our guarantees. We offer unlimited fine-tuning to make sure our clients love their videos. Sometimes this doesn’t work out in our favor, but we take the risk because in the end, the potential payoff for us far outshines the potential losses. You have to consider not only how much effort and cost it took to acquire that client, but also how much repeat business and referrals that client could pass along. What it takes to maintain our customers happiness is absolutely a lesser cost compared to constantly filling a leaky business bucket with new clients. We’re still in business after 35 years and around 90% of our business comes from repeat business or business from clients who have been referred to us. I think there’s a lesson there!” —Kerrie Lawrence, Creative Director, Sound Images
“Customer retention requires understanding the importance of being both honest with clients and being as knowledgeable about the services you offer as possible. You have to ensure you’re doing your research and keeping up with current and future trends. Small businesses should always have someone on the team dedicated to competitor research so that you can assess how your services and products compare to what’s already available on the market to your potential client base. You should also focus on making sure your team is handling customer service inquiries and engagements with vendors with equal levels of professionalism and urgency. One trick is a visualization approach, which requires you to assess your customer service experience from the point of view of your clients and vendors and decide if you’d be satisfied with the level of respect and attention being given, as well as the quality of the service or products, or if there are opportunities for improvement.” —Ocean Hui, Administrative Assistant, Ocean Hui Designs
“We have a strong customer retention rate and we owe it all to relationship-building. We love our clients and we are there to support them through thick and thin, and our clients know that. When you have a strong relationship with your clients and they know you have their best interest in mind, it helps during those periods where results may not be as ideal as possible. When results are great, retention is easy. But nobody wins every month, and it’s the relationship that keeps the client in those times.” —Wes Foster, Founder, WESFED.com
“We know that the customer is always right, but sometimes it takes a little extra to keep them coming back. One method we have in place to distinguish ourselves from competitors is that we offer a no-questions-asked return policy. If a customer isn’t happy with their purchase, they can bring it back for a full refund. We also offer a loyalty program where customers can earn points for every purchase that can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases. Our team members also go above and beyond to cultivate relationships with our customers. We’re quick to respond to questions or concerns, and we make a point of remembering our customers’ names and preferences. We want our customers to feel like they’re part of our family, not just another number. By providing outstanding service and creating lasting relationships, we ensure that our customers will keep coming back for more.” —Travis Lindemoen, Managing Director, nexus IT group
Treating Client Acquisition and Client Retention Equally
Client retention has a significant impact on a business’s bottom-line profitability, as research shows it only takes a 5% increase in customer retention to add 25%-95% to total revenue. This increase stems largely from the fact that current customers who know they will have a positive purchasing experience are more likely to try new products and services you introduce to them.
Repeat customers are also more likely to purchase higher-priced products and services than if they were experiencing your brand for the first time. While increasing the number of clients you have through effective client acquisition tactics is important, our experts suggest that you give equal—if not, greater—attention to maximizing customer lifetime value by prioritizing client retention.
“A lot of businesses use discounts and bonus offers to bring on new clients, but very few make those same offers or promotions to their existing clients. Oftentimes, these offers could easily come in the form of services or products that have an extremely low added cost to our bottom line but, by providing it to our client, could have a profound impact on our client’s bottom line. For example, we’ll do a complimentary video segment, basic SEO audit, online presence report, or some other sort of gift that shows our clients that we appreciate them. We believe in giving something to our clients not just to entice them to come on board, but also to let them know we appreciate their repeat business. So even if you’re coming out of pocket a little to make existing clients happy, it’s probably money well spent.” —David B. Wright, President, W3 Group Marketing
Establishing Trust Improves Retention Rates
When your customers trust your company to deliver quality service and reliable products, they are more likely to continue to patronize your brand. Our community of experts understand that providing consistency in their commitment to meeting customer needs and expectations is a key factor in establishing that trust level.
