The easiest way to instantly increase your current client base is to regain your inactive clients. It is not only less costly to maintain existing clients, it is easier for you to introduce your new lines of products or services to them. They have purchased from you before and hence can make up their mind on time as regards subsequent orders. So, what do you do now?

You must identify how many of your old clients are no longer actively purchasing from your company. You will then go a step further by finding out why they cease to be your customers. Here are some reasons why some of your clients may have stopped buying from you:

1. Something totally unrelated to you happened in their life that has caused them to stop dealing with you.
2. They probably have every intention to start dealing with you again but just have not gotten around it yet.
3. They experienced a problem during their last purchase.
4. Your after-sales service is not helpful to them.
5. They can no longer benefit from your product or service.

You can keep naming the reasons. You may need to call up some of these clients and find out from them. This will definitely benefit you. The best way to reinstate your lost clients is to simply contact them. Make an appointment to visit them or call them if a visit is not possible. You can also choose to send them a letter. Tell your lost clients that you noticed that they have not been buying from your company and that you sense that something is wrong. Make sure that you communicate both humility and concern. Remember to focus on them and their well-being.

If your client falls under category number one stated above, your call will awaken them into buying again. If your client falls into category number two, you must take the opportunity to tell them how much you value their business and apologize for the problem they encountered. Do something special to make up for the inconvenience they experienced. At the end of the day, you may not be able to win all your inactive clients back but you will surely have a clear understanding of how to keep your customers. And the end result? Your revenue will be on th increase.

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Technorati Tags: sales, customers

You are only in business to create and keep customers.

Take out a sheet of paper right now and provide honest answers to the following questions. What percentage of your company’s sales is repeat business? What do you do to keep customers? How well do you know your customers? And how well do you maintain the contact with your customers in the midst of shifting market trends?

I am a loyal customer. I used to go to my barber shop because he made my hair cut an enjoyable experience. The barber did not only know me by name, his price was reasonable. He understood how exactly I wanted my hair cut without having to say a word. You might be saying it is difficult to do this for all clients. But what do you do to the customers that keep coming back to you? Do you make them comfortable? Those are the ones you have to target.

Keeping close to a customer is a continuous process and most companies have used different tools to track what customers want. Decide on the best tool for your business and implement it. I buy books online from Amazon.com and I like the way the company keeps track of my purchases and even offers suggestions for other books I might like. Amazon’s system knows my taste better than the local bookshop at the mall. This singular act has increased my potential for repeat business with Amazon.

So, as an entrepreneur or business owner, do you know your customer? Do you think you have earned the respect and trust of your customers? Leave your comment below and share your experiences on what you have done to ensure repeated businesses. If you don’t run a business, you are definitely a customer. Share your experience below on how a company has been able to win your respect and your pocket.

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Technorati Tags: customers, business, entrepreneur, business owner

I had several text messages from angry clients waiting for my attention on my phone. None of the websites we are hosting on Nairahost was accessible. I called my partner and he confirmed my fear. Our license had just been revoked from the data centre that Nairahost uses. Reason? Some clients had carried out fraudulent activities through our server and our data centre could no longer cope with such  activities. I must confess that I was loss for words. I didn’t really know what to do but I encouraged myself in the LORD.

I started receiving calls and SMS from clients who apparently had issue accessing their websites. I tried to ensure that I was polite in my response and at the same show our commitment to bring up the server as soon as possible. I, however, got an SMS from one of our clients who threatened to report me to the police if I fail to bring his website back up within 24 hours. At first, I was surprised that I could receive such text messages but after much thought I really understand that clients can go to any length to get their service.

This is one scenario out of many. I had to deal with several angry clients this past one week. This experience has opened my eyes to a lot of things. I was able to discover that there are a lot of tricks and techniques you can use to deal with an angry customer. When you are faced with an angry customer, you probably assume that the customer wants his or her “problem” fixed. That might be a logical approach but it is not the best. Angry customers expect that you will be able to help them in some concrete way, by meeting their want or need. However, there’s more to the story.

Even when you can “fix” the problem for an angry customer, the person still acts in angry or nasty ways? Why is that? Well, actually angry customers want several things. Yes, they want the problem fixed, but they also want to BE HEARD, TO BE LISTENED TO, and to have their upset and emotional state recognized and acknowledged.

When you are faced with an angry customer, FIRST focus on acknowledging the feelings and upset of the customer. Once the customer starts to calm down as a result of having his or her feelings recognized, THEN move to solving the problem. You’ll find that this will save you a lot of time and energy.

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Technorati Tags: Nairahost, science of getting rich

1. Something totally unrelated to you happened in their life that has caused them to stop dealing with you. They probably have every intention to start dealing with you again but just haven’t gotten around it yet.
2. They experienced a problem during their last purchase.
3. They can no longer benefit from your product or service.

