Winning Back Clients
Businesses can struggle with customer turn-over, clients cancelling orders or dropping your services. For all businesses, even those without high customer turn-over, winning back lost customers is an important skill to learn. Here are three reasons to focus on gaining them back and not just replacing lost clients with new ones.
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Realize that if you lose a client, their information goes with them.
That information is needed to create a plan to win them back. Marketing costs come back into play if you’re starting all over again. Remember, you already know they need what you sell which makes them the best prospect versus random names on a cold-call list.
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Always learn what happened!
Be objective. Really listen and do some difficult soul-searching. Be sure to do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) after talking with the customer and the team members involved in order to put together a solution. The process of fixing what’s wrong (not just accepting that the client left) will help with overall sales. Other clients may be feeling the same way!
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Don’t assume getting them back is always best.
Once you’ve analyzed why the client has left, see how they actually fit into your business model. Ask yourself if they really were the best client for your business. For example, if they state the problem was low customer support and your business depends upon providing low-cost/minimal customer support; you’ll either need to change your business model or make an exception for this one customer. You’ll need to decide if retaining their business is worth the added effort and cost.
For more great resource check out the Customer Service and Sales Courses.
Tags: clients, customer service, customers, sales