“Especially for businesses operating in the B2B space, customer retention is essential for long-term success. After all, it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. I have three key behaviors that I foster in my team to help them focus on customer retention. First, I teach them to keep their promises. If you tell a client you’re going to do something, make sure you follow through, and don’t make excuses if something comes up that could prevent you from following through. This builds trust, which is the foundation of any strong business relationship. Second, I teach my team to communicate regularly. Whether it’s via email, phone, or face-to-face meetings, staying in touch with your clients shows that you value their business and are always working to meet their needs. It also helps to mitigate any potential problems before they have a chance to escalate. Finally, it’s important that when helping a client, that you go above and beyond. While your goal is to always deliver on your promises, you should be mentally aiming to exceed your clients’ expectations whenever possible. Whether it’s by offering additional services or simply going the extra mile to ensure complete customer satisfaction, your extra effort will show your clients that they’re always your top priority. Customer retention is essential for any business that wants to achieve long-term success, and following these three tips is a great way to build trust and set that foundation.” —Corey Gladwell, Chief Marketing Officer, Webserv
“You have to give your customers a level of transparency. As a digital agency service provider, we understand that trust is not given, it is earned. Customers are plagued by agencies that hide behind tech jargon and poorly captured data. We are clear and honest with our communication. We show clients proof with properly-recorded data. Clients stay with us because they don’t trust the alternative.” —Evan Holmgren, Co-Founder, Hammerhead
“For a service-based company, we love doing quarterly in-person meetings with our clients in our office. In-person meetings allow our clients to meet new team members, talk to us face-to-face, and foster a great business relationship. In our industry, trust is crucial, and the best way to gain that trust is to show your clients that you are real people, not just a video on a screen.” —Rachel Macfarlane, Content Marketing Strategist, Redfox Visual
“We are intentional in setting expectations in order to strategically over-deliver for our clients. When the over-delivery is met, we take time to specifically acknowledge how we’ve gone above and beyond for the client. This consistent level of performance combined with our focus on old-fashioned relationship building helps us create trust in a perpetually positive atmosphere and ultimately retain clients year over year.” —Matt Simpson, COO, MAGNETIC
Incorporating The Best Customer Retention Strategies Will Help Small Business Succeed In 2023
If your business strategy doesn’t give equal weight to customer retention strategies as it does customer acquisition, it’s not too late to revise your overall approach. The tips and guidance offered by the UpCity experts in this article are only a starting point.
If you and your leadership team aren’t completely comfortable implementing the necessary changes in your customer retention strategy for 2023, you can consult an expert from the UpCity B2B service provider marketplace or peruse additional best practices and tips from the UpCity Experts community.
About the author
David J. Brin
Having recently escaped a 20-year career in Food & Beverage operations management, David is now a Facility Director for a Code Ninjas franchise, a STEM-education concept that uses game development to teach children how to code in various programming languages. David got his start writing professionally as a communications assistant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and has been a freelance copywriter providing white-label services to clients since 2016. His clients operate in industries ranging from managed IT services and software development to marketing and advertising.
Table of Contents
UpCity partnered with Pollfish to conduct a survey of how SMBs prepare for the possibility of a recession. It was discovered that many businesses were focusing on staff expansion in order to increase their ability to engage with customers and focus on relationship building. This expansion of the customer base and increased engagement with existing customers was designed to increase client retention rates, a proven method for shoring revenue streams against an anticipated economic downturn.
With conditions still pointing to some level of economic recession to be in the works for 2023, UpCity turned to our community of expert B2B service providers to provide insight into what they were doing operationally and strategically to increase client retention rates. We’ve organized their responses according to the five ways business owners are focusing their efforts to retain customers:
- Maintaining clear lines of communication
- Creating sincere personal connections
- Adding value to the customer experience
- Treating client acquisition and client retention equally
- Establishing Trust Improves Retention Rates
Maintaining Clear Lines Of Communication
In building a strong relationship with your customer base, one of the most effective tactics is to ensure your team maintains consistent and reliable lines of communication. Customers want to feel that their concerns are heard throughout the course of a customer engagement and that your team will be available when changes or updates need to be conveyed.
