How to keep your small business customers happy

Many times small business owners focus the majority of their efforts on marketing to new customers. The reality is that most of the sales of any given business come from the existing customers that a business already has. This means that it is crucial to put methods in place that will help you to keep the customers that you already have. While you should still be marketing to new customers, you need to focus considerable efforts on making your existing customer base happy. When you are showing your customers that you do appreciate their business you are giving them an incentive to buy from you again. Here is what you need to know about how to keep your small business customers happy-

- Find out what your customers needs are and focus on them-If you are going to be able to keep your customers happy then you need to find out what they are looking for and focus on giving them whatever that is. When you can fill your customer's needs and demands you will create a customer base that will stay with your small business for the long term. The good news is that there is wide variety of ways to do this. You can use online or in-store surveys to find what your customers are looking for. You can gain valuable (and free), insight from your customers on social media sites. You can also make it part of the sales process to follow up with your customers after they have purchased from you in order to find out what they did and did not like about their experience with your small business. Finally, if you want to gain valuable marketing information you can hire a market research firm to do that for you but you should keep in mind that this can be fairly expensive. The bottom line is that no matter how you gain the information you should use it to structure your products and services to best meet your customer's needs.
- Give your customers an incentive to shop with you-Everyone is looking for the best deal. When you can offer your customers an incentive to shop with you they will feel like you are offering them the best deal they can get. Keep in mind that your incentive does not have to be expensive. You just need to make sure that whatever incentive you are offering will be something that will appeal to your customers. Consider a coupon with a percentage discount or offer your top customers access to a VIP event. Just make sure that you create a sense of urgency so that your customers will act on it.
- Offer the best customer service-One of the most important ways that you can keep your customers coming back is by offering the highest quality of customer service. Best of all when you are offering your customers the best service it not only keeps them happy but creates a word of mouth advertising that is crucial to building your small business. You should make sure that everyone who works for you is trained to understand that customer service is their top priority no matter what their job description is. The bottom line is that studies show that many customers will return to buy from a business not because they offer the lowest price but rather because of the quality of service that they offer.
- Provide easy access to your small business-In today's busy world everyone wants to have their needs met instantly. If your customers have to face lengthy wait times either on the phone or online they are most likely going to become frustrated and move on to someone who can take care of their needs faster. Your website should be full of information that is easy and accessible for your customers so that they don't always need to call you to find out information.