Your goal in selling to customers should always be to get them to come back. This is good for sustained revenue as well as building loyalty and enhancing your reputation. Try these 10 tips to encourage repeat business from your customers.

1. Prioritize Customer Service

Having great customer service is a crucial element in getting people to return to your business. Always be ready and willing to solve customers' problems to the best of your ability. Focus on customer service in employee training, and always look for ways to improve.

2. Keep Customers Up to Date on Their Orders

As an extension of your customer service efforts, make sure customers know the status of their purchases, especially for ecommerce orders. Provide email or text updates about shipping, delays, deliveries, etc. The more they know about their order, the less reason they’ll have for concern.

3. Provide Coupons

Consumers love good deals, especially in times like these when inflation is hurting their wallets. Coupons are a great way to encourage first-time business, but combined with familiarity, they can also be great for driving return business. Consider giving coupons to customers who make purchases to encourage them to keep buying your products and services.

4. Use Social Media Effectively

Social media can be an excellent tool to drive existing customers back to your business. Get them to follow your accounts. Allocating an adequate portion of your marketing budget toward social media advertising is likely to add to your success. Advertise promotions and use targeting capabilities to attract the right customers.

5. Reduce Purchase Friction

Make it as painless as possible for customers to make a purchase. Great examples of this employed by big businesses include one-click purchasing for online shopping or ordering kiosks in fast-food restaurants, where customers simply tap buttons to add their order without having to rely on interacting with employees. While these examples may not be feasible for the average small business, you can look to them for inspiration for how to make the buying process as easy as possible. If you can reduce any steps in a complex process, it's likely worth doing so.

6. Provide Loyalty Rewards

Loyalty programs are a common strategy for getting customers to come back. This is where a customer gets rewarded for making a certain number of purchases. Think about a sandwich shop that gives the customer a free sandwich after buying 10. Loyalty cards are often used, but you can also get creative with smartphone apps, which may be more appealing to younger customers.

7. Start Memberships

Memberships, often used by gyms, supermarkets and bulk shopping stores, are another great way to drive repeat business. If memberships would work for your business, find ways to incentivize members to make the concept more appealing: a 10 percent discount, rewards for bringing in new members, etc. When a customer cares enough to become a member, they'll most likely come back. You may even be able to turn memberships into a new revenue stream.

8. Collect Contact Information

Collecting the customer's contact information can help you stay in touch and give them reasons to return.

"It should be your goal to get some contact information from every customer who walks through your doors," notes Sean Peek at Business.com.1 "With contact information – such as name, phone number, email address and mailing address – you can reach out to customers in the future and make them aware of sales and deals. This allows you to engage them on your terms, not just when they decide to shop with you. This will also help to build a relationship with your customers."

9. Push Related Products for Additional Sales

As customers buy certain items, try to encourage the purchase of related items. This can be done at the time of sale, but to get them to come back, it can also be done in follow-up messaging, such as emails.

"Purchase frequency is key to driving revenue," says Amiee Ball of JAB Consulting Group.2 "One of the biggest tips I give clients is to offer additional services that are natural next steps to the core service you provide. This could be in terms of complementary products, recurring services or partnership referral strategies that generate additional streams of revenue."

10. Incentivize Purchases with Free Gifts

Another strategy is to give customers actual free gifts when they make purchases, even if it's only when they buy certain items. These gifts should be appealing enough to be appreciated, but inexpensive enough to make sense for your business. Popular choices include treats like candy or free items on the customer's birthday, which is also a good excuse to get the customer added to your email list.

Converting a customer into a repeat customer should always be top of mind, because getting them to come back is the first step in fostering longer-term customer loyalty. The more customers that you can get to come back over and over again, the stronger your business will be.

 

1. https://www.business.com/articles/5-ways-to-earn-repeat-business/

2.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/06/01/15-foolproof-strategies-for-encouraging-repeat-purchases/?sh=4186d0bc733f

 

The information provided is presented for general informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal or business advice. Any views expressed in this article may not necessarily be those of Nevada State Bank. Nevada State Bank is a division of Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Member FDIC