They also expect that your team will be in regular contact with them to provide project updates. Our experts agree, providing details about how they’ve structured their client engagement practices around maintaining open communications channels with their customers.
“We hold regular account reviews to inform [clients] of progress and challenges. We also communicate regularly through phone, email, in-person visits, and newsletters.” —David Murphy, founder, Nvent Marketing
“Communication is key. We communicate with our clients weekly via email and monthly via a stand-up marketing meeting. Being able to communicate on a regular basis ensures that nothing is being missed and that expectations of performance are clearly aligned and defined.” —Robb Fahrion, Partner and Co-Founder, Flying V Group
“We foster customer retention by communicating and connecting with clients. Upfront, we make sure that we understand the client’s expectations. This makes it far more likely that the client is satisfied at the end of the project. We also reach out to obtain customer feedback once we’re finished a project. If there is a problem, we look for a solution to ensure the client understands that we care about improving. If there aren’t any issues, we ask for a review which will help us secure new clients.” —Paul Bies, Partner, Mystique Brand Communications Inc.
“Customer retention is so much easier and cheaper than finding new customers. I am often disappointed to see big companies offering specials to new customers and ignoring their existing customers. For us, customer retention is achieved with great service and aftercare. Too often, people in our industry do their job and then abandon the client. We nurture our clients by offering a comprehensive handover, access to some of our help documents and answering simple inquiries free of charge. Once the client knows you’re on their team, they will keep coming back.” —Alicia Potts, Owner, Pymble Web Design
“Providing high-quality service is the best way to foster customer retention. But as quality is subject to opinion, especially when it comes to design, what we’ve found most important is good customer communication and constant updates.” —Christopher LCP Mendes, CEO, 2Leaf Web Development
“It’s important to build a team of skilled professionals who care about your business and the clients they serve who also have great communications skills. This is especially important for your account managers or retention team. You want individuals who are able to listen to client concerns, create, and implement changes to assist your customers while keeping in mind company procedures. In addition to listening, your team should be comfortable performing multiple check-ins with your clients throughout an engagement. Your clients should know their representative’s name and feel comfortable contacting them with any questions or concerns.” —Hugh Owen, President & CEO, MacRAE’S
Creating Sincere Personal Connections
It’s not a secret that sales personnel often seek to create and maintain personal relationships with clients. Throughout the pandemic, however, marketers have noted shifts in consumer purchase research habits, with many customers becoming more reliant upon reviews and more concerned with the culture and integrity of the brands they choose to consume. With this increased focus and scrutiny, brands are starting to lean into creating personal connections with their customer base.
