In business-to-business (B2B) sales, there are two significant ways to get new customers: Sell to someone who has not bought from you before and sell to an existing customer. If you’ve been in the game for a while, you know the latter is much easier than the former. For this reason, customer retention strategies in B2B should be your top priority—and it’s also one of the easiest ways for you to make more money.
Build trust by addressing your customers’ concerns.
A customer retention strategy that will save you money is building trust by addressing concerns. If a customer has a concern, address it. You don’t necessarily need to provide a solution if they want an explanation or reassurance, but at least acknowledge the issue and ensure they are happy with your product or service.
In today’s world of social media, this can be tricky because someone could post about their dissatisfaction on Facebook and instantly lose all credibility with their network of friends. The best way to avoid this situation is by responding quickly when someone expresses unhappiness about something related to your company or brand.
As long as you’re not making an excuse (and even if you are), not responding at all will always look worse than admitting fault for whatever happened and letting people know what steps are being taken so that future customers won’t have similar issues occur when using your products/services again.
Defining and calculating customer churn
When a customer stops doing business with you, it’s called churn. Churn is the critical metric for measuring the health of your business and understanding how to improve retention.
Calculating customer churn is vital to identify areas where your service or product needs to catch up to reduce it.
Churn rates are calculated by subtracting new customers from total customers over a given period; this gives us our attrition rate (customer defections). For example: if we have 100 customers at the beginning of 2017 and 80 remain by year-end, our annualized churn rate is 20%.
The causes of high customer defections can be broken down into four categories: pricing issues, product issues, service issues, or marketing/sales problems.
Take an interest in their business.
One of the best ways to keep your customers loyal is by taking an interest in their business. Ask them about their company, what they do and how long they’ve been in business. Get to know them as people working hard to build something special, not just a source of revenue for your company.
Ask questions like:
- What makes your customers buy from you instead of someone else?
- What do they like most about working with you?
- What is your biggest challenge when selling products or services (and how do you overcome it)?
- Who are some competitors, and why would someone choose one over another available option?
Make sure you’re delivering what you promised.
When you decide to do business with a company, the last thing you want is to receive an inferior product or service. Furthermore, customers will start looking elsewhere if a company fails to deliver on its promises—or delivers late—even if it’s just once.
Make sure that your products and services are of high quality so that customers will feel confident in giving you repeat business and referring their friends. Customer service representatives should also be trained to handle customer retention responsibilities and their complaints effectively so that clients don’t become dissatisfied or even furious with them.
Suppose any issues arise during a transaction or after the delivery of goods/services (which happens more often than one would think). In that case, these should be resolved immediately by replacing defective items or refunding money due into accounts. Hence, maintain the trust of customers who might otherwise have given repeat orders before leaving for good.
Make sure your customer service is top-notch.
It’s a common misconception that customer service—especially for B2B customers—concerns the product. But it’s not. Customer service is about the whole experience, from start to finish. It starts with a good sales pitch and continues with outstanding support after the sale.
Customer service is a two-way street: You should be willing to listen to your customers’ needs and complaints, even if they seem like they need to be more relevant or aren’t what you’re used to hearing. Your goal is happy customers who return repeatedly, so pay attention when they reach out.
Reward Programs
Reward programs are a great way to keep customers happy. These programs can include rewards for buying, selling, or reaching certain milestones with your company.
Customers will feel valued and appreciated when you offer them a reward program, showing that you care about their needs and loyalty to your business. Reward programs also give customers a sense of belonging in the form of an exclusive club or family that they feel part of.
This can be especially important if it’s difficult for clients to find ways to interact with each other outside of work due to physical distance between them (say they live far away), language barriers (the client doesn’t speak English), etc., so being able to connect through social media is one way they can still feel like they know each other even though they don’t physically meet up very often.
Ensure your employees are happy so they can delight the customer with their service.
Employees are the face of your company. They interact with the customer and provide them with the service they need. If they are happy, customer retention will also be high. They can achieve better results in their work and make satisfied customers. Happy employees will be more productive and loyal and stay with your company longer than unhappy ones.
Remember them after you’ve acquired them, and show that you care.
Remember them after you’ve acquired them, and show that you care.
It’s essential not just to sell but to provide value. In other words, remember your customers once they’re done buying from you. You can do it with the help of B2B newsletters. Ask what clients like about working with you, what they would like to improve, and under what conditions they are ready to use your product further.
If you have a good relationship with your customers, they will keep returning and won’t go to your competitors.
If you have a good relationship with your customers, they will keep returning and won’t go to your competitors.
Building customer retention strategies in B2B businesses is essential because it helps ensure that profits are generated from each customer transaction. This means that even if the number of transactions goes down, profits don’t necessarily drop because each one is profitable.
In summary
Remember that the critical part of keeping your customer retention high is ensuring they feel included. If they feel like they’re being treated with respect and not just another number in your database, then they will be much more likely to stick around. Remember that it only takes one bad experience for them to go somewhere else, so ensure you’re always providing the best service possible.
