Aside from new customer acquisition, repeat sales is the “holy grail” of all company sales departments. Having customers come back again and again for your products or services should be at the very peak of your team’s sales objectives.
Unfortunately, businesses sometimes forget this crucial goal in pursuit of new customers. Without actively cultivating those who have purchased your goods or services in the past, there’s a great risk of losing them to the competition—a risk no business should ever take.
Here are tips to keep in mind to help boost repeat sales:
Every business knows that, right now, hiring the right people is among the biggest challenges they face. At the same time, it’s essential to instill in each new employee that customer service is your highest priority.
Neglecting your existing customers at the expense of new ones reflects an “attitude that causes customer churn,” notes HubSpot. At all times, make sure team members are “presenting your best customer service to every customer, regardless of if it’s their first or 100th purchase.”
Do you consistently acquire contact information—name, phone number, email and mailing addresses—from every customer who purchases your offerings? Having this information enables you to stay in touch via targeted email campaigns and/or new product announcements and customer surveys.
Of course, you should never pester customers needlessly. At the same time, maintaining contact “allows you to engage them on your terms, not just when they decide to shop with you,” notes Business.com. This personalized approach “goes a long way toward building positive rapport (and repeat business).”
Employees are busy people, but whenever a customer reaches out to your business, it’s vitally important that someone respond quickly. Offer as many modes of communication as you can (email, phone, social media, etc.). Make sure inquiring customers hear back in an acceptable timeframe, ideally, within 24 hours.
This kind of timely response works wonders in terms of quality service. Customers want to know they’ve been heard and treated with respect.
With online transactions, any hurdle a customer encounters represents an excuse to take their business elsewhere. Businesses suffer losses from repeat customers “when they make them go through several steps at checkout or complete unnecessary forms,” notes Connections Marketing. Do everything in your power to ensure that “shoppers who want to backtrack, change an order, or add another item can do so easily and in as few steps as possible.”
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Social media lends itself naturally to successful sales campaigns. When you generate useful content, “you establish a bond with your customers, which can translate into increased sales and loyalty over the long run.”
Focus on sharing content (blog posts, articles, white papers, videos, etc.) that avoids blatant self-promotion while providing information customers can actively use in their lives and their own businesses. Encourage customers to follow your social media platforms, then offer them meaningful content that keeps them coming back for more. Loyal social media followers often remain loyal buying customers as well.
Want to learn more about how to retain your loyal customers? Check out “15 No-Cost Ways to Improve Customer Service.”