“We focus on customer experience and over-delivering. This may mean we need to communicate outside business hours via email, phone or text at times. We also thank our customers with thoughtful gifts. We focus on building relationships with our customers to such an extent that we treat every new sale as not just a transaction, but as an opportunity to foster and grow a new relationship. We’ve found that our focus on their success has been what makes us successful.” —Peter Berson, Marketing Consultant, Aveli By WSI
“We work hard to retain our customers. One way we focus on those relationships is to foster interactions that create the feeling of a partnership with the client. Clients can tell when they are an inconvenience or just a number versus whether you actually care for them. For example, the day after Hurricane Harvey slammed our area, I called all my clients to see how they did and if any needed help. If word comes to me that someone had an auto accident or is sick, I visit them or send a card. Not only does this foster retention, but they will genuinely refer your business to others.” —Robert Williams, Owner, Williams Web Solutions
“We focus on making our customer interactions more productive by connecting with clients on a more personal level to show that we care about them as people, not just as customers. This helps us to remain top of mind, so when we communicate the launch of new products, services, and promotions, they’ll be more responsive.” —Jose Gomez, CTO & Cofounder, Evinex
“We make an effort to send our customers handwritten thank-you notes. In an age of email marketing, receiving a handwritten note is rare, which makes it even more impactful. My clients get a thank you note at the end of every project, when they provide a referral, and at the end of the year. A few extra minutes of personal outreach goes a long way. In conjunction with personal outreach throughout the year and seasonal gifts, our outreach efforts are intended to always make my clients’ lives easier. Whether we are trying to teach them how to market their businesses more efficiently and effectively or providing that service for them, we are proving our value to them each time we work together. This ensures that even if they don’t need our services for a specific project, when they do need marketing guidance and assistance, they always come back to us.” —Channing Muller, Principal, DCM Communications
“We give personal, 1 on 1 service. Our clients’ needs are always top of our to-do list. Holidays are a great way to show how much you appreciate your customers, so send them some custom merch! Use this season of thankfulness to get those customer reviews and remind them how much you appreciate the working relationship.” —Anna Ritchie, Co-Founder, jo leigh marketing, LLC
“While most digital agencies don’t even meet with their customers, we take them to lunch, fly out to visit them, send holiday cards, and spend time just getting to know them. If you want customers to feel comfortable working with you and stay around, throw your churn metrics away and be honest, be transparent, and most importantly, be bigger than business.” —Austin Lee, MBA, Founder, ORB Solutions
“We periodically check in with our existing clients as well as follow up and engage with them on social media. It’s a quick, easy way to stay in touch and top of mind! We also send our clients annual holiday gifts that are meaningful to their business and brand. Whether it’s custom-engraved coasters with their logo or a box of delicious, locally-baked cookies, it’s the personal touch that goes along way with building and maintaining client relationships.” —Meg Mothershed, Co-owner & COO, Mothershed Design Co.
Adding Value To The Customer Experience
Around 40% of consumers were exploring new brands in 2020, a trend that continued into 2021, as consumers strove to find brands that resonated with their values and needs, but also offered high quality experiences as well. The customer experience plays a huge role in improving your client retention rates, as research has shown a direct link between purchasing behaviors and positive experiences.
The customer experience can be manipulated in a number of ways, such as adding gamification in the sales funnel or ensuring you have established processes for customer onboarding once they’ve decided to make a purchase. Our experts provided some ways that they’ve enhanced the customer experience for their own clients.
“We are a full-service digital marketing agency that aims to guide our clients through the entire marketing process. We do this by staying in constant contact with our clients to create meaningful engagements and proactive strategies that drive growth. Additionally, we understand our role as experts and work to deliver new and fresh ideas that can maximize existing investments in their marketing and overall business.” —Brandon Klayman, President, Conscious Commerce Corporation
“There are many ways to keep customers coming back to your business. Some businesses do a good job of keeping in touch with their customers, others have great customer service, and others still offer customers access to special loyalty programs or discounts. No matter what you do, make sure you are constantly trying to improve your customer retention rates! Customer retention is key to the success of any business!” —Navneet Kaushal, CEO, PageTraffic
“I build one-to-one relationships with my clients and provide flexible services that are custom tailored and unique, with mentorship ideals.” —Jessy Savage, Marketing Strategist and Owner, Jessy Savage
“Customer retention is a vital part of any business’s success. As a service-based business, we are proud to have a customer retention rate of roughly 80% in our first three years, with ongoing contracts maintained throughout. One of the most important things to do to retain customers is to ensure they feel like valued customers. Offering loyalty programs is also a great way to reward customers with incentives for repeat purchases. A successful method used in our business to maintain relationships is to discover innovative processes which drive results for the client’s bottom line.” —Aidan Payne, Chief Operating Officer, Yesterday Design Co.
