Guest Post: How to Go Above & Beyond for Your Customers to Secure Their Repeat Business

This week we feature an article by Ray Blakney, CEO and co-founder of Live Lingua, a renowned online language learning platform. He writes about how companies can secure their current customers’ repeat business.

Every entrepreneur knows how important repeat customer business is for the overall success of their enterprises. Rather than spending a ton of money on marketing to try to land new buyers, if you are able to secure loyal, lifelong customers, their repeat business will continually grow your profits. This continual repeat business can be key for catapulting your company into greater levels of success! With that in mind, are you wondering how you can secure your current customers’ repeat business?  

Of course, it is vital to make sure that you or other representatives on your team provide excellent help whenever customers email or call with questions about your business offerings. However, there are other tried-and-true ways to secure your customers’ repeat business. Here are a handful of them: 

Give Them a Surprise Bit of Joy

Who doesn’t love a warm, heartfelt surprise? Show your buyers your appreciation with a gesture that will really make them smile! There are many ways to do this — you can send them a personalized email thanking them for their business, or better yet, send a handwritten thank-you letter. Or, if you have the data on hand, send your customers flowers to wish them a happy birthday! You can also offer your buyers a special “Thank you for your business!” discount for the next time they want to purchase one of your products or services.  

Set the Customer Expectations at Each Step of the Journey

Whenever your customers buy one of your products or services, they will want to know what the status of their order is. Thus, ensure that they know what to expect and when in the entire purchasing process. With this clearly conveyed to your buyers, you will avoid 80% of the friction in the process. Even if a certain step in your process takes a few days, you will find that most customers will not mind as long as you let them know beforehand and explain to them why there is a delay. They will really appreciate that you are keeping them in the loop. 

Over-Deliver on What Is Promised

This goes hand in hand with setting up expectations. If you are shipping an item and let them know that it will arrive in 3-5 days, you probably won’t get any blow back. But then, if you do overnight shipping and they get it in 24 hours, you will get rave reviews. This entire thing can be planned — even before they were going to finalize their order, you knew you were going to overnight the product but you still told them 3-5 days. This also ensures that even if something delays the overnight delivery, and it arrives in 2-3 days, you are still over-delivering. 

That is just one example and it can be applied to multiple areas in your business. This is not about tricking your customers; what you do is set the expectation to that of the worst-case scenario (in this example, it is a shipping delay due to a blizzard). However, you do better than the expectation you set 99% of the time.  

Listen to Your Customers

Your buyers might voice their opinions about your company on Facebook and other social media channels. They may also send your enterprise emails with suggestions for improvements, as well as write online reviews about your business’s offerings. Whether they give good or bad feedback, listen to your customers and let them know you listen. Reply to their social media comments, online reviews, and suggestion emails. Showing that you care about their feedback will be key for securing their repeat business.  

Build a Referral Program

You may be thinking, “Isn’t a referral program a way to get new customers?” Yes, of course it is, but we have also found that customers who refer others to our business are more likely to stay a long time because now their friends are also using Live Lingua‘s services. Thus, a referral program can be pivotal in building a community of loyal buyers who stay with your enterprise even after they introduce their friends and family to it. Reward your current customers with special discounts, a free product, or a complimentary service every time they refer someone to your company. 

Final Thoughts

Going above and beyond for your customers will be key for securing their repeat business. If you are looking for surefire ways to do this, try to surprise your customers with a thoughtful gesture every so often. Also, set the customers’ expectations at each step of the journey and over-deliver on what is promised. Don’t forget to also listen and reply to your customers and build a referral program. Taking these steps will help you secure a solid base of repeat buyers. 

Ray Blakney is the CEO and co-founder of Live Lingua, a renowned online language learning platform. An award-winning, Filipino-American entrepreneur, speaker, and podcaster, Ray builds and helps others build 6- and 7-figure businesses on a bootstrap budget using SEO.