As a business man, you are out to maximize profit. You want to have a good turnover and sales. All these are a function of the number of customers you succeed to win in the competitive market. And so the target of any serious business man is to keep increasing his customer base so as to make more sales, have a high turnover and make substantial profit. The following are ways in which you can achieve this.
Focus On The Existing Customers
Most businesses make the big mistake of focusing on the potential customers and leaving out the existing customers. They reason that the existing customers have already been won and no matter how they are handled, they will remain loyal to the business. This is a costly mistake to make. Even in business, a bird in hand is worth three in the bush.
If you are a wise business man, you will realize that your customers are the cheapest marketing strategy you have. They can promote and advertise your business without you spending any dime on promotion. All they need is the best services from you. Treat them with honor, value them highly, be concerned about giving them value for their money, create an invaluable relationship between you (the business) and them, make them a voice in the business, etc. and you will be surprised how much impact that will have in increasing your customer base.
Train Your Staff
Every day on your business, you will have first-time customers, trooping in and out and leaving with a stronger or defeated determination to patronize your business. Their judgments of your business are highly influenced by the kind of service they get when they come. The kind of service they get is a strong function of the kind of staff they meet.
One sure way to destroy your business even before it ever started emerging is to have unskilled staff handling the day to day business operations. When customers come in daily and meet your staff, whatever treatment they get from them is the definition they give the business. Stop sitting in that office and thinking of the big issues of competition and exploring new markets, and ignoring the ‘little’ issues of enhancing the competence of your workers, to handle the business operations. Train your workers to represent the business well.
Sell Your Business Everywhere Possible
With the computerized world of ours today, there are no limits to how far you can take your business in the world. Today, just sitting down on your desk you can market and sell to thousands of people in far off continents. The internet offers a world meeting place that beats every other offline. Hundreds of millions are on the internet daily.
Create a strong online presence for your business by putting it on sites like Facebook where thousands of people meet daily. Don’t ever bother that you bore people about your business. The more they come across it, the more they identify with it and can easily relate with it. Make your logo, business name, brand, signature, etc. a very familiar one on the internet.
You also need to sell your business offline. Print business cards, do brochures, stickers, T-shirts, bill board adverts, etc. that tell people about your business. Use the media, seminars, forums, etc. to talk about your business. Send bulk sms to numbers you don’t even know and let them get to know about your business. In short, saturate the world as much as possible, with your business. This must certainly increase the number of your customers.
Make Your Services Easy And Fast
The world has become a very fast place to be in. All over the world you hear people talk about catching up with things and time. People are naturally becoming more and more impatient by the day. To compete well in any market is no longer just about providing the best quality product but also about how quick and easy it is to access what you have.
Whether you are online or just offline, you must on a daily basis ensure that your customers can easily reach you and when they do, they can be serviced faster than anywhere else. Visit banks in a country where there is high competition in the banking sector and you will understand what I mean. Gone are the days where people had to wait for hours to withdraw their money. In fact, as much as possible, businesses of today are considering how to eliminate customers standing on cues in order to be served.
Time is money and people know this. You will increase your customer base when you prove to your customers that you value their time. Simplify your procedures to the simplest forms. Eliminate unnecessary protocols. Don’t use contact information that you are not sure of their all-time availability, to represent your business.
Ask For Feed-Back
Do you care to know what your customers have to say? Do you get feed-back from them on your business? You can only be 100% sure of how your business is faring, when you hear from your customers. Let me dare to say that whatever your customers think about your business is the most important and transparent information about the business. And so as much as possible, you need to seek to harness this priceless information from them and use it to build your business.
When you try a new product, when you change the way you do something, when you innovate, when you make a new offer, when you change your style, you need to get feed-back from your customers on these changes. If they say it is a good change, then move on with it. If they prefer the former, drop it.
This is important in giving you direction on the business, but more important because it makes the customers feel as part of the business. Their voices are heard, they have a say and so they want to keep coming. When you watch club football, you realize that many decisions are made from the opinion of the fans.
Friend, let me end by saying: increasing your customer base does not happen by chance. You need to focus a lot on the existing customers, making sure they are offered the best and then going on to make use of them, in marketing your business wherever they go. Let them be the ambassadors of your business. Why not create referral bonuses for them. Apply the steps above and be sure to see a clear difference on your business.
What are your comments? Make them below.
By Kadzem Claude
What an interesting page from a great author....
ReplyDeleteplease i will like you to check educationandlifestyl.blogspot.com so i can know my mistakes and make good correction.
It is always good to know that someone finds what we do, inspiring. Thank you. keep reading more post here.
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