“Between the golden business triangle concepts of quality, service, and price, choose two of them to score 100, and outperform your competitors in those two areas. No company in the world can score 100 in all of these 3 areas, but doing your best in two selected areas can give your customer extraordinary experiences, and thus increase retention.” —Henri Cheung, Marketing Director, LRDG Toronto Marketing Agency
“We take care in building relationships, as we truly want the best for our clients. Our business fosters customer retention by providing services each month with specific goals for our clients. We have a four step process that we introduce our clients with from day one. The first step is to build them a website to provide an online presence. At this time we also help them with their branding and logo design if needed. The second step is to provide SEO services. Thirdly, we built a reputation management system that focuses on receiving 5-star customer reviews for our clients. And last but not least, is additional monthly marketing. In short, our customers know that we work with them each and every month and if they follow our process, they will continue to see an increase in leads and profits.” —Steven Speckman, Owner, Speck Designs
“If you want to keep your clients forever, why would you falter on adding value to your services and give customers the chance to stop seeing your brand as a stand out in your industry? Which is why as a corporate video production company, we’ve always been bold with our guarantees. We offer unlimited fine-tuning to make sure our clients love their videos. Sometimes this doesn’t work out in our favor, but we take the risk because in the end, the potential payoff for us far outshines the potential losses. You have to consider not only how much effort and cost it took to acquire that client, but also how much repeat business and referrals that client could pass along. What it takes to maintain our customers happiness is absolutely a lesser cost compared to constantly filling a leaky business bucket with new clients. We’re still in business after 35 years and around 90% of our business comes from repeat business or business from clients who have been referred to us. I think there’s a lesson there!” —Kerrie Lawrence, Creative Director, Sound Images
“Customer retention requires understanding the importance of being both honest with clients and being as knowledgeable about the services you offer as possible. You have to ensure you’re doing your research and keeping up with current and future trends. Small businesses should always have someone on the team dedicated to competitor research so that you can assess how your services and products compare to what’s already available on the market to your potential client base. You should also focus on making sure your team is handling customer service inquiries and engagements with vendors with equal levels of professionalism and urgency. One trick is a visualization approach, which requires you to assess your customer service experience from the point of view of your clients and vendors and decide if you’d be satisfied with the level of respect and attention being given, as well as the quality of the service or products, or if there are opportunities for improvement.” —Ocean Hui, Administrative Assistant, Ocean Hui Designs
“We have a strong customer retention rate and we owe it all to relationship-building. We love our clients and we are there to support them through thick and thin, and our clients know that. When you have a strong relationship with your clients and they know you have their best interest in mind, it helps during those periods where results may not be as ideal as possible. When results are great, retention is easy. But nobody wins every month, and it’s the relationship that keeps the client in those times.” —Wes Foster, Founder, WESFED.com
“We know that the customer is always right, but sometimes it takes a little extra to keep them coming back. One method we have in place to distinguish ourselves from competitors is that we offer a no-questions-asked return policy. If a customer isn’t happy with their purchase, they can bring it back for a full refund. We also offer a loyalty program where customers can earn points for every purchase that can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases. Our team members also go above and beyond to cultivate relationships with our customers. We’re quick to respond to questions or concerns, and we make a point of remembering our customers’ names and preferences. We want our customers to feel like they’re part of our family, not just another number. By providing outstanding service and creating lasting relationships, we ensure that our customers will keep coming back for more.” —Travis Lindemoen, Managing Director, nexus IT group
Treating Client Acquisition and Client Retention Equally
Client retention has a significant impact on a business’s bottom-line profitability, as research shows it only takes a 5% increase in customer retention to add 25%-95% to total revenue. This increase stems largely from the fact that current customers who know they will have a positive purchasing experience are more likely to try new products and services you introduce to them.
Repeat customers are also more likely to purchase higher-priced products and services than if they were experiencing your brand for the first time. While increasing the number of clients you have through effective client acquisition tactics is important, our experts suggest that you give equal—if not, greater—attention to maximizing customer lifetime value by prioritizing client retention.
