Customer Service: Strategies for Retaining your Customers

Customers are recipients of goods and services in sales and commerce. Customers can get something now and decide not to buy again while some stick to a major buying and keep buying even if there is a higher change in price. Customer should not only patronize you because of incentives, customers should patronize because of what your brand speaks about, the package, the prompt customer relationship, the adequate satisfaction and happiness received when they patronize your brand.

There are levels to keeping customers, they are strategies to retaining customers. Customers are more of psychological being, once an agropreneur can understand the psychology of sale, then it will be easier retaining customers for a long time.

What are the strategies to retaining customers?

• Build a brand.
• Offer unique services
• Manage a customer feedback survey.
• Maintain a customer communication calendar.
• Manage trust with your customers.

Build a brand

One of the most important thing in retaining a customer is building a brand. A brand that suits the target market. A target market or audience that is in need of packaged beans or rice won’t be persuaded with a non-packaged beans or rice. The market dictates the produce and helps build the brand. To retain customer, you have to be able to answer questions like;

 What satisfy your customer?

Quantity?

Quality?

Once you have been able to answer that, then you build a brand that answers those question. In an environment where quality is more appreciated than quantity, the seller focus more on the quality of the particular produce than the quantity. In an environment when the consumers want the quantity and don’t care about the quality, you make sure you source for cheaper input and give them the quantity.

Building a brand has to do with you recognizing your niche and environment, understand the language your environment speaks to you and decode the information to make the business more profitable.

Offer unique services

Unique services means different kind of services that keep bringing people back to the source, that is, you as a seller. An area can have loads of people selling poundo yam, but Ola Ola poundo yam taste almost exactly like pounded yam, exactly! Your consumers must have that unique feel. Another great example is the indomitable packs, customers kept on buying the packs even though the price keeps going up because of its unique taste that other noodle companies have not gotten till now.

Your customers have to feel that uniqueness and difference in your product, it does not make them come back alone, it makes them wait till you are board and make them ask for more of the produce.

Maintain a customer feedback survey

Churches have a way of making their members stay, agricultural firms should deploy a fantastic way of making their customers stay. One of the techniques the church uses is the survey techniques, they are open to their members’ suggestions and reactions about how Sunday service was and members are open about it because they don’t get queried for it especially the new members that are joining the church for the first time, agricultural firms can emulate this, first time customers should be allowed to drop a feedback about a product. Retained customers should be given the leverage to share his/her experience about a product.

Feedbacks help firms to grow, it open up closed loopholes, it gives creative ideas to solve problems, it helps to see the need of the consumers. Once a founder or a team can see the need of a customer, to satisfy the customer becomes a lot easier.

Maintain a customer communication calendar.

Communication is very important with customers, there are some categories of people that are waiting to create trust with you before they buy or approach your brand. Communication help you to build this trust.

Having an incorporated calendar for customer’s checkup can go a long way in helping customers get glued you the product you provide.  Human being have a sense of belonging when they are called occasionally and cared about. A client that values customer communication will strive for a long time. You can go ahead by sharing the company newsletter with them via email and carrying them along with the development of the company.

Manage trust with your customer

How do we manage trust with customers? While some believed customer’s management is the worst thing ever, some believed that managing a customer can be the sweetest thing. All this opinions can be true depending on how much trust your customer place on your brand.

Have you seen people order for stuffs and they don’t see it the day promised from the company and they still have so much faith that they will bring it? Have you ever experienced when people order and they don’t see it 10 minute after the delivery time and they inform the police?  Those 2 cases are samples of how customers can trust their sellers.

How do you manage trust? Consistency is important. Be consistent with delivery time, be trustworthy with the qualities of your product, don’t tell customers they would get vitamin A and they can’t even get vitamin B.

Let’s receive your feedback!!!