In an effort to acquire new customers, some businesses always forget about their old clients who once were very profitable, and to acquire whom they have spent significant amount of time and resources. This is nothing but waste of your company’s time because over the period of time existing clients are more profitable than the new clients. There is no acquisition cost involved with your existing customers or customers who bought from you in the past.

Sometimes, customer retention is the only difference between a successful business and a business that never grows. You should, therefore, work towards increasing the customer retention rate should you want your small business to grow big.

Nothing is more magical than “Thank You” in retaining your customers, not even low cost; rather discount and low cost make customers less loyal. But how to say thank you? Read this article through the end and you will get the answer.

Say thank you in whatever ways you can.

There is problem with the business setting. People in the business environment happen to believe that there is no place for emotion in the business and everyone (except them) involve in business are emotionless, and that is why due to the fear of exposing their emotional side they keep their “thank yous “within themselves.

This is wrong. You should not waste any opportunity to thank people on the other side of the table. They too are as human as you are, and they too get affected by thoughtful and personal “thank yous”. In many cases, this personal touch becomes the sole reason for someone to get business.

Send Greetings card

Joe Girard, a car sales man from Detroit is a famous car salesman; rather he is the world’s best car salesman as hailed by the Guinness Book of World Records, and that is because he sold 18 cars in a single day.

Yes, He sold 18 cars in a single day. This is quite a many, but how could he achieve this remarkable feat? When asked he said that greetings card had been one of the most potent source of business for him. He used to send 12 cards per year to each of his past customers and prospects.

Greeting cards could be a powerful customer retention vehicle. There are many major and minor festivals, occasions, and personal occasions (like birthday, anniversary, or kids birthday, etc.) throughout the year for your customer. You should send out a greeting card on each occasion to each customers and see the boost in profit, but do not overdo it. Keep your budget in your mind. Splurging on greeting cards is not a good idea.

Send personal notes

Write a personal note and send it to your clients after a meeting or to your customers once they have done the purchase, or have done anything that need appreciation. This goes a long way. Generally, clients and customers do not expect you to send them a personal “thank you note”, as they know you are too busy for all that. But when sent, it works like a charm.

There are two things that you should keep in mind while sending a personal note.

• Personal note should be personal. You should strictly not use any prewritten template for this purpose. It will backfire.
• Avoid sending the personal note in an e-mail. It is never very effective that way. Send it through regular mail. It will add power to the “thank you” note.

Invite them over

It is not possible to invite all your clients for a company meeting, seminar, trade show, or for lunch or dinner. But, asking your most profitable clients for that will never hurt. Meeting your clients outside the office setting will help you cultivate a relationship of trust, which will eventually result in increased business.

Invite them over on lunch, dinner, charity function, sporting events, or any other corporate events. Your clients will be glad to be part of the event. This will tell them that you care for them and do not treat them mere as a profit center. It will also foster a sense of belongingness in your clients, which will stop them from leaving.

Always remember that you are inviting your clients because you want to establish a relationship with them. Do not try to sell them anything at that point. It will annoy them, and annoyed clients do just one thing: they leave.

In the next article, I shall talk about some more ways to say thank you. Until then, walk the path shown above and put the above given tips in use, and also tell me how was your experience.

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