8 Ways to Create Repeat Customers

What’s better than steady business?  It’s steady, repeat business.  It’s a double-edged benefit.  For one, repeat business means repeated revenue production.  Secondly, it means your business is doing well in providing value to its customers.  How can you achieve such heights of business greatness?  How can you generate repeat business?

 

First Impression

First impressions matter.  How are you making an incredible first impression on customers?  Do you shake their hand?  Do you ask their name?  Do you thank them for their business?  Do you go out of your way to let them know you want them to come back to your store?  Not a lot separates the services/products of competing brands.  Customers respond to customer service, detail, and warm receptions.  Make that your brand’s edge over the competition.

Post-Sale Outreach

Wouldn’t you like to stay in touch with customers after the initial sale?  What are your methods of potential outreach?  Do you ask customers for their social media addresses?  Do you ask for email addresses?  Do you ask for their address to send coupons and mailers?  The initiation of the sentiment lets them know you’re interested in keeping them as a customer.  The ability to communicate with them allows you to forge better and lasting relations.

Details

Keep consumer details on file.  When’s their birthday?  Which of your products are liked in particular?  Do they have family members who would be interested in your offered products?  Details allow for personalized attention.  Consumers like that.  For instance, you can send them a thank you and coupon on their birthday.  It’s a small gesture, which can make a huge impression.

Use Social Media

Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, offer inlets to consumers.  Did a consumer just purchase a new product, sharing their Facebook profile with you?  Why don’t you inquire about how the product is serving them?  This opens doors of communication.  It also allows others to notice the interaction, possibly attracting their attention and ultimate business as well.

Discount Cards

Discount cards initiate the notion of repeat business.  For instance, for every five cups of coffee purchased, you’ll offer the sixth free.  That’s incentive to keep coming to your café.  Store charge cards work the same way.  If you offer them the option of paying for products later, issuing them a charge card, they now have reason to continue coming to your store.

A Simple Question

What would you like to see or continue seeing the next time you’re here?  That question assumes the customer already decided to come back.  It assumes you’re confident in their decision to come back.  It also relays a sentiment of good customer service, expressing you care about what they think and want.  This can all be achieved with a simple question.

Hire Community Employees

You need the right employees to facilitate a come-again ambiance.  You don’t run the business alone.  You can’t create all associations, or be a part of all interactions in your store.  You need the help of staff.  Your staff needs to create reasons for customers to come again, achieved through personable attitudes, knowledge of product, and teamwork.

Tell a Friend

The success of the Groupon business model hinges on group deals.  Buying in bulk saves consumers money.  It also puts the names of brands in the mouths of multiple people.  Give consumers an incentive to tell their friends about your store; create group rates or discounts for bringing in a friend.  You want more people to buzz about your brand.

Valerie Cecil is a research coordinator, marketing specialist and writer for Outbounding.com. Her work allows her to investigate many topics, ranging from online consumer relations to effective communication in the workplace. Her hobbies include kayaking, watercolor, and doing marketing work for retailpackaging.com.

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