The best way to reinstate your lost clients is to simply contact them. Make an appointment to visit them or call them if a visit is not possible. You can also choose to send them a letter. Tell your lost clients that you noticed that they have not been buying from your company and that you sense that something is wrong. Make sure that you communicate both humility and concern. Remember to focus on them and their well-being.

If your client falls under category number one, your call will awaken them into buyingagain. If your client falls into category number two, you must take the opportunity to tell them how much you value their business and apologize for the problem they encountered. Do something special to make up for the inconvenience they experienced.

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Download this free book – “Secrets of the science of getting rich!” It is my gift to you.

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Technorati Tags: Nairahost, science of getting rich

A middle-age man was desperate in need of a printer to print some copies of a presentation he had to make that day. He could not get to use the hotel’s printer as it had developed fault long before that day. The number of a business man who runs a Computer School in the same town was given to him. Fortunately for him, he got through to the number and the business offered to take his printer to the hotel where the man meant to have his presentation.

At the end of the day, the presentation was printed and the man was happy. He requested for his bill so that he could make the payment and rush to prepare for his presentation. The business man told him that he should forget about the bill as he could be in such situation some days and might need people to bail him out. He saw that transaction as an act to help out someone in need. The middle-age man was surprised as it never occurred to him that he could get that service for free. The two men exchanged contact details and the parted ways.

Few weeks later, the business man received a surprise call from the middle-age man. The man had just won a contract to train the staffs of a government organisation and he was looking to no other person to assist him in the execution of the project than the business man who had helped him when he was in need. At the end of the project which lasted for 3 weeks, the business man made money he would not have been able to make in 6 months.

The Great lesson

When I head the story the first time, my mind could not just comprehend on on earth a BUSINESS MAN could afford to offer a service free. I am sure many of us would have embraced that opportunity to enrich ourselves on the spot while we loose focus of the ultimate thing. The business man focused on building a relationship first which he was able to convert to business deals later.

You need to keep reminding yourself that you are not in business only to satisfy your needs but rather because you have been able to identify some needs which you feel you can need. You may need to review the reason why you started that business? In my few years in business, I have discovered that a lot of customers may not necessary come back to you due to quality of your service but how they feel each time they come in contact with you.

Always ensure that you are creating opportunities for your clients to connect with you. Show interested in what they are going through. Don’t just be interested in making your quick money. Rather I would advise that you focus on helping them meet their needs. People are natural social animals and would want to be treated that way. It is your responsibility to make both your internal customers (employees) and external customers feel great. This might not translate into sales initially. Don’t worry. Only sow the seed. The harvest will come soon.

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Technorati Tags: business, customers, building a relationship, opportunities, Nairahost, science of getting rich

Free labor is only a narrow part of crowdsourcing’s appeal. More importantly, it enables you to expand the size of your talent pool while also gaining deeper insight into what your customers really want. According to Jennifer Alsever, crowdsourcing is a technique that sophisticated companies use to translate the enthusiasm of their most highly-engaged customers into valuable marketing, branding, or product-development insight.

You can do it too. He highlighted some techniques on how you can harness the intelligence of the customers that love your business, talk about your business, and better yet, will do free work for your business in today’s increasingly democratic, user-generated, social-networked, marketplace.

1. Engage in a true dialogue with your customers, or don’t bother at all: If your company does not respect its customers or not really interested in hearing what outsiders have to say even if the way they say is may seem snarky or harsh, then you should probably forget about launching a crowdsourcing initiative.
2. Identify customers who will provide the most useful insight: Never, ever plant your own people to pose as customers online. This will defeat the whole essence of crowdsourcing.
3. Reward passionate consumers with insider perks and benefits: People want to know they are extra-special. Give them special status in a customer community to indicate that their advice had an impact on the company’s direction. Also, consider offering your customers discounts on service or products purchased. Discounted products and cash prizes for creative contests can work wonders to motivate your customers to talk back, fill out a survey, or preview a new product.
4. Give participants clear goals and integrate their ideas into your decision-making:

The idea of soliciting customer input is hardly new, of course, and the open-source software movement showed that it can be done with large numbers of people. The difference is that today’s technology makes it possible to enlist ever-larger numbers of non-technical people to do ever-more complex and creative tasks, at significantly reduced cost.

With a deft touch and a clear set of objectives, quite literally thousands of people can and want to help your business. From designing ad campaigns to vetting new product ideas to solving difficult R&D problems, chances are that people outside your company walls can help you perform better in the marketplace; they become one more resource you can use to get work done. In return, most participants simply want some personal recognition, a sense of community, or at most, a financial incentive.

Visit Bnet for a detailed write-up on Crowdsourcing.

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Technorati Tags: CrowdSourcing, Fansourcing, business idea, customers, branding, science of getting rich