“A lot of businesses use discounts and bonus offers to bring on new clients, but very few make those same offers or promotions to their existing clients. Oftentimes, these offers could easily come in the form of services or products that have an extremely low added cost to our bottom line but, by providing it to our client, could have a profound impact on our client’s bottom line. For example, we’ll do a complimentary video segment, basic SEO audit, online presence report, or some other sort of gift that shows our clients that we appreciate them. We believe in giving something to our clients not just to entice them to come on board, but also to let them know we appreciate their repeat business. So even if you’re coming out of pocket a little to make existing clients happy, it’s probably money well spent.” —David B. Wright, President, W3 Group Marketing
Establishing Trust Improves Retention Rates
When your customers trust your company to deliver quality service and reliable products, they are more likely to continue to patronize your brand. Our community of experts understand that providing consistency in their commitment to meeting customer needs and expectations is a key factor in establishing that trust level.
“Especially for businesses operating in the B2B space, customer retention is essential for long-term success. After all, it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. I have three key behaviors that I foster in my team to help them focus on customer retention. First, I teach them to keep their promises. If you tell a client you’re going to do something, make sure you follow through, and don’t make excuses if something comes up that could prevent you from following through. This builds trust, which is the foundation of any strong business relationship. Second, I teach my team to communicate regularly. Whether it’s via email, phone, or face-to-face meetings, staying in touch with your clients shows that you value their business and are always working to meet their needs. It also helps to mitigate any potential problems before they have a chance to escalate. Finally, it’s important that when helping a client, that you go above and beyond. While your goal is to always deliver on your promises, you should be mentally aiming to exceed your clients’ expectations whenever possible. Whether it’s by offering additional services or simply going the extra mile to ensure complete customer satisfaction, your extra effort will show your clients that they’re always your top priority. Customer retention is essential for any business that wants to achieve long-term success, and following these three tips is a great way to build trust and set that foundation.” —Corey Gladwell, Chief Marketing Officer, Webserv
“You have to give your customers a level of transparency. As a digital agency service provider, we understand that trust is not given, it is earned. Customers are plagued by agencies that hide behind tech jargon and poorly captured data. We are clear and honest with our communication. We show clients proof with properly-recorded data. Clients stay with us because they don’t trust the alternative.” —Evan Holmgren, Co-Founder, Hammerhead
“For a service-based company, we love doing quarterly in-person meetings with our clients in our office. In-person meetings allow our clients to meet new team members, talk to us face-to-face, and foster a great business relationship. In our industry, trust is crucial, and the best way to gain that trust is to show your clients that you are real people, not just a video on a screen.” —Rachel Macfarlane, Content Marketing Strategist, Redfox Visual
“We are intentional in setting expectations in order to strategically over-deliver for our clients. When the over-delivery is met, we take time to specifically acknowledge how we’ve gone above and beyond for the client. This consistent level of performance combined with our focus on old-fashioned relationship building helps us create trust in a perpetually positive atmosphere and ultimately retain clients year over year.” —Matt Simpson, COO, MAGNETIC
Incorporating The Best Customer Retention Strategies Will Help Small Business Succeed In 2023
If your business strategy doesn’t give equal weight to customer retention strategies as it does customer acquisition, it’s not too late to revise your overall approach. The tips and guidance offered by the UpCity experts in this article are only a starting point.
If you and your leadership team aren’t completely comfortable implementing the necessary changes in your customer retention strategy for 2023, you can consult an expert from the UpCity B2B service provider marketplace or peruse additional best practices and tips from the UpCity Experts community.
About the author
David J. Brin
Having recently escaped a 20-year career in Food & Beverage operations management, David is now a Facility Director for a Code Ninjas franchise, a STEM-education concept that uses game development to teach children how to code in various programming languages. David got his start writing professionally as a communications assistant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and has been a freelance copywriter providing white-label services to clients since 2016. His clients operate in industries ranging from managed IT services and software development to marketing and advertising.
