This week I spoke to the owner of a lawncare business about the upcoming season.   He was concerned that some of the commercial and retail properties would be cutting back on lawncare services.  Residential customers were cutting back as well and telling him they are going to do it themselves. 

We started talking about his plans for marketing this year.  Like every year he’s going to send out about 5,000 post cards a few times and figures to pick up new customers from it.  

We discussed connecting with his existing customers.  I was surprised that basically he didn’t agree on spending money on them since they already pay for his services. 

So every year he goes after new accounts and ignores his existing customers.  It’s not the economy that is the main reason for losing customers it’s his marketing and sales process.

Here’s 5 Ways to Retain Your Customers.

1. Send out a monthly newsletter with tips.
2. Offer a loyalty program to customers.
3. Offer a referral incentive program.  Customers are your biggest fans!
4. Give them a customer appreciation free service or product.
5. Have someone call the customers to check-in to see how they like the service.

Don’t forget your customers.  It’s easier to increase business from exisitng customers than by finding new ones.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 11:16 pm and is filed under Customer Relationship, Marketing, Referrals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.